ARCHAEOLOGY, ETHNOLOGY & ANTHROPOLOGY OF EURASIA

Archaeology Ethnology & Anthropology of Eurasia 39/3 (2011) 120127 E-mail: Eurasia@archaeology.nsc.ru

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THE METAL AGES AND MEDIEVAL PERIOD

E.A. Okladnikova
A.I. Herzen State Pedagogical University, Nab. Moiki 48, St. Petersburg, 191186, Russia E-mail: okladnikova-ea@yandex.ru

LATTICED PETROGLYPHS OF MOUNT KALBAK-TASH, GORNY ALTAI

On Mount Kolbak-Tash, petroglyphs belonging to various periods of the ancient history of Gorny Altai can be observed, from the Neolithic to the Ancient Turkic period. The majority of petroglyphs represent zoomorphic and anthropomorphic images. Among geometric images, the so-called latticed gures attributable to the Chalcolithic (late 4th3rd millennia BC) can be distinguished. Archaeologists suggest two interpretations for these gures: female anthropomorphic images and representations of ritual construction. Rather than being mutually exclusive this article shows that the two interpretations offered are semiotically connected. Keywords: Rock art, Gorny Altai, temple/barn, Mother Goddess, latticed images, Chalcolithic.

Introduction To date, dozens of rock art sites in Gorny Altai have been recorded and thoroughly studied. The history of the study of Altai rock art can be divided into three major stages. The first stage was descriptive and represented by the works of 19th century scholars who rst discovered petroglyphs in the Altai: G.O. Spassky, M.A. Breschinsky, N.M. Yadrintsev, and others. The second stage (the late 19th middle 20th century) was marked by the rst classications of Altai petroglyphs elaborated by archaeologists such as S.I. Rudenko, P.P. Khoroshikh, and others. The third stage (second half of the 20th early 21st century) is distinguished by comprehensive enquiry into Altai petroglyphs, elaboration of typology, and research into semantics. These areas of study are reflected in the works of A.I. Martynov, V.D. Kubarev, E.A. Okladnikova, and others. Since the year 2000, the number of publications

focused on Altai rock art sites has increased signicantly with major contributions made by authors such as V.D. Kubarev, D.V. Cheremisin, D.G. Savinov, E.M. Kilunovskaya, and E.P. Matochkin. P.P. Khoroshikh (1947, 1949) was the rst to publish details of the petroglyphs at Mount Kalbak-Tash as an unique rock art site not only to the Altai but to all Eurasia. The present author was also able to study the site in 1979 under the Altai petroglyph project carried out by the Institute of History, Philology and Philosophy, Siberian Branch of the USSR Academy of Sciences. The site is located 18 km from the village of Yodro on the Chuya Road (729 km from Novosibirsk). A review of the petroglyphs at Kalbak-Tash is provided in two key publications (Okladnikova, 1981; Kubarev, Jacobson, 1996). Description and interpretation of the latticed images at this site as semiotically complex compositions has been the focus of many publications (Novgorodova, 1979, 1984, 1989; Devlet, 1992, 1996;

Copyright 2011, Siberian Branch of Russian Academy of Sciences, Institute of Archaeology and Ethnography of the Siberian Branch of the Russian Academy of Sciences. Published by Elsevier B.V. All rights reserved. doi:10.1016/j.aeae.2011.11.011

