From the history of the Southern Urals. Ancient Indo-Europeans. Андрей Тихомиров

deposit were sheltered overnight. The arguments given in this regard are that they are located in two chains stretching from north to south at a distance of about 50 km from each other, that is, one day’s march. Others claim that these are religious centers in which several hundred people lived permanently: priests, artisans and guards, while the rest came here for religious festivities from the rural area. Still others call them cult temples of the ancient Aryans, similar to those described in the ancient Indian epic «Avesta». According to one hypothesis, the ancient Aryans made a gigantic migration from the South Ural steppes through Southern Ukraine, the Balkan Peninsula to Mycenae, and then to Iran and India. It is possible that they brought to Mycenae and Asia Minor the culture of horse breeding, previously unknown there, the art of making and using war chariots.

      In the first millennium BC and the first centuries of our era, the tribes of Sarmatians and Scythians lived in the vast expanses of the Great Steppe. According to scientists, they were the descendants of the tribes of the Andronovo and Srubnaya cultures. The steppes of the Southern Urals, where the border of the spread of these cultures passed, contacts between them were a zone of active ethnic processes, as a result of which the Sarmatian world was formed. The terms «Sarmatians» and the earlier «Sauromatians» are collective, they denote a large group of related tribes of early nomads. In the descriptions of ancient authors, we find the names of some of these tribes: Aorsi, Alans, Roxolani, Siraki, Yazamats, Yaksamats and others. Almost the only monuments of the thousand-year stay of the Sarmatians are numerous burial mounds, sometimes reaching 5—7 meters in height. Sauromat and Sarmatian burial mounds are most often located in groups on high places, hilltops, syrts, from where a wide panorama of the vast steppes opens up.

      Around 1200 BC, the Mediterranean (Aegean) migration led to the invasion of the «sea peoples» into Palestine, Syria and Egypt. And, as a consequence, the natives were displaced (but not to the south – there are deserts there, but to the northeast). The migration of the Dorian tribes, the death of the Mycenaean culture and the destruction of Troy were also associated with this migration. When we visited the remote areas of Kazakhstan, we asked the indigenous people why the rivers were called Aksu and Karasu, and were surprised by their deep knowledge of toponymy and local natural conditions. It turns out that when naming a particular stove or lake, the ancient nomads took into account whether they would be able to water their cattle in a given place, say, in the middle of summer or not. After all, in the dry season, temporary flowing rivers, designated in Kazakh by the word «aksu», dry up, and, on the contrary, the reaches of rivers with groundwater feeding – «karasu» «hold» water. Thus, the names Aksu, Akbulak, Aksay, Akkol, as well as Karasu, Karabutak, Karakol, etc., so widespread in the Ural basin, characterize not the color of the water, but the features of the water regime. These are either «flowing» or «ground» reservoirs. Among the Kazakh names of rivers, you can most often find those beginning with the words «ak» and «kara». There is a widespread opinion that the geographical network of Kazakhstan and adjacent regions of Russia consists almost half of «white» («ak») and «black» («kara») rivers, streams, gullies, lakes. However, it is absolutely clear that such a name does not explain the local features of geographical objects. Therefore, it is necessary not only to translate the name, but also to explain its origin.