Archaeology, Ethnology & Anthropology of Eurasia 47 (3) 2019   DOI: 10.17746/1563-0110.2019.47.3.012-026

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The “Kalgutinsky” Style in the Rock Art of Central Asia

V.I. Molodin¹, J.-M. Geneste², L.V. Zotkina¹, D.V. Cheremisin¹, and C. Cretin³

¹Institute of Archaeology and Ethnography, Siberian Branch, Russian Academy of Sciences, Pr. Akademika Lavrentieva 17, Novosibirsk, 630090, Russia

²UMR 5199 CNRS, University of Bordeaux, Batiment B8, Allee Geoffroy Saint Hilaire CS 50023 33615 PESSAC CEDEX, France

³National Museum of Prehistory, 1 Rue du Musee, 24620 Les Eyzies-de-Tayac-Sireuil, France

On the basis of petroglyphic sites Kalgutinsky Rudnik (Kalgutinsky mine) on the Ukok Plateau, Baga-Oygur, and Tsagaan-Salaa in northwestern Mongolia, a distinct “Kalgutinsky ” style of rock art of the Russian andMongolian Altai is described. The distance between these sites is about 20 km. This group is marked by very specific stylistic features, common technological properties, a narrowly defined subject featuring only animals, and a very intense desert varnish. All these features, together with the proximity of the sites, suggest that they should be regarded as a special group, which we term the “Kalgutinsky” style, and date to the Upper Paleolithic on the basis of several criteria. Images of mammoths at Baga-Oygur and Tsagaan-Salaa are similar to those known in the classic Upper Paleolithic cave art of Western Europe. An entire set of stylistic features typical of the “Kalgutinsky” canon is seen also in the representations of mammoths, and this manner is consonant with that of European Upper Paleolithic rock art. Our findings suggest that a peculiar “Kalgutinsky” style existed, and moreover, that it represented a separate Central Asian locus of Upper Paleolithic rock art.

Keywords: Rock art, petroglyphs, style, iconography, technology, Mongolian Altai, Russian Altai, Ukok Plateau, Kalgutinsky Rudnik