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Molodin, Cheremisin, 1995, 2002; Kubarev, Jacobson, 1996; Rusakova, 1997; Kubarev, 2000, 2002; Jacobson, Kubarev, Tseveendorj, 2001; Devlet M.A., Devlet E.G., 2005; Savinov, 2005; and others). The purpose of the present study is to interpret the latticed images of Mount Kalbak-Tash as metaphors of the Chalcolithic revival in the context of dominant components of worldview such as the model of the world, mountain worship, and the sacred geography of the ancient peoples of the Altai. Kalbak-Tash represents a multilayered rock art site that was created over a prolonged period from the Neolithic to the Ancient Turkic period. The repertory of petroglyphic compositions at Kalbak Tash includes three main groups of gures: zoomorphic, anthropomorphic, and geometric images. The most interesting and impressive images were created during the Late Neolithic, Chalcolithic, and Bronze Age (Novgorodova, 1984; Kubarev, Matochkin, 1992; Kubarev, 2002, 2004, 2007; Kubarev et al., 2005). The presence of palimpsests supports the attribution of petroglyphs to different epochs. It is believed that images overlapped by other representations belong to earlier chronological periods. For instance, in a composition located on a vertical surface of the lower part of Mount Kalbak-Tash, a deer image executed in pecking technique overlaps a rectangular latticed figure (see Figure). This may therefore, signify that the latticed image is older. The same can be said of another composition located at the same level. In this composition, a bull overlaps a latticed image. However, another hypothesis states that palimpsests not only represent images of various chronological periods, but also mark the special signicance of the place where they were executed (i.e., palimpsest rock images can belong to a single period, such as the Bronze Age) (Molodin, Cheremisin, 2002). Archaeologists attribute latticed images (particularly, in Mongolia) to the Chalcolithic (Novgorodova, 1984: 4057; Devlet M.A., Devlet E.G., 2005: 138144). Based on this age estimation, the latticed images executed on Mount Kalbak-Tash can be dated to the end of the 4th beginning of the 2nd millennia BC. During this period, the Neolithic culture of the hunter-gatherers of the Altai taiga underwent certain changes under the impact of Neolithic and Chalcolithic cultures from the southern regions of Eurasia and Western Central Asia. The same inuence can be traced in Altai rock art. Bear and bull images (Uzungur rock art site) have been interpreted as a metaphor for opposition between the hunter-gatherer culture of the taiga zone and the pastoralist culture of the steppe zone (Afanasievskaya culture) (Sher, 1980; Cheremisin, 2000: 55). Following V.I. Molodin and D.V. Cheremisin (Molodin, 1996; Cheremisin, 2000: 57; Molodin,

Latticed images of the third type, Mount Kalbak-Tash.

Cheremisin, 2002: 62) it can be hypothesized that the changes noted in the repertory and stylistics of Altai rock art resulted from the mutual inuence of the Chalcolithic and Bronze Age cultures that dispersed though Southern Siberia from the southern areas of Eurasia (the Near East and the Caucasus) and Western Central Asia. If this was indeed the case, then it should be possible to trace the routes of the bearers of the Bronze Age artistic traditions moving to the southern regions of Gorny Altai and then to Xinjiang. Currently, the migration routes are traceable along the mountain river valleys (Chuya, Kucherla, and Dzhazator), i.e. along the rivers that linked the mountain steppe and taiga valleys. These routes laid by the ancient herders of the Altai continued to be used by generations of nomads of the alpine zone, who moved through the natural corridors the river valleys via traditional crossings and passes marking these signicant places with rock images (Molodin, Cheremisin, 2002: 62). By the mid-20th century, archaeologists who study the cultures of the early nomads of the Altai and the origins of the Scythian animal style in art of the late 2nd 1st millennium BC, had convincingly proved that this style was formed under the inuence of Near Eastern art (Artamonov, 1968; Chlenova, 1971). The changes that occurred in Gorny Altai during the Chalcolithic and Bronze Age in comparison with the Neolithic are reected in the rock art of the Altai in the appearance of new motifs (latticed images, animal images with bodies decorated with geometric design, bulls with lyre-shaped horns, astral symbols, etc.), in different techniques, in the diminishing size of anthropomorphic and zoomorphic gures, etc.

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Typology and interpretation of latticed images Many images on the rocks of the Kalbak-Tash monument have been easily interpreted. However, the interpretation of latticed gures has presented considerable difculty. Based on their formal and stylistic features, the latticed gures can be attributed both to anthropomorphic and geometric images. The geometric shape of the latticed images from Kalbak-Tash is the most noteworthy feature (Okladnikova, 1990: 56). D.G. Savinov described the geometric (latticed) female gures wearing magnicent attire with arms raised upwards as the most impressive images of rock art in Mongolia and the Altai. Images of ungulates and portable frame-like constructions are often located in close vicinity to the latticed images. In some cases, these images form sophisticated compositions. At Kalbak-Tash, they occur in the most representative manner (Savinov, 2005: 219). Most latticed images are located on the horizontal rock surfaces of the northwestern slope of Mount KalbakTash. The images are similar in shape bearing just minor differences. The compositional structure is uniform and includes the following elements: a rectangular or semitriangular outline; the lower and middle portions of the interior surface are divided with vertical, parallel lines (in one image with zigzag lines); two branches in the upper part of the image resembling the forks of ancient sighting devices or gnomons (Stafeyev, Tomilin, 2006); in the upper part of the gure, a round top is shown in the central portion; a triangle in the lower part of the construction; and a fringe over the perimeter. A formal and stylistic analysis of the gures leads to the identication of three main types. The rst type includes two-level, tower-shaped images with two branches in the upper part. The second type encompasses triangular-shaped latticed images with a fringe along the perimeter. The third type is made up of rectangular lattices often forming a single composition with animal images (see Figure). In earlier publications, the present author has proposed four possible interpretations of this enigmatic image (Okladnikova, 1981, 1986, 1990): a female image; a log construction of the temple/barn type; an animal enclosure or hunting net; a drag. The latter interpretation arose upon consultation with ethnologists*, who hypothesize that the latticed images of the rst class could represent vehicles used in the transportation of heavy loads. This interpretation, however, was rejected by the present author in the course of further enquiry. At the present time two major trends stand out in the interpretation of rock art semantics:
*Communication by E.A. Alekseyenko (Leningrad, 1986).

