Archaeology, Ethnology & Anthropology of Eurasia 48 (1) 2020   DOI: 10.17746/1563-0110.2020.48.1.072-080

Annotation:  Early Upper Paleolithic Serpentine Ornaments from Ust-Karakol, Northwestern Altai Unshaped Bone Tools from Denisova Cave, Altai The Sartan Upper Paleolithic Assemblages of the Northwestern Altai Stages in the Late Pleistocene and Holocene Peopling of Lake Bolshoye Ushkovskoye Shore, Kamchatka Fishing in the Early Holocene Human Ecosystem of the Northern Angara Region: Findings from Stratifi Late Bronze Age Smelting and Processing Furnaces of the Eastern Variant of the Pakhomovskaya Culture Late Bronze Age Petroglyphs of Unyuk Mountain, in the Minusinsk Basin Tagar Artifacts at the Stavropol State Museum Reserve (G.N. Prozritelev’s Collection) An Early Pazyryk Kurgan at Khankarinsky Dol, Northwestern Altai: Chronology and Attribution of Artif The Triquetras from the Filippovka Kurgans, Southern Urals Early Iron Age Carpenter Tools from the Altai and Adjacent Territories A Comparative Analysis of Structural and Developmental Trends at Major Cheptsa Fortifi ed Sites in t Ancestors of the Oriental Horse in Eurasia: Origin and Distribution Regional Features of the Traditional Clothing of Ukrainians and Belarusians in the South of the Russ Collection Related to the Omaguaca Indians from the Pucara de Tilcara Fortress, Northwestern Argenti   

Late Bronze Age Petroglyphs of Unyuk Mountain,
in the Minusinsk Basin

Y.N. Esin¹ and S.G. Skobelev²

¹Khakass Research Institute of Language, Literature and History, Shchetinkina 23, Abakan, 655017, Russia

²Novosibirsk State University, Pirogova 1, Novosibirsk, 630090, Russia

This study introduces a new southern Siberian rock art site, situated on the Unyuk Mountain, in the Minusinsk Basin, and studied in 2016-2017. Stylistically, the main petroglyphs date to the Late Bronze Age, i.e. late 2nd to early 1st millennia BC. Of special interest are images of oxen with ropes fixed in their noses. Such petroglyphs are rare in that region. In one case, the ox is tied to a pillar; in the other case, a man leads it. The composition consisting of a man and an ox walking in one direction is repeated thrice. All the known petroglyphic images of a man holding a rope attached to an ox’s nose were found on the right bank of the Yenisei. This may be due to the cultural and economic specificity of the southeastern, forest-steppe part of the Minusinsk Basin. At the same time, these images may be a local variant of the composition “man walking with an ox”, which occurs mainly in more southerly areas of the Altai-Sayan. Another rare petroglyph found on the Unyuk Mountain shows a pillar with a triple top. Its parallels, found at other petroglyphic sites in the Minusinsk Basin, are described. They may refer either to everyday practice or to beliefs about the dead person’s travel to the nether world.

Keywords: Southern Siberia, Minusinsk Basin, Late Bronze Age, petroglyphs, ox, bull, ritual pillar