Sunday: Visiting a 12th century BC archeological site

Today (Sunday) was the most amazing day I could have imagined! Marina, our host teacher, set up a trip for us to visit the Sikachi-Alyan archeological site. In fact she had to do more than just set it up, she had to convince them to open for us because normally this time of year it is too muddy and cold to hike to the petroglyphs site. I am so glad she did!

Before today, she said she had a little surprise for us. I had no idea what she was planning. When we showed up at the school this morning, she had hired a large bus and there was her entire 9th grade English class and several parents!!! A Sunday field trip!!!

The trip there took about 1.5 hours. It is a site along the Amur River that was a migration stop for paleolithic pre-modern humans. Etched on many of the rocks are petroglyphs of masks, animal figures and suns.

The students really enjoyed climbing over the rocks.








And we walked on and along the frozen river to get back to the bus. In the distance were some Nanai aboriginals ice fishing.







The Nanai * are the native aboriginals who live in this area. When we got back to the bus, we were led to a living Nanai cultural museum where our biggest surprise was in store for us. The teachers and parents brought along enough food to feed a small kingdom! Shashliki (think shishkabobs, marinated in a kefir-based cream sauce) was the fare for the day. So we grilled and we grilled and broke bread together toasting our new friends of the Khabarovsk Krai! While we cooked and prepared everything, the students were busy playing a hackey-sack style game using a volleyball, tossing a football and basically having a blast. Note: not one student just sat around playing video games!!! It was such a beautiful day that who wouldn't want to be outside having a great time? It was also excellent to be able to visit with the parents and talk about our two cultures and our observations of their school.

 

The bus ride home. Thank you Marina and to everyone who made this incredible day possible! To the parents and the students who took their only day off to give us an experience of a lifetime!!!

 

 

Marina, our fearless leader. Her jacket, hat and bag are from Sochi where she worked during the Olympics as a volunteer. We could not have asked for a better host teacher!



*
More on the Nanai: (from http://pandora.cii.wwu.edu/vajda/ea210/maritime.htm)

The largest Tungusic-speaking people of the Russian Far East are the Nanai. They live along the middle reaches of the Amur river valley, and adopted much from the aboriginal Nivkh-related population, including fishing techniques and the manufacture of fishskin clothing. The Nanai show a mixture of Tungusic (Ewenki), aboriginal Nivkh, as well as Chinese-Manchu elements in their culture and language. The Nanai language, which is still spoken by about 5,000 of the remaining 12,000 Nanai, is closely related to Ewenki. An additional 1,500 Nanai live on the Chinese side of the Amur River. The Nanai in the People's Republic of China are called Hezhen, and speak a somewhat different dialect than those of Russia's Maritime Province. The Hezhen could thus be considered a separate ethnic group. Many elements of the group's original taiga reindeer-breeding culture were retained in traditional Nanai culture, demonstrating that the Nanai are relatively recent invaders from Siberia. The ethnonym "Nanai" comes from the word nani, which simply means "local people." The Russians formerly called them Goldi, a Nanai clan name. A famous Russian film Derzu Uzala portrays the life of a Nanai tribesman in the late 19th century.  -- From Edward Vajda