Alpysbaev Khasan

Alpysbayev Kh. was born on November 6, 1928 in the village No. 14 of Bayanaul district of Pavlodar region, in the family of a peasant nomad Musapirov Alpysbai. He was not even 4 years old when his parents died and left him an orphan. Until 1935 he lived as a tramp, and from 1935 to 1943 he was brought up in the Kaskelen orphanage, where he graduated from an eight-year school. From 1943 to 1945, he was educated in a Kazakh boarding house at school No. 12 in Almaty. In 1945, he entered the History Department of the Central Asian State University, from which he graduated in 1950. He completed an archaeological specialization at the university, combined his studies with work as a senior laboratory assistant in the Department of Archaeology. As a student, he annually took part in field archaeological expeditions led by famous scientists A. Okladnikov and M. Masson, worked on such monuments as the Jebel caves, Dam-Dam-Chashma, Nisa, Anau settlements, etc.
After graduation, he worked in the South Turkmenistan Archaeological Complex expedition, the Kyrgyz archaeological and ethnographic expedition, and then in the North Kazakhstan and Ili archaeological expeditions. In the autumn of 1954, he was admitted to the postgraduate course of the Institute of History, Archaeology and Ethnography of the Academy of Sciences of the Kazakh SSR, majoring in archaeology, and then seconded to the Leningrad Department of the Institute for the History of Material Culture of the Academy of Sciences of the USSR for three years. His supervisor was a prominent specialist in the field of the Stone Age P. Boriskovsky.
In 1958, Kh. Alpysbayev successfully defended his dissertation for the degree of Candidate of Historical Sciences in the specialty "Archaeology" on the topic: "The Late Paleolithic site of Kostenki II".
After graduation, he returned to the Ch. Valikhanov Institute of History, Archaeology and Ethnography of the Academy of Sciences of the Kazakh SSR, where he was hired as a Researcher in the Department of Primitive Archaeology. Here he worked until the end of his life.
In 1957-1960, he led the Karatau Paleolithic detachment and then for the first time in the territory of Southern Kazakhstan (Karatau ridge), unique Paleolithic sites were discovered and explored - stone-working workshops Borykazgan, Tanirkazgan, which later became world famous. For the first time, Kh. Alpysbayev suggested that the territory of Kazakhstan is one of the centers of settlement of the earliest man.
Subsequently, he also discovered numerous monuments of the Stone Age, the results of which were reflected in numerous publications.
Joint work with geologist N. Kostenko allowed the discovery of several Paleolithic sites associated with Quaternary deposits. A characteristic feature of Kh. Alpysbayev was an integrated approach, both in exploration work and in stationary research. His numerous articles evidence this.
The main results of Kh. Alpysbaev contradict the provisions of Movius, who hypothesized the existence of two local regions in the Lower Paleolithic era. He attributed Hindustan to one of them. Anterior Asia and Africa, Southern and Western Europe - to the inhabitants of which are characterized by the use of hand choppers. The inhabitants of another region - northwest India, China, and Java used only one-sided and two-sided chopping tools.
However, based on the discovered artifacts in Southern Kazakhstan, Kh. Alpysbayev writes: "The fact of the joint finding of two- and one-sided chopping tools and choppers does not allow us to agree with the statements about the existence of a very special Asian Lower Paleolithic culture and about the uniqueness of the path of development of Asia in the Lower Paleolithic era" (1). The similarity and identity of the materials of Southern Kazakhstan with the tools found on the territory of Asia and Africa, allowed Kh. Alpysbayev to make an assumption about the unity of the development of Lower Paleolithic cultures, in which change and development followed a single path.
One of the most interesting discoveries of Kh. Alpysbayev is the discovery of a multi-layered Paleolithic Karasu site, later renamed by him into the Ch. Valikhanov settlement. During the years of research (1959-1962) by Kh. Alpysbaev and then by us (1983, 1990-1992), we identified six cultural layers of the Late Mousterian and Upper Paleolithic time lying in an undisturbed state. In addition to numerous stone products, there are bone remains of a horse, bison, saiga, red deer, the remains of hearths, coal and particles of red ochre.
The discovery of the Ch. Valikhanov settlement has not lost its significance to this day; on the contrary, it is becoming even more relevant in the study of the ancient history of Kazakhstan, in establishing the stratigraphy of Quaternary anthropogenic deposits, as well as for restoring the history of the fauna of the anthropogenic Kazakhstan.
A unique discovery of Kh. Alpysbayev is the discovery of the Neolithic cave site of Karaungur in the Tulkubas district of South Kazakhstan region.
The results of numerous studies by Kh. Alpysbayev ended with the writing of the monograph "Monuments of the Lower Paleolithic of Southern Kazakhstan", published after his death. It was his doctoral dissertation.
Khasan Alpysbayev died on April 30, 1978 in Almaty.
 

Алпысбаев Х.А. Значение палеолита для расчленения антропогеновых отложении // Культура древних скотоводов и земледельцев Казахстана. Атма-Ата, 1969 С. 119. 
Алпысбаев Х.А. Некоторые результаты изучения кремневых орудий (По материалам стоянки Костенки II.) // КСИИМК. 1959. Вып.76. С. 10-16. 
