PAINTINGS FROM A TOMB IN THE ALTAI MOUNTAINS, SIBERIA, RUSSIA:

         

Karakol tomb, Altai Mountains, Siberia. Photograph by Vladimir Kubarev.

A tomb excavated in 1985 in the Altai mountains in Siberia contains features which prompt some interesting speculation and conclusions. The tomb itself is dated to the Karakol culture from the 2^nd millennium BCE.

Painted panel, Karakol tomb, Altai Mountains, Siberia. Photograph by Vladimir Kubarev.

“Karakol culture (Turkic Black lake) is a Bronze Age archaeological culture of the 2^nd millennium BCE in the Altai area. - Karakol culture was discovered in 1985 near (the) village of Karakol in Altai. In the Altai territory, the Bronze Age extended from the 3^rd to the 2^nd millennium BCE, bronze was the main material for tools, weapons and jewelry. At that time in the Altia territory lived people of the Karakol and Afanasiev cultures. Most of the investigated Karakol culture burials are located on the banks of the river Ursul and its tributaries.” (Wikipedia)

      Petroglyph panel, Karakol tomb, Altai    Mountains, Siberia. Photograph by Vladimir                              Kubarev.

“Some of these burials were found in elaborately decorated tombs, built of slabs of rock engraved and painted on the inside. The earliest were engraved visuals of elk, mountain goats and running people with round horns on their heads.

Then the slabs of rock with the petroglyphs were broken off the mountain, taken into the tomb and turned upside down to decorate its insides.

Next and slightly on top of the petroglyphs were made drawings of eleven human-like figures.” (Siberian Times)

Karakol tomb, Altai Mountains, Siberia. Photograph by Vladimir Kubarev.

Specularite. Online photograph, Public Domain.

Interestingly, the bodies buried in the tombs had also been painted. “The remains of people buried inside the stone graves were also painted with the same colours, with spots of red ocher found below the eye sockets and traces of a black and silvery mineral called Specularite prominent in the eyebrows area.”(Siberian Times)

       Red ocher pictograph, Karakol tomb,     Altai Mountains, Siberia. Photograph by                            Vladimir Kubarev.

The vivid red pigment was made from heat-modified ocher. The authors concluded that varying levels of heat were carefully controlled to create various shades of red. “A team of scientists from the Kurchatov Institute in Moscow, Russia’s leading research and development centre for nuclear energy, working with the Paleo-Art Centre of the Institute of Archeology, proved that the red parts of (the) tomb drawing were made of thermally modified ocher. The white-coloured sections of the artworks were made by scraping which revealed light-reflecting rock crystals. For the black colour, the prehistoric artists of Karakol used soot.” (Siberian Times)

The real question here is whether the decorations were created specifically for the tomb they decorated, or if the tomb builders took previously created rock art from another location to use in decorating the burials.

In other words, was the decoration deliberately manufactured for this tomb (and if so, where) or was it gathered opportunistically from other locations.

     Karakol tomb, Altai Mountains, Siberia.             Photograph by Vladimir Kubarev.

Different styles of painting on the various panels suggest multiple origins for the panels, as if they were originally done at different times by different people. Given the variations in technique and style we might assume that the rock art was even done by different cultures. This would suggest the gathered opportunistically option.

It also suggests that the burial of this man was more important to the population there (and then) than the original purpose the rock art was created for; i.e. if the rock art had been created by a previous population in that region, whatever their motivation, it was now overridden by the need to decorate this man’s tomb. The culture had either shifted (and with it the commitment to the art), or this man was so important that the art should be repurposed for his burial tomb. It is clear that this art was still considered to have value because it was utilized in such an important context.

NOTE: Some images in this posting were retrieved from the internet with a search for public domain photographs. If any of these images are not intended to be public domain, I apologize, and will happily provide the picture credits if the owner will contact me with them. For further information on this subject you should read the original report listed below.

REFERENCES:

Siberian Times Staff Reporter, 2019, Revealed: the Sophisticated Techniques of Ancient Artists Who Created these Fantastical Images, 12 June 2019, The Siberian Times.

Wikipedia, Karakol Culture, https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Karakol_culture