Archaeologists conducting rescue excavations in southern Siberia have uncovered an exceptional series of petroglyphs that is reshaping scholarly understanding of ancient rock art in the Republic of Khakassia.
According to the press service of the Institute of the History of Material Culture (IHMC) of the Russian Academy of Sciences, the discoveries were made at the Ust-Kamyshta-1 and Kamyshta-3 burial grounds in the Askizsky.
The excavations were conducted between 2021 and 2023 by the Sayan Archaeological Expedition during rescue operations designed to document and preserve threatened cultural heritage sites.
Used continuously for more than three thousand years from the Early Bronze Age in the 3rd millennium BC through to early AD, the burial grounds contain funerary complexes associated with nearly every major archaeological culture identified in Khakassia.
The most notable discoveries from the recent fieldwork include ten stone slabs inscribed with petroglyphs, pictures that have been directly gouged into stone surfaces.
In the majority of the region, petroglyphs are spotted on exposed cliffs and rock outcrops, so dating them accurately is extremely difficult. These newly explored examples, however, were found within sealed burial mounds.
Because they were located in closed archaeological contexts, researchers were able to impose solid chronological frameworks with associated grave goods, construction features, and stratigraphic evidence.
Most of the slabs are dated to the Early Iron Age, around the 8th century BC to the 2nd century AD. They belong to the Tagar and Tesin cultures, which are two major cultural forms of the Minusinsk Basin and local territories. .
A comparative analysis was a key component of the study. The team explored stylistic and thematic similarities between the burial mound petroglyphs and established rock art panels found in the open-air cliff sites in the Minusinsk Basin. They also looked at carved pictures of weapons and tools like daggers, chisels, and bows in relation to real artefacts found in burials from the same timeframe in support of chronological attributions.
Six of the ten slabs feature elaborate narrative moments. The earlier ones, as they are known, are part of the Tagar culture and include dynamic hunting motifs. One especially striking scene depicts a human figure and a dog chasing a large animal that may possibly symbolise real prey or a mythological animal.
The petroglyphs related to the later Tesin culture, however, may indicate a move towards abstraction. The carvings reflect spirals, labyrinthine motifs, and simplified anthropomorphic forms. Researchers believe the slabs reached the burial mounds through multiple pathways. Some appear to have been deliberately incorporated into grave constructions, possibly created specifically for funerary rituals. Others were found broken, overturned, or reused as building material, suggesting that later communities occasionally transformed older carved stones, stripped of their original sacred meaning.
Because these petroglyphs originate from securely dated burial contexts, they now serve as vital chronological benchmarks. The findings provide a rare opportunity to anchor the broader rock art tradition of southern Siberia within a more precise historical timeline, offering new clarity to the cultural development of the region across centuries.
Header Image Credit : IHMC
Sources : Institute of the History of Material Culture (IHMC) of the Russian Academy of Sciences