1. Interpreting petroglyphs through comparison with mythological themes. This trend has been developed by V.I. Ravdonikas, K.D. Laushkin, M.D. Khlobystina, J.A. Sher, and others. 2. Interpreting petroglyphs as representations of actual characters with paraphernalia used in rites (Savinov, 2005: 219). This trend has not yet been sufciently elaborated. D.G. Savinov has generalized approaches to the interpretation of the semantics of rock art from the AltaiSayan Mountains and Mount Kalbak-Tash in particular. Savinov writes that among the petroglyphs of the AltaiSayan, a series of images representing the ritual sphere can be identied. These can be conventionally subdivided into three groups: (1) ritual constructions, (2) statuary representations, and (3) ritual objects (Ibid.). Savinov points to two major interpretations of the latticed images at Kalbak-Tash as statuary, anthropomorphic objects and as ritual constructions. Savinov tends toward the second group. The interpretation of the latticed gures as images of the foremothers (on the Chuluut River in Mongolia) (Novgorodova, 1984: g. 14, 1618; pp. 46 49; 1989: 103) or as mother-ancestors (Devlte, 1992: 3032; Savinov, 2005: 219220) are supported by the following: E.A. Novgorodovas description of similar images on the Chuluut River with the accentuated central short branch topped with a diamond gure (interpreted as a human head); arch-shaped branches resembling uplifted arms; the broad rectangular lower part with vertical lines that is interpreted as a skirt; a triangular feature in the upper part of the skirt that is interpreted as female genitalia (1984: 4649). According to Novgorodova, the Chuluut gures (possibly, male and female) represent pairs performing a ritual dance; the semiotic analysis of the latticed images in the Altai, middle Yenisei, Tuva (Khemchik River, BizhiktitKhaya) and broad correlations of these images with petroglyphs in Dagestan (Kotovich, 1976), Cnossus palace on Crete Island, Valcamonica rock art site in Northern Italy, and others suggested by M.A. and E.G. Devlet (2005: 148154). the interpretation of images that are generally similar in shape and style as female: the Middle Yenisei (Rusakova, 1997), Upper Yenisei (Bizhiktig-Khaya) (Devlet, 1996: 3; Devlet M.A., Devlet E.G., 2005: 148154), Altai (Mount Kalbak-Tash) (Kubarev, 2002: 7578; Jacobson, Kubarev, Tseveendorj, 2001: g. 587, 664, 891), and Zelenoye Ozero (Matochkin, 2004, 2005, 2006). According to M.A. Devlet, the representations of dwellings in Bronze Age petroglyphs in Southern Siberia and Central Asia have been recorded at the Bronze Age sanctuary of Mugur-Sargol in the Sayan Canyon on the Yenisei (Devlet M.A., 1976, 1980)

