Mountain range in southern Siberia, Russia and northern Mongolia
The
Sayan Mountains
(
Russian
:
Саяны
Sajany
;
Mongolian
:
Соёны нуруу
,
Soyoni nuru
;
Old Turkic
:
??????????
,
romanized:
Kogmen
)
[1]
are a
mountain range
in southern
Siberia
spanning southeastern
Russia
(
Buryatia
,
Irkutsk Oblast
,
Krasnoyarsk Krai
,
Tuva
and
Khakassia
) and northern
Mongolia
. Before the rapid expansion of
Tsardom of Russia
, the mountain range served as the border between Mongolian and Russian cultures and cultural influences.
[2]
The Sayan Mountains' towering peaks and cool lakes southwest of
Tuva
give rise to the
tributaries
that merge to become one of Siberia's major rivers, the
Yenisei River
, which flows north over 3,400 kilometres (2000 mi) to the
Arctic Ocean
. This is a protected and isolated area, having been kept closed by the
Soviet Union
since 1944.
[3]
Geography
[
edit
]
Western Sayan
[
edit
]
At 92°E the Western Sayan system is pierced by the Ulug-Khem (
Russian
:
Улуг-Хем
) or Upper
Yenisei River
, and at 106°, at its eastern extremity, it terminates above the depression of the
Selenga
-
Orkhon Valley
. It stretches almost at a right angle to the Western Sayan for 650 km (400 mi) in a roughly northeast/southwest direction between the Shapshal Range of the
Eastern Altai
in the west and the
Abakan Range
of the
Kuznetsk Alatau
in the east. From the
Mongolian plateau
the ascent is on the whole gentle, but from the plains of Siberia it is much steeper. The range includes a number of subsidiary ranges of an Alpine character, such as the
Aradan
,
Borus
,
Oy
,
Kulumys
,
Mirsky
,
Kurtushibin
,
Uyuk
,
Sheshpir-Taiga
,
Ergak-Targak-Taiga
,
Kedran
and
Nazarovsky
ranges. The most important peaks are
Kyzlasov Peak
(2,969 m (9,741 ft)),
Aradansky Peak
(2,456 m (8,058 ft)),
Bedelig Golets
(2,492 m (8,176 ft)),
Samzhir
(2,402 m (7,881 ft)),
Borus
(2,318 m (7,605 ft)) and
Zvezdny Peak
(2,265 m (7,431 ft)).
[4]
[5]
Between the breach of the Yenisei and
Lake Khovsgol
at 100° 30' E. the system bears also the name of Yerghik-Taiga. The flora is on the whole poor, although the higher regions carry good forests of
larch
,
pine
,
juniper
,
birch
, and
alder
, with
rhododendrons
and species of
Berberis
and
Ribes
. Lichens and mosses clothe many of the boulders that are scattered over the upper slopes.
[6]
Eastern Sayan
[
edit
]
The Eastern Sayan stretches almost at a right angle to the Western Sayan for 1,000 km (620 mi) in a northwest/southeast direction, from the Yenisei to the
Angara Range
. Some subranges of the northwest form a system of "White Mountains" (Белогорье) or "
Belki
", such as Manskoye Belogorye, Kanskoye Belogorye, Kuturchinskoye Belogorye, as well as Agul Belki (Агульские Белки), with permanent snow on the peaks. In the central part, towards the upper reaches of the
Kazyr
and
Kizir
rivers, several ridges, such as the Kryzhin Range form a cluster culminating in the 2,982 m (9,783 ft) high
Grandiozny Peak
, the highest point in Krasnoyarsk Krai.
[
citation needed
]
To the southeast rise the highest and most remote subranges, including the
Bolshoy Sayan
and
Kropotkin Range
, as well as "
Goltsy
" type of mountains, such as the
Tunka Goltsy
,
Kitoy Goltsy
,
Botogolsky Goltsy
, among others. The highest point of the Eastern Sayan, as well as the highest point of the whole Sayan system, 3,491 m (11,453 ft) high Mount
Munku-Sardyk
, is located in the range of the same name in this area. 2,939 m (9,642 ft) high
Pik Tofalariya
is the highest point of
Irkutsk Oblast
. The mountains of the Eastern Sayan characteristically display alpine relief forms. In general, rivers flowing down from the ranges form
gorges
and there is an abundance of waterfalls in the area.
