The article is devoted to a new petroglyphic monument near the Satakular River in the Ongudai district of the Altai Republic. The drawings were found on two sites in the trough of a huge monolith. These are several embossed images and two unique maral figures made in red paint. They find analogies in the petroglyphs of the Minusinsk tradition on the Middle Yenisei, as well as the Afanasyev culture on Mount Kalbak-Tash and in the Kuylyu grotto. From the analysis of Kalbak-Tash analogues, it follows that Satakular depicts a different-sex pair of marals. Painted drawings, executed at a high artistic level, and a stone monolith with an unusual gutter are generally a unique monument.

Keywords: petroglyphic monument, painted drawings, Minusinsk tradition, Afanasyev culture, early Bronze Age.

Introduction

In March 2007, the shepherd Sumer Tuktushev from the village of Inegen showed me drawings made in red paint. Even earlier, in the fall of 2006, an English journalist, Joan Dobson, told me about them. Due to the small number of such materials, each new discovery of painted petroglyphs arouses an increased interest of scientists dealing with the problems of cultural and chronological belonging of ancient pictorial monuments.

The discovered drawings are located in the Ongudai district of the Altai Republic, in the Argut Valley, about 3 km from its confluence with the Katun, not far from the first right tributary, the small Satakular River. GPS coordinates of the monument: 50°13 '22.6" N, 086°42 '20.3" E The altitude is 801 m above sea level (according to the Baltic elevation system). The valley near the river is expanding, on its relatively flat area, according to the stories of shepherds, people used to live. By the name of one of the Altaians, this place was called Satakular-Oozi. Just down the Argut river, the entire slope is dotted with huge stones of coarse-grained biotite granite. One of them resembles a human head with raised facial features (Fig. 1). 30 m up from the trail lies a large monolith (5×3 m, height 3 m), which stands out in an unusual shape. The rock here is subject to erosion, as a result of which the monolith was cut through by a spiral-shaped chute, expanding and deepening downwards. The chute is so large that you can easily climb into it (Figure 2). Undoubtedly, this unique natural phenomenon next to the head stone could not fail to attract the attention of an ancient person. The surface of the trench is quite smooth, but only in rare places it is smooth, covered with a rock tan, most of it is rough, with chipped spots due to desquamation processes. Over time, the trough expands, and what was previously under the cover of the upper monolith massif is now exposed to precipitation and populated with a variety of lichens from light to black in color. Only the southwestern plane at the outlet of the chute and a few small planes on the upper left are free of them. These are the only places where drawings are viewed. Therefore, at present we can talk about two sections of petroglyphs: one in the upper left part, the other in the lower one.

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Figure 1. Stone-head.

2. A monolith with a chute and drawings.

3. Petroglyphs of site 1 (a) and their drawing (b).

Description of petroglyphs

The first section. In the upper northern part of the trench, three small narrow vertical planes covered with brown rock tan have been preserved. On the left, 40x20 cm in size, you can see images of a goat and an animal with an arched back and a long tail, their heads turned to the right; around them - small amorphous spots and unreadable fragments of knockout. The dynamic figure of the goat is cut out along the silhouette with a small-point technique. Its large horn meets its tail and, together with its arched back, forms a circle. The upper image of the animal is embossed with a wide and shallow line, revealing a light rock (Fig. 3).

On the middle plane, tapering downwards, the size of 90×20 cm is represented by the figure of a goat with its head turned to the left. Its profile image is made with a shallow cutout along the contour with non-closing holes. A vertical stripe is visible on the case. There are several lines under the goat shape.

The right plane, located slightly below the first two, has a size of 80×20 cm. It shows an animal with its head turned to the left, whose species identity is difficult to determine due to rough knocking out.

The second section. An oval plane measuring 200 × 100 cm is located one and a half meters below and to the south. The large drawings found here are preserved partly because of the lichens covering them. Earlier, presumably, the overhanging canopy was larger, precipitation did not fall here, and the slightly concave plane of the stone was covered with a smooth brown rock tan. Now there are only small islands left of it, almost the entire surface of the stone.

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rough, with small dimples, sometimes covered with lichen. Seven zoomorphic images were recorded on site 2. All of them are presented in fragments and can be viewed with difficulty. The central part of the plane is occupied by a deer frieze with figures of two animals. These drawings, made in red paint, are of particular interest (Figure 4).