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and at the foothills of the Aldy-Mozag on the right bank of the Yenisei (Devlet 1998). M.A. Devlet (2002: 4142) also mentions similar petroglyphs at Elangash in the Altai (Okladnikov, Okladnikova, Zaporozhskaya et al.: pl. 64; Okladnikova, 1984: pl. 41, 7), at the sanctuary of Saimaly-Tash in Western Central Asia (Martynov, Maryashev, Abetekov, 1992: g. 3, 57; Maryashev, Potapov, 1993: 136, g. 2a, b), at Salkhind in Mongolia (Sanzhmyatav, 1995: pl. 70, 191), and in the Yinshan Mountains in Inner Mongolia (Gai Shanlin, 1986: ill. 1418). All these images are two-dimensional. However, architectural traditions of dwelling construction in Khakassia and possibly in neighboring regions including the Altai were based on timber frame technology (Savinov, 1991, 1996, 1998). Images of constructions resembling the Yakut urasu painted at At-Daban (Okladnikov, Zaporozhskaya, 1972: 119, pl. 13, g. 2; p. 123, pl. 17), and timber frame houses at the Boyarskaya rock art site (Devlet M.A., 1976) are present at Kalbak-Tash (Kubarev, 2004). Identication of the latticed images as depictions of simple architectural constructions, yurts and frame houses is supported by available ethnological data. Z.P. Sokolova has argued that petroglyphic images represent general constructive and spatial features of ancient dwellings. However, it is often difcult to correlate rock images with a particular type of real traditional dwelling as established by ethnologists. The specic features of actual dwellings depend on the environment, type of economy, ethnic origins and contacts (1998: 67). A.A. Popov denes three types of traditional Siberian construction: surface and semi-underground, pile and underground (Popov, 1961). According to Z.P. Sokolova, however, four types of traditional construction exist: frame houses, log houses, frame log houses, and frameless houses (Sokolova, 1998). Every class of traditional dwelling construction can be further divided into sub-classes (Devlet, 2002: 42). For instance, according to V.G. Bogoraz, the Kureika Kety preserved some elements of the ancient Sayan deer herding culture until the late 19th century. In this culture, special wooden sheds were made for deer. The sheds took the form of log constructions with a gable roof and two doors allowing the animals to move though the shed. The logs of the frame projected over the corners. In the schematic image of such a shed, the projecting log ends resemble the fringe of the rectangular latticed images of Kalbak-Tash. Most ethnologists believe that this type of deer breeding originated relatively recently. However, the Kalbak-Tash petroglyphs and images at other rock art sites in the Altai-Sayan (e.g., a man riding a deer at the Boyarskaya rock art gallery) support the hypothesis of the early appearance of deer breeding in the Sayan Mountains and the fact that contacts existed between the Sayan population and the Near and Middle East in the 1st millennium BC (Savinov, 2003: 47).

The rock art site on the Chuluut River in Mongolia shows female images rendered in the same stylistic manner as the latticed images on Mount Kalbak-Tash and surrounded by animals (Kubarev, 2000). According to E.A. Novgorodovas description, a stone slab bearing simple and seemingly clear images of spotted bulls was discovered next to the rock covered by the representations of mask. These images were recorded as spotted bulls in the eld journal. The silhouette of an animal with spotted skin was located a little further. This animal had the body of a bull and deer antlers. It became obvious that these were bulls disguised as dappled deer ongons, which, according to ancient beliefs, were receptacles of the souls of the ancestors. In this manner, the representations of totemic bears and their masks were united with those of the Deer Goddess symbolizing eternal procreation, and with bulls dressed in deerskins and antlers (Novgorodova, 1979: 23). The latticed images of the rst and second types have pairs of branches ending in three petals located in the upper part. Adherents of the anthropomorphic interpretation consider these to be arms and hands with three ngers. If one correlates the triangular latticed images with representations of hunters shelters made of branches and chum dwellings, or with the 19th century wedding huts of the Altai people, then these branches can be interpreted as magic lightning rods that protect the people from evil spirits, who according to the beliefs of the Altaians and their northern neighbors the Yakuts, constantly hovered over the houses trying to get inside. For this reason, three birch branches were inserted into the chimney. Ethnographers have also recorded similar branches above the traditional Yakutian dwellings called urasa. These two approaches to the interpretation of latticed images at Kalbak-Tash do not contradict one another; in fact, they complement each other. The combination of latticed images with representations of wild and domesticated (i.e., fettered) animals reects archaic ideas of the gods, the guardians of nature, who in the earliest depictions of this notion (the Chalcolithic and Early Bronze Age) were shown to possess female features. Ideas of the female goddess of fertility are immanent to the cultures of the Neolithic, Chalcolithic, and Early Bronze Age of Southwestern Eurasia (the Tripolie culture, Catal Huyuk, archaic Greece including the murals of Cnossus Palace (Devlet M.A., Devlet E.G., 2005: 142)). Having emerged in the Near East, novel elements of ideology, specifically those related to the Neolithic revolution, may have reached Eastern Central Asia and Southern Siberia via Southwestern Central Asia. These ideas are reected in the mythology of the Ancient Turkic people of the Altai (Umai Goddess) (Krol, 2008). Images showing a feminine deity, the foremother, have also been recorded at Bronze Age sites in Khakassia.

