cartoon hermeneutics 𓀁

Saimaluu-Tash Petroglyphs, Kyrgyzstan. Period: circa 2400-900 BC (Bronze Age). Location: Saimaluu-Tash, Fergana Range, Jalal-Abad Region (Toguz-Toro District), Kyrgyzstan Photo: UNESCO. Military topographer Nikolai Khludov was the first to spot these petroglyphs while mapping the postal route between Naryn and Andijan in 1902. When he heard from locals about stones covered in drawings, Khludov hiked up to the site and reported his findings to the Turkestan Circle of Archaeology Enthusiasts. After that, however, the area was largely forgotten for nearly half a century. B.M. Zima later conducted comprehensive research in 1946, followed by A.N. Bernshtam in 1950. Even though the 25 figures in the panel have varying details, the vast majority share a common look: a human torso topped with a circular, rayed head. (in figure 25, the head is heart-shaped and decorated with internal motifs.) The figures' arms are usually spread out to the sides or raised upward, while some are positioned as if they're holding an object. Sun-headed figures aren't exclusive to Saimaluu-Tash. In neighboring Kazakhstan, the Tamgaly (Tanbaly) petroglyphs feature sun-headed deity (?) figures from the same period with similar iconography. Further east, sun-rayed heads also appear on stone stelae of the Okunev culture (c. 2700-1800 B.C) in Russia's Khakassia region. This wide geographic spread shows us that a shared solar cult existed among the communities sharing the Central Asian steppes and mountains during the Bronze Age. UNESCO added the site to its World Heritage Tentative List in 2001, but it hasn't been officially inscribed yet.

He argues that our age is shifting from a world of durable “things” to streams of information: intangible, transient, endlessly circulating. When reality becomes data, we lose resistance, weight, otherness. A culture without things becomes a culture without depth. Read this.