Ivan Savenkov’s Finds from Neolithic Burials on the Bazaikha River and the Age of Siberian Rock Art
https://doi.org/10.17746/1563-0110.2025.53.3.074-084
Abstract
This study examines objects of portable art such as realistic three-dimensional figurines of elks and an anthropomorphic figurine, carved from elk antler, which were found by Ivan Savenkov in 1885 during his excavations of burial VI at Bazaikha, near Krasnoyarsk, in the mouth of the eponymous river. This burial, like others at the same site, yielded also stone and bone artifacts of Neolithic appearance. This unusual sample is one of the main arguments favoring the Neolithic age of numerous examples of Siberian rock art (elks and other animals rendered in the so-called Angara style). The Neolithic attribution of figurines and stylistically similar petroglyphs is problematic largely because the Bazaikha sample has not yet been analyzed by modern methods or even documented or fully published. Here, an overview of the sample, based on available archival and literary records, is given, and the possibility of comparing figurines and petroglyphs is discussed with reference to the «Angara style». I propose to select from the heterogeneous array of representations those actually showing stylistic parallels with the Bazaikha figurines. Two avenues of further research are mentioned: a focus on the Bazaikha sample (archival studies, 3D documentation, cataloging, radiocarbon dating, etc.), and a revision of the notion of «Angara style» in rock art based on modern views and facts.
Supporting agencies: This study was carried out under R&D topic № NIOKTR 122011100061-5 of the Institute of Archaeology of the Russian Academy of Sciences. The author would like to thank the researchers from the Scientific Archive of the Institute for the History of Material Culture of the Russian Academy of Sciences for their assistance in working with photographic evidence.
About the Author
E. A. Miklashevich
Institute of Archaeology, Russian Academy of Sciences; «Tomskaya Pisanitsa» Museum-Reserve
Russian Federation
Russian Federation
Miklashevich E.A., Researcher; Senior Researcher
Dm. Ulyanova 19, Moscow, 117292;
Tomskaya 5a, Kemerovo, 650000
References
1. Auerbaсh N.K. 1929 Perviy period arkheologicheskoy deyatelnosti I.T. Savenkova. Yezhegodnik Gosudarstvennogo muzeya im. N.M. Martyanova v g. Minusinske, vol. VI (2): 163–185.
2. Baye J., de. 1894 Raport sur les découvertes faites par m. Savenkov dans la Sibérie Orientale: Lecture faite a l’Academie des Sciences 27 fevrier 1893. Paris: Nilsson.
3. Berdnikov I.M. 2018 Neolit Pribaikalya: Istoriya odnoy diskussii. Izvestiya Irkutskogo gosudarstvennogo universiteta. Ser.: Geoarkheologiya. Etnologiya. Antropologiya, vol. 26: 3–45.
4. Khlobystin L.P. 1996 Neolit Srednego i Verkhnego Yeniseya. In Neolit Severnoy Yevrazii. Moscow: Nauka, pp. 293–296. (Arkheologiya SSSR; iss. 15).
5. Kovtun I.V. 2001 Izobrazitelniye traditsii epokhi bronzy Tsentralnoy i Severo-Zapadnoy Azii. Novosibirsk: Izd. IAET SO RAN.
6. Leontiev N.V. 1978 Antropomorfniye izobrazheniya okunevskoy kultury (problemy khronologii i semantiki). In Sibir, Tsentralnaya i Vostochnaya Aziya v drevnosti: Neolit i epokha metalla. Novosibirsk: IIFF SO AN SSSR, pp. 88–118.
7. Miklashevich E.A. 2015 Drevneishiye naskalniye izobrazheniya Minusinskoy kotloviny: Problemy i perspektivy issledovaniya. Ucheniye zapiski muzeya-zapovednika “Tomskaya Pisanitsa”, iss. 2: 66–78.