Moose-like bull. A fairly large image of a syncretic animal (length approx. 80 cm) is located at the very top, under the overhanging visor, and is least affected by time. Knocking out was carried out along the contour with additional grinding of the groove. Moose resembles a pointed paraboloid snout and a small hump on the back. An unusual elongated exterior with a rounded rump and two thin legs. The hind leg is poorly visible, and the tail is not visible at all: lichens grow in its place. The head shows bull horns unfolded in full view, although the entire image is profiled. The drawing combines realism and convention, combining images of different creatures. The animal is represented as if descending to the left side down the Argut river.

A fragmented image. It is located under the front leg of the bull figure and is outlined by two undulating grooves. The knockout is poorly viewed due to surface damage and does not find an unambiguous reading.

The left deer. The drawing is located to the left in the central part of the plane. The specific definition of the animal is Altai maral (Cervus elaphus sibiricus). Only the front part of the figure is visible, the rest is hidden under lichen. Orientation to the right, up Argut. The length of the visible part is approx. 0.5 m. The image is a profile, contour, made with translucent red paint of a weak tone without preliminary knocking out. The contour line width is approx. 1 cm, in the chest area reaches 3.5 cm. The image is largely stylized and constructed using arc-shaped lines that have different curvatures on the chest and back. The head is small, completing a narrow and extremely long neck. There is no image of horns, and only individual spots are visible above the head. The line from the ears to the mouth is straight. At the bottom, the pattern smoothly merges into the line of the chest and front leg. Next to it, you can see a segment that runs parallel to the descending line. The image is static, although the neck stretched forward with its curved lines gives the impression of movement. Judging by the size of the preserved part, the length of the entire drawing should exceed 1 m.

Right deer. The drawing is located to the right in the central part of the plane. Made with red paint. The specific definition of the animal is Altai maral (Cervus elaphus sibiricus). The figure is almost completely visible, only the front part of the head is hidden by lichen. Height approx. 0.5 m, length approx. 80 cm. The image is profiled and contoured, with the exception of the head, which was painted to match the silhouette. Orientation to the right, up Argut. The drawing was partially knocked out and then painted over. Some of the paint was lost,

4. Petroglyphs of site 2 (a) and their drawing (b).

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it is covered with lichens, but the image is restored along the groove, except for the neck and head, where there is no embossment. The horns are not visible due to large losses of the surface layer in this part of the plane, only one small process is visible. A vertical line separates the neck from the chest. The drawing of the limbs begins with two lines that meet at the level of the knee and then go together at a slight slope, which makes the legs look, in the words of I. V. Kovtun, as if "mowed down" [2001, p. 143]. The shape of the animal is characterized by a sub-rectangular shape of the body. The smooth outline of the back ends with a slightly raised neck and head, which gives the static image of the animal some dynamics. The drawing combines realism with a certain amount of schematism. At the same time, the basic zoometric proportions are preserved: the neck is proportional to the body.

The left goat. The image is fragmented. It is located under the feet of the left deer figure. Only part of the head and large rounded horns with prominent teeth are visible. The embossment is silhouette. Orientation to the right.

Nizhny Maral. The image is fragmented. It is located at the bottom of the border of lichens. Only the upper part of the body is visible with a horn on the head in the form of a Christmas tree. The embossment is silhouette. The shape faces right with its head.

The right goat. The image is fragmented. It is located at the bottom right of the lower maral figure. Only large horns with teeth are visible. The orientation is unclear.

Image dating

The images in the first section are much younger than in the second. The embossment is slightly patinated. The earliest figure of a goat on the middle plane, apparently, should be attributed to the Scythian period: the figure has a noticeable decorative beginning.

Images of goats and maral deer with a herringbone horn, located in the lower part of the second section, are typical of the late II-early I millennium BC. Syncretic images of bulls are found on monuments of the advanced Bronze Age. Moose-like images of mixed nature are dated by researchers to the Early Bronze Age [Kubarev V. D., 2000, p. 15].