Алпысбаев Х.А. Палеолитическое жилище в Костенках II. археологические и этнографические параллели к нему // ВАН КазССР. 1958. N 5. С.95-105.
Алпысбаев Х.А. Позднепалеолитическое поселение Костенки II Автореферат дисс. на соискание учен, степени канд. ист.наук. Л.. 1958.
Алпысбаев Х.А. Находки нижнего палеолита в Южном Казахстане // ТИИАЭ АН Каз ССР. 1959. Т.7. С. 232-241.
Алпысбаев Х.А. Находки памятников каменного века в хребте Каратау // ТИИАЭ АН КазССР. 1962 Т.14. С.12-37
Алпысбаев Х.А. Нижнепалеолитические местонахождения в Малом Каратау // ВАН Каз ССР. 1959. N2. С.64-70.
Алпысбаев Х.А. Новые палеолитические местонахождения в бассейне рек Арыстанды-Бурылтай (Боралдай) в Южном Казахстане //ТИИАЭ АН Каз ССР. 1961. Т.12. С.3-20.
Алпысбаев Х.А. Открытие нижнего палеолита в Казахстане. //ВАН КазССР. 1960. N 5 . С. 59-61.
Алпысбаев Х.А. Открытие памятников древнего и позднего палеолита в Южном Казахстане. // СА. 1961. №1. С. 128-138.
Алпысбаев Х.А. Первая многослойная палеолитическая стоянка в Казахстане. // ВАН Каз ССР 1960. №11 С. 103.
Костенко Н.Н., Алпысбаев Х.А. Палеолит в районе Турланского перевала хребта Каратау. // ВАН Каз ССР 1966. №8. С. 66-69.
Алпысбаев Х.А. Были ли каменные орудия у первобытного человека? // ИАН Каз ССР. Серия обществ, наук. 1966. № 4. С 90-92.
Алпысбаев Х.А. Геолого-исторические условия хребта Каратау в эпоху палеолита // Новое в археологии Казахстана. Алма-Ата. 1968. С. 5-20. (совместно с Костенко НН).
Алпысбаев Х.А. Индустрия олдувея. магадевиа. соана, их связь с Каратаускими изделиями . // Поиски и раскопки в Казахстане, Алма-Ата, 1972. С. 47-55
Алпысбаев Х.А. Малоизученные пещеры Казахстана // Природа. 1972. № 12. С. 109. 
Алпысбаев Х.А. Некоторые вопросы изучения памятников каменного века в Казахстане // По следам древних культур Казахстана. Алма-Ата, 1970. С. 227-240
Алпысбаев Х.А. О локальных различиях палеолитических культур Средней Азии и Казахстана // УСА, 1972. Вып. 2. С. 5-7.
Алпысбаев Х.А. Палеолитические изделия как маркирующий индикатор антропогеновых отложений Казахстана // ИАН Каз ССР. Серия обществ, наук. 1968. № 4. С. 34-38.
Алпысбаев Х.А. Предварительные итоги изучения памятников каменного века в пещерах Южного Казахстана в 1969-1970 гг. // УСА. 1972. Вып. 1. С. 29-31.
Алпысбаев Х.А. Разведка памятников каменного века Казахстана в 1971 г. // УСА. 1972. Вып. 2. С. 30-31.
Костенко Н.Н., Алпысбаев Х.А. Значение палеолита для расчленения антропогеновых отложений // Культура древних скотоводов и земледельцев Казахстана. Алма-Ата, 1969. С. 107-120.
Алпысбаев Х.А. Неолитическая стоянка в пещере Караунгур. (Юж. Казахстан) // ИАН Каз ССР Серия обществ наук. 1969. № 2. С. 85-87.
Алпысбаев Х.А. Разведка в Кызылкумском р-не Казахстана, // АО 1974. М., 1975. С. 481.
Алпысбаев Х.А. Стратиграфические условия некоторых палеолитических стоянок Южного Казахстана // В глубь веков. Алма-Ата. 1974. С. 3-15. (совместно с Костенко Н.Н.).
Акишев А.К., Алпысбаев Х.А., Максимова А.Г. Исследования в зоне Шульбинского водохранилища // АО. 1977. М.. 1978. С. 508-509.
Алпысбаев Х.А. Мезолитические и неолитические стоянки Южного Казахстана // Археол. исслед. в Отраре. Алма-Ата, 1977. С. 93-103.
Алпысбаев Х.А. О находках индустрии каменного века в Каратау и Караоба // Археологические памятники Казахстана. Алма-Ата. 1978. С. 117-129.
Алпысбаев Х.А. Палеогеография Южного Казахстана (хребет Каратау) в эпоху раннего палеолита. Палеоэкология древнего человека М., 1977. С. 202-208. 
Алпысбаев Х.А. Индустрия палеолита Южного Казахстана. // Археологические исследования древнего; средневекового Казахстана. Алма-Ата. 1980. С. 54-64.
Алпысбаев Х.А. Памятники нижнего палеолита Южного Казахстана: (О древнейшем заселении Казахстана первобытным человеком). Алма-Ата: Наука. 1979.