The Oglakhty-Tom Petroglyphs of the Lower Tom Rock Art Complex

Abstract

The present research featured the cultural and chronological context of the Oglakhty-Tom petroglyphs found in the lower valley of the Tom river. The author compiled a complete list of geometric petroglyphs of South Siberia, as well as a series of representational parallels that can help to date geometric zoomorph characters carved by the Bronze Age peoples of West Siberia. The author also illustrated some representational parallels for geometric petroglyphs from the early Andronian period found in the Vasyugan complex and the Lugavskoye burial mound in the Middle Yenisei. The paper introduces some results of carbon dating for these petroglyphs. The author detected some new archaeologic and petroglyphic complexes in the Lower Tom that go back to the epoch between Early Andronian time and the Bronze Age. He established the connection between the geometric petroglyphs and the Early Andronian complex in the Lower Tom, while the Minor Tuva-Altai petroglyphs proved to be as old as the Early Seyma-Turbino period. The paper contains palimpsests and ritual assemblages that prove that Oglakhty-Tom and Late Angara petroglyphs once co-existed. The author believes that the geometric petroglyphs and the realistic Late Angara petroglyphs date back to the same Early Andronian communities. The research also traces back various sources of these art traditions.

Keywords

• early andronian cultures
• oglakhty-tom group
• lower tom river valley
• chronology
• rock art