Of particular interest is the dating of the two central red-painted maral figures. It should be noted that few painted drawings are known in Gorny Altai. These are the First (Okladnikov and Molodin, 1978) and Second (Matochkin, 1986) Turochak scribbles on the Bii River, figures of horses on the Kaltak Rock, 30 km from Satakular up the Argut (Matochkin, 1998), and a fragmentary image at the foot of Mount Kurman-Tau (Kubarev G. V., 2003). The Turochak writings were dated to the Advanced Bronze Age (Molodin and Matochkin, 1992; Molodin, 1993). G. V. Kubarev compares the image near Mount Kurman-Tau with the petroglyphs of the Yarminsky threshold and refers it to the Eneolithic - early Bronze Age, although he does not exclude an earlier date [2003, p. 387]. The drawings on Kaltak Rock are much smaller in size and painted in silhouette with dry dye. Due to the absence of any analogies in the Altai, they are dated in a wide range from the middle of the first millennium BC to the middle of the second millennium AD (Matochkin, 1998, p.59). The chronological reference points were images made in red paint in neighboring regions. It is known that in the Urals, paint drawings were created from the Paleolithic to the middle of the II millennium. Oborin and Chagin, 1988, pp. 16-18]. The eastern analogs - nine complexes in the basin of the Mana River, a tributary of the Yenisei - are dated by researchers to the first millennium BC - first millennium AD, taking into account the cases of palimpsest (Zaika and Kuznetsov, 2008).

Red marals of Satakular are a new phenomenon in the ancient art of Gorny Altai: for the first time, the characters of scribbles were red deer, whose images differ so markedly in execution from previously known painted drawings. The large size of the figures and stylistic features - a massive body, a small head with an outstretched muzzle, as if "hanging" legs, schematism combined with realism-bring Satakular images closer to images that researchers associate with the Minusinsk style [Sovetova and Miklashevich, 1999, p. 53]. Rock carvings made in this style were first identified as the "Yenisei (Minusinsk)" pictorial tradition by N. A. Podolsky (1973, pp. 270-272). Subsequently, Ya. A. Sher described its features in more detail and attributed such petroglyphs "to the earliest drawings of the Middle Yenisei, not excluding their Upper Paleolithic age" [1980, p. 190-193]. N. A. Podolsky himself considered it unlikely that the Yenisei static-geometrized tradition originated or penetrated the Minusinsk basin earlier than the beginning of the Eneolithic (1973, p. 271).

Similar parallels between the Minusinsk-style drawings and the Altai petroglyphs did not pass the researchers ' attention. I. V. Kovtun noticed the coincidence of a number of basic details of the Middle Yenisei and Gorno-Altai images (Kalbak-Tash, Kucherla I, Kuyus grotto), the similarity in the configuration and proportions of the animal body, the peculiar position of the forelegs, the sub-triangular outline of the raised head and muzzle, elongated-bent necks [2001, p. 142]. At the same time, the researcher notes that " the Gorno-Altai series of images leaves an impression

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a more homogeneous complex with a smaller amplitude of iconographic variations. It is distinguished by a stable pictorial gracialization of forms, as well as unnaturally elongated, hypertrophied necks of zoomorphic images " [Ibid.].

"The oldest stylistic horizon of the Paleometallic epoch, represented by the Gorno-Altaian and, possibly, a number of Middle Yenisei petroglyph complexes" of the Minusinsk" tradition " I. V. Kovtun connects with the olen frieze discovered in the Kuylyu grotto [Ibid., p. 170]. Excavations carried out there made it possible to compare the appearance of drawings with the Afanasiev layer of the Kucherli cult complex (Derevyanko and Molodin, 1991, p. 5). Based on the materials of this reference monument, several more images close to the Kucherlin ones were selected. V. I. Molodin [1996, p. 181] finds analogies in the images of elk and marals near the village of Kuyus on the Middle Katun (Kuyus grotto), which were dated to the Neolithic era (Okladnikova, 1984, Tables 9, 1, 2), and in the large figure of a maral on Lake Baikal. Muzdy-Bulak [Molodin and Cheremisin, 2002], as well as in numerous drawings on Mount Kalbak-Tash, in particular in some images of deer [Molodin and Cheremisin, 2007, p. 93]. D. V. Cheremisin supplemented this list with the petroglyphs Rybinskoe I and II that he discovered on the Jazator River [1998], as well as the petroglyphs Rybinskoe I and II [1998]. also petroglyphs of Uzungur [2000].

Thus, on the basis of parallels with the highlighted Minusinsk tradition and their comparison with the Kucherli material, we can say that the Satakular images of marals and the deer frieze in the Kuylyu grotto are synchronous. Of course, such dating requires verification, which is possible by microanalysis of the dye binder. In the future, such an analysis should be made, and then the petroglyphs of Satakular will become a reference monument for many stylistically homogeneous carved rock images.