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The concept of a woman-temple is associated with ideas relating to places where the souls of the dead are stored and temple-enclosures in petroglyphs in Tuva, Mongolia, and the Trans-Baikal region. The dots in these petroglyphs represent the gene pool units of a particular clan (Savinov, 2005: 220). Thus the interpretation of the latticed images as the representation of material objects (animal enclosure and temple/barn) may be connected not only with hunting wild animals and their subsequent revival by the Foremother, but also with the reproduction/ reincarnation of domestic animals. Certain semantic connections between geometric and anthropomorphic images can be traced in the cultures of Eurasia dating to the Chalcolithic, Bronze Age, and Ancient Turkic period. Thus, the associated images of an animal enclosure (hunting net), temple/barn, and female gure can be interpreted in terms of human perceptions of the female fertility goddess. An organic link with the animal realm is one of the most essential features of the goddess. In rock art, this feature is stressed compositionally. The noted similarity between anthropomorphic images on the Chuluut River and the Kalbak-Tash latticed images represents a sophisticated complex of ideas concerning not only the image of the Great Foremother Nature, but also the place of her worship. This could be a temple/barn, or a wooden log house built near Mount Kalbak Tash or at the sanctuary associated with mountain worship. The image of the Great Mother later transformed into the goddess keeper of the hearth (Turkic goddess Umai). This goddess like the fertility goddess in cultures of the Near East was associated with the idea of reincarnation, the revival of nature and the well-being of people and animals. A. Leroi-Gourhan, A. Marshack, A.P. Okladnikov, and other researchers of the Paleolithic rock art of Western Europe and Central Asia believed that the engraved images of animals and birds as well as abstract symbols on rock surfaces and Late Paleolithic implements were connected with ideas related to the cyclical recurrence of natural processes and with calculations of the onset of particular seasons (Leroi-Gourhan, 1955: 158164; Marshack, 1972: 248; Okladnikov, 1967). Astronomic observations were carried out to dene natural cycles. In the Altai, observations could have been performed from the rocks bearing petroglyphs. Certainly, the horizontal planes of the middle portion of the Kalbak-Tash monument afford a wonderful view of the Chuya valley. Ethnological data testify that rock sanctuaries with petroglyphs were associated with magic and seasonal rituals aimed at stimulating the productive forces of nature. The outline of Mount Kalbak-Tash standing apart from the mountain range stretching along the Chuya bank resembles ziggurats in the Middle East. M.A. Devlet argued that rather than depicting real dwellings, the ancient rock art drawings represent imagined constructions of the

Upper Realm where the spirits, ancestors, and gods dwell. This fact, however, does not make petroglyphs any less signicant as a historical source as the houses of these heavenly beings reected the construction features of real buildings (Devlet, 2002: 42). It cannot be excluded that a building resembling the White Temple at Uruk was constructed on top of Mount Kalbak-Tash during the Chalcolithic, perhaps in the form of a timber frame house. The White Temple at Uruk was said to be the place where Anu, the Sky God, descended from Heaven. The White Temple represented a ziggurat, the outlines of which resembled the outlines of a mountain. According to written records describing the mythological tradition, Anu went down the long stairway to the Main Temple in order to attend the divine service of the celebration of the revival of Nature. The earliest temples in Egypt were constructed on platforms. The walls were normally covered with reed. Functionally and constructively, such temples were genetically related to barns that, according to the Near Eastern tradition, were also made of reed. This assumption is supported by the images of reed templebarns found on ancient seals originating in the Near East. For instance, the seal found in Khafajah shows the image of a temple/barn. The outlines of this structure resemble those of the Kalbak-Tash latticed images. The similarity can be traced in parallel lines representing reed stems (seal) and vertical lines in the lower part of the latticed images (petroglyphs), the round (seal) and diamondshaped top (petroglyph), two opposing ags (seal), and branches ending in three petals (petroglyph) in the upper part of the image. The Khafajah seal shows bulls surrounding the temple/barn. The bulls are depicted coming out of the temple/barn as their birthplace. The connection between the reproduction of animals and the barn as the place of their birth equal to a temple existed among pastoralists of the Near East in the Chalcolithic and Bronze Age and was associated with the fertility deity who was the guardian of the temple/barn. The latticed images at Kalbak-Tash are also surrounded by animals. The horizontal rock surfaces of the northwestern slope show deer images close to the latticed figures. The vertical surface of the southwestern slope bears a large deer image executed in the Neolithic art style. The deer overlaps the latticed image. The position of the images is the same as that on the rock surfaces at Kuyus Grotto in the Altai (Okladnikova, 1984: 73, pl. 9, g. 1) and on the walls of Lascaux and Font de Gaume (Leroi-Gourhan, 1955: 443), i.e. the latticed image represents the hunting net or animal enclosure (Okladnikov, 1967: 123). It can be hypothesized that the horizontal rock surfaces of the northwestern slope of Kalbak-Tash also depict these objects. Thus the latticed gures can be interpreted as images of ritual buildings (temples) distantly related to

