nscArchaeology, Ethnology & Anthropology of EurasiaАрхеология, этнография и антропология Евразии1563-0110IAET SB RAS10.17746/1563-0110.2025.53.2.025-033nsc-2184Research ArticlePALEOENVIRONMENT. THE STONE AGEПАЛЕОЭКОЛОГИЯ. КАМЕННЫЙ ВЕКThe Earliest Snake Images in the Middle Irtysh Regionhttps://orcid.org/0000-0001-8608-5321SchmidtI. V.

Schmidt I.V., Associate Professor

Pr. Mira 55a, Omsk, 644077

rebewster@gmail.comDostoevsky Omsk State UniversityRussian Federation2025040720255322533Copyright © Schmidt I.V., 20252025Schmidt I.V.Schmidt I.V.Данная работа распространяется под лицензией Creative Commons Attribution 4.0.This work is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 License.https://journal.archaeology.nsc.ru/jour/article/view/2184

Herpetomorphic images are quite rare in Paleolithic and Mesolithic art. Published bone daggers from Cherno-Ozerye (OMK 9675/702) and Aitkulovo (MAEAAGU OF 93) are the earliest examples of the Middle Irtysh Final Paleolithic or Mesolithic art showing snakes engraved in a stylistically original manner. Both specimens show opposed reptiles striving, as it were, to meet. This plot has so far not been described or geographically localized. An attempt is made to interpret it at least tentatively. It is proposed that people inhabiting southwestern Siberia and the southern Urals in the Final Paleolithic and Mesolithic practiced a snake cult, resulting in amazingly similar works of art. While this region has not been subjected to detailed archaeological studies, examples of early art suggest that it was an ancient cultural province, comparable with that of Malta–Buret, where a search for graphic forms of communication was conducted, special cultural texts were created, and major aspects of worldview were discussed. 

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