[7]
[8]
The Ice Age Period
[
edit
]
In this area that currently shows only small cirque glaciers, at glacial times glaciers have flowed down from the 3492 m high
Munku Sardyk
massif situated west of Lake Baikal and from the 12.100 km
2
extended completely glaciated granite-gneiss plateau (2300 m asl) of the East-Sayan mountains as well as the east-connected 2600 ? 3110 m-high summits in the Tunkinskaya Dolina valley, joining to a c. 30 km-wide parent glacier. Its glacier tongue that flowed down to the east, to Lake Baikal, came to an end at 500 m asl (51°48’28.98"N/103°0’29.86"E). The Khamar Daban mountains were covered by a large-scale ice cap filling up the valley relief.
From its valley heads, e.g. the upper Slujanka valley (51°32’N/103°37’E), but also through parallel valleys like the Snirsdaja valley, outlet glaciers flowed to the north to Lake Baikal. The Snirsdaja-valley-outlet glacier has calved, among other outlet glaciers, at c. 400 m asl into Lake Baikal (51°27’N/104°51’E). The glacial (Wurm ice age = Last Glacial Period = MIS 2) glacier snowline (ELA) as altitude limit between glacier feeding area and ablation zone has run in these mountains between 1450 and 1250 m asl. This corresponds to a snowline depression of 1500 m against the current height of the snowline. Under the condition of a comparable precipitation ratio there might result from this a glacial depression of the average annual temperature of 7.5 to 9 °C for the Last Ice Age against today.
[9]
[10]
Origins of reindeer husbandry
[
edit
]
According to
Sev’yan I. Vainshtein
, Sayan reindeer herding, as historically practiced by the
Evenks
, is "the oldest form of reindeer herding and is associated with the earliest domestication of the reindeer by the
Samoyedic taiga population
of the Sayan Mountains at the turn of the first millennium A.D."
[
citation needed
]
The Sayan region was apparently the origin of the economic and cultural complex of reindeer hunters-herdsmen that we now see among the various Evenki groups and the peoples of the Sayan area.
[
citation needed
]
The ancestors of modern Evenki groups inhabited areas adjacent to the Sayan Mountains, and it is highly likely that they took part in the process of reindeer domestication along with the Samoyedic population."
[11]
The local indigenous groups that have retained their traditional lifestyle nowadays live almost exclusively in the area of the Eastern Sayan mountains.
[12]
However, the local reindeer herding communities were greatly affected by
russification
and
sovietization
, with many Evenks losing their traditional lifestyle and groups like the
Mator
and
Kamas
peoples being assimilated altogether.
[13]
According to
Juha Janhunen
, and other linguists, the homeland of the
Uralic languages
is located in South-Central Siberia in the Sayan Mountains region.
[14]
[
failed verification
]
[15]
Meanwhile,
Turkologist
Peter Benjamin Golden
locates the
Proto-Turkic
Urheimat in the southern
taiga
-
steppe
zone of the Sayan-Altay region.
[16]
Alternatively, the Proto-Uralic homeland is located farther westwards (e.g. in the
Volga
-
Kama
region
[17]
) while the Proto-Turkic homeland is located farther eastwards (e.g. "in the southern fringe of the [Northern Eurasian Greenbelt] in Northeast Asia ... near eastern Mongolia").
[18]
Science
[
edit
]
The
Sayan Solar Observatory
is located in these mountains (
51°37′18″N
100°55′07″E
/
51.62167°N 100.91861°E
/
51.62167; 100.91861
) at an altitude of 2,000 meters.
[19]
See also
[
edit
]
Notes
[
edit
]
- ^
Vasily Bartold (1935).
Vorlesungen uber die Geschichte der Turken Mittelasiens
. Vol. 12. Berlin: Deutsche Gesellschaft fur Islamkunde. p. 46.
