A Rock Art Panel near the Village of Krasnyi Mak in the Crimea

Abstract

Since there are a very few monuments of the Stone and Bronze Age art found in the Crimea, the discovery of a new object of the kind is an important event for local archaeology. This paper addresses a recently discovered site, the complex of rock paintings located in the south-western area of the Crimean foothills, on the western slope of the mountain of Kyzyk-Kulak-Kaia, which is a part of the Second (Inner) Range of the Crimean Mountains, south of the village of Krasnyi Mak, Bakhchisarai District. The rock paintings appeared in a grotto in rock on the western precipice of the mountain. The surface of the rock houses three compositions comprising anthropomorphic figures, images of beasts, and symbolic pictures. By all appearance, rock paintings of Kyzyk-Kulak-Kaia feature migrations of a cattle-breeding tribe, driving of a herd of horses, and the scene of a ritual performed by a shaman. The complex of images contains the main chronological components, wheeled carts and horse-riders, dating the paintings to the period no earlier than the Bronze Age. The dating of this complex by analogies is possible with the attraction of both a few parallels from the Crimea and also the finds from Khakassia and the Southern Ural area. This publication has also analysed semantic similarities and differences with the images from other Crimean archaeological sites such as the stations of Tash-Air and Alimova Ravine, a cist from the vicinity of the village of Dolinnoe in the Bakhchisarai District, and relief pictures on the steles uncovered near the villages of Kazanki and Bakhchi-Eli.