Archaeology, Ethnology & Anthropology of Eurasia 47 (2) 2019   DOI: 10.17746/1563-0110.2019.47.2.093-102

Annotation:  Late Middle and Early Upper Paleolithic of the Eastern Adriatic and the Problem of the Regional Midd Insight into Ceramic Technologies at the Maikop Site of Ust-Dzheguta, Karachay-Cherkessia Chalcolithic and Bronze Age (4th to 3rd Millennia BC) Burials with Gold Ornaments in the Caucasian M Archaeozoological Studies at Konoplyanka, the Southern Trans-Urals Burials in Anthropomorphic Jars in the Philippines The Tamga Signs of the Turkic Nomads in the Altai and Semirechye: Comparisons and Identifi cations Belt Sets of the “Redikar Type” in Medieval Cemeteries of the Volga Finns An Assemblage from a Medieval Burial at Lake Parisento, Gydan Peninsula, the Arctic Zone of Western Finds of Medieval Coins from Eski-Yurt, Crimea Children’s Games in the Sociocultural Space of a Siberian Town: Historical and Archaeological Contex On the Methodology of Studying Palimpsests in Rock Art: The Case of the Shalabolino Rock Art Site, The Use of Remote Sensing, Geophysical Methods and Soil Analysis in the Study of Sites Disturbed by Miklouho-Maclay’s Legacy in Russian- and English-Language Academic Research, 1992–2017 Remnants of the Snake Cult Among the Khakas (Late 19th to Mid 20th Century) “Taiga” and “River” Components in the Nanai Socio-Tribal Organization at Lake Bolon, the Lower Amur The Armenian Epic Poem “Daredevils of Sassoun” and the Mahabharata: Similarity of the Ethnographic S Antemortem Cranial Injuries in the Altai Mountains Pastoralists of the Scythian and Xiongnu-Sarmatia   

On the Methodology of Studying Palimpsests in Rock Art:
The Case of the Shalabolino Rock Art Site, Krasnoyarsk Territory

L.V. Zotkina

Institute of Archaeology and Ethnography, Siberian Branch, Russian Academy of Sciences, Pr. Akademika Lavrentieva 17, Novosibirsk, 630090, Russia

Novosibirsk State University, Pirogova 1, Novosibirsk, 630090, Russia

This article addresses the main problems in assessing the stratigraphy of superimpositions in rock art. When a petroglyph is overlain by one or several others, this may provide important chronological information not only about single images but also about entire stylistic traditions. Existing methods used for evaluating the relative chronology of the parts of petroglyphic palimpsests are discussed, and a new approach is proposed, combining high-resolution threedimensional visualization at the macro level with traceological analysis. The article focuses on the characteristics of the pecked surface in the area outside the palimpsest and that of the overlap zone. The comparison of these parts makes it possible to reveal the traceologically informative features in the palimpsest areas, indicating the sequence of superimposed petroglyphs. This approach is illustrated by the analysis of one of the palimpsests at the Shalabolino rock art site in the Krasnoyarsk Territory. Images representing various stylistic traditions are stratigraphically associated in a complex way. The sequence of three main figures (the bear, bull, and elk) in this multilayered composition has been reconstructed. The results of the analysis cannot be used as an argument for attributing these petroglyphs to vastly different chronological periods. Rather, they provide new information relevant to the debate over the age of the Angara and Minusinsk petroglyphic styles in the Minusinsk Basin.

Keywords: Rock art,petroglyphs,palimpsest, traceology, 3D,photogrammetry, Shalabolino rock art site, Krasnoyarsk Territory