Сave drawing of Eastern Kazakhstan.

«Memory is the treasure house of the mind wherein the monuments thereof are kept and preserved»

Thomas Fuller.

Photos of petroglyphs of Eastern Kazakhstan.

The painted shelter is 50km north-east of Kalzhir Village and 2.5km north of Terekty Village (former Alekseevka) in the Markakol District of the Eastern Kazakhstan Region, on the right bank of the Irtysh, in the south-eastern spurs of the Kurchum Range, in the Terekty River valley.
Research Status and Documentation. Rock paintings in the vicinity of Terekty Village were discovered by local residents; only a shelter with paintings in red, yellow and black ochre was known prior to the 1990’s; it is now ruined.
In the 1980’s, these paintings were examined by Samashev Z. and Rogozhinskiy A.-E. at different times. In 2008, Aktaylakov E. and Rogozhinskiy A.E. discovered and studied paintings on another site. Typology and Dating. The shelter with paintings is in a small gorge; the paintings were preserved on a vertical surface (2x1.5m) under a granite dome.
Contour figures of two horses, deer, two wild boars, humans and several less distinctive images were painted in red ochre on the rock; all animals are shown moving from right to left. On the right of the composition, two humans differ in size, manner, and color: the smaller is painted red-brown and is apparently later than the other paintings.
To the left of the humans are horses and two wild boars. A vertical line painted in the same brown crosses the upper animal’s back, like a spear with a pointed end. Traces of later additions to the paintings are present on the left part of the composition: three small brown crosslike figures partially overlap the hind legs of the horse.
The left side of the panel is severely damaged: the granite surface spalled in some places and many painted figures are preserved only fragmentarily. The painting, apparently, depicts a hunting scene.
The Terekty paintings show great similarities with paintings in North-Western China shelters, in the upper reaches of the Black Irtysh.
It is suggested that the paintings in Eastern Kazakhstan are to be dated within the Neolithic and Bronze Age.

Authority:
“Rock Art Sites in Kazakhstan”.  Alexey E. Rogozhinskiy.

Photos by
 Alexander Petrov.