The Legacy of the Golden Horde

These are artifacts from the 13th-14th centuries, that is, the period of the Golden Horde. Nothing fundamentally new, but viewers have a unique chance to see everything in one hall of the Central Museum. And while the scientists went to a round table to share their research, the public hung around the display cases.

Some stopped to study the detailed models of mausoleums made of decorative bricks found next to them, others were fascinated by a rock fragment on which, by order of Amir Timur, an inscription dated 1391 was carved in two languages. It seems that the mausoleums are approximately the same, but historians find a lot of information in them. Bricks and ornamentation reveal the time of construction, which often differs from the time of burial, which means that descendants, having appreciated the contribution, returned to the grave years later to build a worthy structure. And thanks to the collection of the Saraishyk Museum, you can see a rare thing, an ancient ongon - a talisman in the form of a flat image of a man and a woman.

There are also unique items from the collections: a birch bark quiver, a sword eaten away by rust. A separate display case is dedicated to the great work of the Central Museum staff - the recreation of the costume. Under the glass is a small, palm-sized piece of half-rotted silk. There were several of these, and over the course of several years, scientists were able to recreate the fabric, cut, and entire costume of a noble Kazakh, and understand from which region of China the material came. The work is fantastic and shows what exactly happens outside the exhibition halls.

Now the authors of the work dream of making a mannequin with a historical reconstruction of such a costume. On the one hand, it becomes clear that since the time of the Golden Horde, we have been dressed by Chinese masters, on the other hand, we can see how military campaigns brought both technologies and new crafts.

Ksenia EVDOKIMENKO, photo by Timofey EVDOKIMENKO, Almaty