Attribution of the Satakular painted drawings to the circle of Afanasyev antiquities makes it possible to compare them with the more numerous petroglyphs of Kalbak-Tash of the Early Bronze Age. This is all the more appropriate because it is necessary to deal with the question of whether the satakular images of marals themselves, which differ in size, technique of execution and stylistic features, are simultaneous. A priori, we can assume that these differences are related to the sex of animals. However, it is not possible to solve the problem directly, since horns - the male sign of the maral-are not visible on the Satakular petroglyphs. Probably, they were depicted in the right maral, but were not preserved due to the loss of the surface layer. Let's try to find out the correlation of iconographic features with the sex of animals on the material of Kalbaktash analogues, those drawings that researchers refer to the Early Bronze Age.

V. I. Molodin and D. V. Cheremisin distinguish images of hornless females among the petroglyphs of the Afanasyev culture (fig. 220, 228, 307*) [2002, p. 62]. I. V. Kovtun cites the figures of seven horned males as analogs of images of the Minusinsk tradition (fig. 138, 141, 169, 208, 215, 238, 566) and four hornless females (FIG. 196, 289, 368, 381) [2001, p. 143-147]. V. D. Kubarev refers to images of hornless animals fig. 235, 264, 306, 340, 662, and with horns-fig. 156, 393, 566 [2003, pp. 17-18]. As a result, an array of Kalbak-Tash analogues was formed: 9 drawings represent horned males, 12-hornless females. For these analogs, we determined the dimensions of the embossed images based on their drawings with an indication of the scale [Kubarev and Jacobson, 1996]. Calculations gave the following result: the average length of the female figure is 47 cm, the male-39 cm, i.e. images of hornless animals are on average 1.2 times larger than horned ones. This obvious result is due to the fact that the necks of females were depicted longer, outlined in a smooth arc. The general pattern was also subject to the elegance of the elongated line, which is why the iconographic model of the female is particularly beautiful and"gracialized".

On the petroglyphs of Satakular, the left maral figure is also about 1.2 times larger than the right one. By analogy with the Kalbak-Tash petroglyphs, we can conclude that the left image with a long neck, elegant in design, represents the female, and the right one - the male. Presumably, it had horns painted on it, but only a small appendage remained of them. Probably, the differences in the stylistics of the images of the Satakular deer frieze are due to the established iconographic features in the image of different-sex individuals, and not to the different timing of the drawings.

Conclusion

At one time, A. P. Okladnikov and V. I. Molodin called the Turochak scribble one of the first-class art monuments of Northern Asia [1978, p. 21]. With the discovery of Karakol murals [Kubarev V. D., 1988] and petroglyphs of the Green Lake [Matochkin, 2006], Altai became home not only to masterpieces of the Scythian period, but also to brilliant creations of the advanced Bronze Age. After the discovery of the Satakularsky scribble, we can say that even in the early Bronze Age in Gorny Altai, a remarkable aesthetic and artistic work was created.-

* Here and further figures are listed in the book: [Kubarev and Jacobson, 1996].

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in terms of expressiveness, it is a work of art. Both these monumental images of Satakular marals, made in red paint, and the monolith itself with an unusual gutter are generally a unique monument.

List of literature

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Zaika A. L., Kuznetsov A. L. Winter archeology: Field studies of petroglyphs. Krasnoyarsk: Krasnoyarsk State Pedagogical University. un-t Publ., 2008, 76 p. (in Russian)

Kovtun I. V. Pictorial traditions of the Bronze Age of Central and North-Western Asia: Problems of genesis and chronology of iconographic complexes of the North-western Sayan-Altai. Novosibirsk: Izd-vo IAET SB RAS, 2001, 184 p. (in Russian)

Kubarev V. D. Ancient paintings of Karakol. Novosibirsk: Nauka Publ., 1988, 173 p. (in Russian)

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Matochkin E. P. Novye petroglyphi Bii [New petroglyphs of Bii]. Novosibirsk: Publishing House of IIFF SB of the USSR Academy of Sciences, 1986, pp. 20-23.

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Molodin V. I. Once again on the dating of Turachak scribbles (some problems of chronology and cultural belonging of petroglyphs of Southern Siberia) / / Culture of ancient peoples of Southern Siberia. Barnaul: Alt. State University, 1993, pp. 4-25.

Molodin V. I. Naskalnye izobrazheniya afanas'evskoy kul'tury (k postanovke problemy) [Rock images of the Afanasiev culture (to the problem statement)], in Novye arkheologicheskie i etnograficheskie otkrytiki v Sibiri: Materials of the IV Annual Final Session of the Institute of Archeology and Ethnography of the Siberian Branch of the Russian Academy of Sciences, Novosibirsk: Izd. IAET SB RAS, 1996, pp. 178-181.

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The article was submitted to the Editorial Board on 23.03.09.

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