Archaeology, Ethnology & Anthropology of Eurasia 50 (3) 2022   doi:10.17746/1563-0110.2022.50.3.113-120

Annotation:  Aktas—an “Ephemeral” Upper Paleolithic Site in North Kazakhstan Neolithic Burials in the Zelinda River Mouth, Northern Angara: Burial Practices and Radiocarbon Chro Classic Samarra Painted Pottery from Yarim Tepe I, the Neolithic of Northern Iraq The Megalithic Tradition of East and Southeast Asia The Beginning of Iron Metallurgy in East Asia Tools Used in Tagar Rock Art: Findings of an Experimental Traceological Study Grave Goods of an Elite Saka Burial at Kyrykoba in the Context of Cultural Ties Between the Nomads o On Phoinix (Φοίνιξ) and Its Distinguishing Marks: A Karian “Type Site” Medieval Burials at Ryabchikov Klyuch-1, the Kansk-Rybinsk Basin Chinese Coins from the Early Medieval Cemetery Gorny-10, Northern Altai The State of Preservation of the Shakhty Rock Art Site and the Prospects of Its Conservation South Russian Settlers of Western Siberia in the Late 19th to Early 20th Centuries, Based on Archiva A Case of Chronic Maxillary Sinusitis in a Late Neanderthal Population of the Altai Mountains Analysis of 3D-Models of Artifi cially Deformed Crania, Using Geometric Morphometry Dental Data on the Origin of the Early Iron Age Bolshaya Rechka Population in the Upper Ob Area, and   

The State of Preservation of the Shakhty Rock Art Site
and the Prospects of Its Conservation

I.V. Abolonkova¹, N.N. Sayfulloev², and I.E. Dedov³

¹Kuzbass Museum-Reserve “Tomskaya Pisanitsa”, Tomskaya 5a, Kemerovo, 650099, Russia

²Donish Institute of History, Archaeology and Ethnography, National Academy of Sciences of the Republic of Tajikistan, Hieboni Rudaki 33, Dushanbe, 734025, Republic of Tajikistan

³Institute of Archaeology and Ethnography, Siberian Branch, Russian Academy of Sciences, Pr. Akademika Lavrentieva 17, Novosibirsk, 630090, Russia

This article deals with the preservation of the Shakhty rock art site, discovered in the Eastern Pamirs in 1958 by the leading Central Asian Stone Age researcher VA. Ranov. The analysis of photographs taken in the Shakhty rock shelter during the 2019 survey revealed the nature of destructive processes at the site due to environmental conditions of the Eastern Pamir highland. The article integrates the results of analysis of Ranov’s archives at the Donish Institute of History, Archaeology and Ethnography of the National Academy of Sciences, Republic of Tajikistan. Thanks to Ranov’s diaries and photographs, it was possible in 2019 to assess the degree of erosion on the rock surface, and the loss of fragments of painted images over more than 60 years. Emergency areas requiring conservation efforts were identified. Principles of conservation and restoration of rock art are outlined, and an overview of techniques developed for sites of this type in the post-Soviet space in the last quarter of the 20th century is presented. State of the art conservation methods for rock art, which, in the future, can be applied for the preservation of emergency areas at Shakhty, are described. A set of measures is suggested to preserve this site.

Keywords: Eastern Pamirs, rock art, paintings, Shakhty rock shelter, conservation of rock art sites