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the temples/barns of the Near East and also as hunting nets and animal enclosures. Judging by the overlapping Late Neolithic deer gures, the latticed images were executed during the Late Neolithic. D.G. Savinov points out the syncretic character of the Kalbak-Tash latticed images. Savinov writes that the latticed gures depicted tower-like buildings that probably represented the dwelling place of the foremothers and animal-mothers (Okladnikova, 1995: 223). Some female images developed from a purely anthropomorphic gure to the representation of a two-layered and even cone-shaped building. The merging woman-house or woman-temple is known in the Near Eastern artistic tradition. In this tradition, the woman-dwelling images represent huts where animals are born or reincarnated and the related female deity is referred to as Ninkhursag; the goddess was not portrayed directly but determined as the female owner of the birth hut (Smirnov, 2002: 6467). This analogue has been cited by the present author (Okladnikova, 1995: 61). In some cases, the woman-house comprises pentagonal latticed images (the so-called shields). Similar images are present on deer-stones of the Mongolian-Transbaikal type, where they are combined with other representations or included into multi-gured compositions. This implies the more complex content of these images as not simply items of hunting, but possible receptacles for the souls of the dead (Savinov, 2005: 219220). The woman as a symbol of fertility in Paleolithic rock art (Western Europe) Okladnikov, 1967: 7380; Abramova, 2002: 38), Great Goddess and Foremother in agricultural cultures (Catal Huyuk (Mellaart, 1967)), Goddess-Mother Umai (Altai) (Krol, 2008: 147148), Mother-Deer in the pastoralist tribes of Central Asia and Southern Siberia (Novgorodova, 1979; 1984: fig. 18; 1989: 103) is closely linked with the idea of the beast. The theme woman and beast is highly signicant in Paleolithic art. In the Chalcolithic temples of Catal Huyuk, the woman and beast (bull as the symbol of masculinity) represent a semantic unity (Sher, 2008: 2830). Since the rocks and boulders with petroglyphs were special places which were worshiped by the ancient populations of the Altai and where ceremonies dedicated to gods, the protectors of humans and animals, took place, it can be hypothesized that the Kalbak-Tash latticed images expressed an abstract syncretic idea combining the notions of a ritual building (temple/barn/animal enclosure) and the fertility goddess. In some cases, the latticed images are interpretable as the trap similar to a hunting enclosure (Kuyus Grotto and latticed images of the third type at Kalbak-Tash) (Okladnikov, 1967: 123; Savinov, 2003, 2005). The blending of female images with those of the house or of the temple to denote the place where animals are revived can be paralleled with composite latticed

images at Kalbak-Tash, combining the ideas of woman, procreation, and sacred landscape. Taking into consideration the broad interpretation of the semantics of the latticed gures on the basis of signicant sources (prehistoric art, mythology, Near Eastern cultures, new discoveries in the Altai rock art), these images can be interpreted within the context of the concept of the sacred landscape whose advocates include E.A. Novgorodova (1979), L.S. Marsadolov (1992, 2007), V.D. Kubarev (Jacobson, Kubarev, Tseveendorj, 2001), V.I. Larichev (Larichev at al., 2004), J.A. Sher (2008), D.G. Savinov (2008; Svyatilischa, 2000), and others. Like the Kuyus rock shelter, certain peaks on the rocky terraces of the Yelangash River, and other petroglyphic sites in the Altai, Mount KalbakTash appears to have been a key element of the sacred geography of the region, modeling the Universe and being worshipped as an abode of female deities (in the Chalcolithic) and male gods (from the Bronze Age onward) responsible for human and animal procreation and for the revival of nature.

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Received March 30, 2009.