OCLC
3673071
.
- ^
"Sayan Mountains"
. Retrieved
2006-12-25
.
- ^
"Tuva and Sayan Mountains"
. Geographic Bureau - Siberia and Pacific. Archived from
the original
on 2015-11-26
. Retrieved
2006-10-26
.
- ^
B. C. Bасильев, Ю. M. Mальцев, Б. И. Cуганов, E. H. Черных -
Саяны
- ^
"M-45 Chart (in Russian)"
. Retrieved
7 December
2021
.
- ^
Chisholm, Hugh
, ed. (1911).
"Sayan Mountains"
.
Encyclopædia Britannica
. Vol. 24 (11th ed.). Cambridge University Press. p. 276.
- ^
ЭСБЕ/Саянский горный хребет, Энциклопедический словарь Брокгауза и Ефрона : в 86 т. (82 т. и 4 доп.). ? СПб., 1890?1907.
- ^
"N-47 Chart (in Russian)"
. Retrieved
7 December
2021
.
- ^
Grosswald, M. G.; Kuhle, M. (1994):
Impact of Glaciations on Lake Baikal.
International Project on Paleolimnology and Late Cenozoic Climate No. 8. (Eds: Shoji Horie; Kazuhiro Toyoda (IPPCCE)) Universitatsverlag Wagner, Innsbruck, pp. 48?60.
- ^
Kuhle, M. (2004) : 'The High Glacial (Last Ice Age and LGM) glacier cover in High- and Central Asia. Accompanying text to the mapwork in hand with detailed references to the literature of the underlying empirical investigations'. Ehlers, J., Gibbard, P. L. (eds).
Extent and Chronology of Glaciations, Vol. 3 (Latin America, Asia, Africa, Australia, Antarctica)
. Amsterdam, Elsevier B.V., pp. 175-199.
- ^
"Evenki Reindeer Herding: A History"
,
Cultural Survival
, retrieved
30 December
2014
- ^
Vainshtein, Sev’yan I. (1971), "The Problem of the Origins of Reindeer Herding in Eurasia, Part II: The Role of the Sayan Center in the Diffusion of Reindeer Herding in Eurasia",
Sovetskaya Etnografiya
,
5
: 37?52
- ^
Forysth, J. (1991). "The Siberian Native Peoples Before and After the Russian Conquest". In Wood, A. (ed.).
The History of Siberia: From Russian Conquest to Revolution
. London: Routledge. pp. 69?91.
ISBN
0-415-05873-2
.
- ^
Janhunen, Juha (2009).
"Proto-Uralic?what, where, and when?"
(PDF)
.
The Quasquicentennial of the Finno-Ugrian Society
. Helsinki. pp. 57?78.
{{
cite book
}}
: CS1 maint: location missing publisher (
link
)
- ^
Dziebel, German (October 2012).
"On the Homeland of the Uralic Language Family"
. Retrieved
2019-03-21
.
- ^
Golden, Peter Benjamin (2011).
"Ethnogenesis in the tribal zone: The Shaping of the Turks"
.
Studies on the peoples and cultures of the Eurasian steppes
. Bucure?ti: Ed. Acad. Romane.
ISBN
978-973-1871-96-7
.
- ^
Parpola, A. (2013). "Formation of the Indo-European and Uralic language families in the light of archaeology: Revised and integrated 'total' correlations". In R. Grunthal, & P. Kallio (Eds.),
Linguistic map of prehistoric north Europe
(pp. 119-184). (Memoires de la Societe Finno-Ougrienne; Vol. 266). Suomalais-Ugrilainen Seura. p. 160
- ^
Uchiyama, J., Gillam, J., Savelyev, A., & Ning, C. (2020). "Populations dynamics in Northern Eurasian forests: A long-term perspective from Northeast Asia",
Evolutionary Human Sciences
, 2, E16.
doi
:
10.1017/ehs.2020.11
- ^
"Sayan Solar Observatory"
. Institute of Solar-Terrestrial Physics,
Russian Academy of Sciences
-
Siberian
branch
. Retrieved
2016-12-03
.
External links
[
edit
]