balbal

plural balbals

1. archaeologyIn pre-Islamic Turkic cultures, an anthropomorphic stonen stele embedded in the ground at or near a kurgan (“type of prehistoric burial mound”); some are thought to symbolize enemies which a deceased warrior killed in their lifetime.

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   [T]he Polovtsy or Cumans set up figures holding cups before them, and cases occur of "báby" being found upon barrows of the mediaeval nomads, e.g. at Torskaja Sloboda, district of Kupjansk, government of Kharkov[…]. Further in the Orkhon inscriptions very similar figures are designated as balbals, memorial statues.

   1913, Ellis H[ovell] Minns, “Scythic Tombs”, in Scythians and Greeks: A Survey of Ancient History and Archaeology on the North Coast of the Euxine from the Danube to the Caucasus, Cambridge, Cambridgeshire: [Cambridge] University Press, →OCLC, page 240

   Further beliefs of the early Turks can be deduced from their burial customs. It seems to have been the custom to erect some form of monument (balbal) over the grave of a hero on which enemies killed in battle were symbolically represented, probably in the belief that the spirit of these enemies would serve the deceased in the other world.

   1958, Thomas G[ustav] Winner, “The Kazakh Culture Pattern”, in The Oral Art and Literature of the Kazakhs of Russian Central Asia, Durham, N.C.: Duke University Press, page 10

   Evidence of shamanism can be seen among the steppes and pastures, where stone figures, called balbals, are scattered. Near Bishkek, a group of balbals has been marked off as a sort of open-air museum. These date as far back as the sixth century. Balbals are thought to represent defeated opponents or deceased khans. Sometimes graves were excavated from below these stone figures.

   2006, David C. King, “Religion”, in Kyrgyzstan (Cultures of the World), Tarrytown, New York, N.Y.: Marshall Cavendish Benchmark, →ISBN, page 85

   The figure is made of granite and faces east. It has a fine moustache and a chain around its neck from which hangs a stylised eagle, which may be the totem animal of the man's tribe. Other large stone figures found in Mongolia are depicted holding a drinking vessel in front of their bellies, with a dagger hanging at their belts. […] Most stone figures of this kind, which Mongols call balbal, originated during the time of the Turkish empires (ad 552–745) and the rule of the Turkic Uigurs (ad 744–840). The balbal of Dayan Batyr probably dates from this time.

   2008, Christoph Baumer, “Art in Stone and Men of Stone”, in Colin Boone, transl., Traces in the Desert: Journeys of Discovery across Central Asia, London; New York, N.Y.: I[radj] B[agherzade] Tauris, →ISBN, part II (The Nomadic Land), page 74

   Synonyms: kurgan stele