8. Okladnikov A.P. 1950 Neolit i bronzoviy vek Pribaikalya: Istoriko-arkheologicheskoye issledovaniye. Moscow, Leningrad: Nauka. (MIA; No. 18).
9. Okladnikov A.P. 1957 Iz istorii etnicheskikh i kulturnykh svyazey neoliticheskikh plemen Srednego Yeniseya. Sovetskaya arkheologiya, No. 1: 28–55.
10. Okladnikov A.P. 1966 Petroglify Angary. Moscow, Leningrad: Nauka.
11. Okladnikov A.P. 1971 Iskusstvo neoliticheskikh plemen Sibiri. In Istoriya iskusstva narodov SSSR. Vol. 1: Iskusstvo pervobytnogo obshchestva i drevneishikh gosudarstv na territorii SSSR. Moscow: Izobrazit. iskusstvo, pp. 86–96.
12. Okladnikov A.P., Martynov A.I. 1972 Sokrovishcha tomskikh pisanits: Naskalniye risunki epokhi neolita i bronzy. Moscow: Izobrazit. iskusstvo.
13. Podolsky N.L. 1973 O printsipakh datirovki naskalnykh izobrazheniy. Sovetskaya arkheologiya, No. 3: 265–275.
14. Polyakov A.V., Smirnov N.Y., Fribus A.V. 2022 Predisloviye redaktorov. In Vinogradov A.V. Neolit i ranniy bronzoviy vek Pribaikalya (po materialam keramicheskikh kompleksov drevnikh poseleniy). St. Petersburg: IIMK RAN, pp. 10–16. (Trudy IIMK RAN; vol. LVIII).
15. Ponomareva I.A. 2016 On the Angara petroglyphic style. Archaeology, Ethnology and Anthropology of Eurasia, vol. 44 (2): 69–80. (In Russian and English).
16. Popova T.A. 1988 Drevniye kultury Sibiri (po materialam arkheologicheskogo sobraniya MAE). In Materialnaya i dukhovnaya kultura narodov Sibiri. Leningrad: Nauka, pp. 159–188. (Sbornik MAE; vol. XLII).
17. Pyatkin B.N., Martynov A.I. 1985 Shalabolinskiye petroglify. Krasnoyarsk: Krasnoyar. Gos. Univ.
18. Ranneneoliticheskoye svyatilishche urochishcha Tai. 2023 V.I. Molodin, L.N. Mylnikova, M.S. Nesterova, L.S. Kobeleva, D.V. Selin, L.V. Zotkina, E.V. Parkhomchuk, U. Rendu; A.P. Derevianko (ed.). Novosibirsk: Izd. IAET SO RAN.
19. Savenkov I.T. 1886 K razvedochnym materialam po arkheologii srednego techeniya Yeniseya. Izvestiya VSORGO, vol. 17 (3/4): 26–101.
20. Savenkov I.T. 1910 O drevnikh pamyatnikakh izobrazitelnogo iskusstva na Yeniseye: Sravnitelniye arkheologo-etnografi cheskiye ocherki. Moscow: [Tip. G. Lissnera, D. Sobko]. (Trudy XIV Arkheologicheskogo syezda v Chernigove; vol. I).
21. Savenkov I.T. 2003 Ob ostatkakh epokhi neolita, naidennykh v Yeniseiskoy gubernii (Vostochnaya Sibir) na beregakh Yeniseya okolo ustyev rek Bazaikhi i Chadobets (predvaritelnoye soobshcheniye). N.A. Orekhova (trans.). In Drevnosti Priyeniseiskoy Sibiri, iss. II. Krasnoyarsk: Izd. Krasnoyar. Gos. Ped. Univ., pp. 87–90.
22. Savenkov J. 1893 Sur les restes de l’époque néolitique, trouvé dans le Gouver: D’Enisseïsk (Sibérie Orientale), sur la rive de l’Enissei, prés des embouchures de la Bazaïkha et du Tchadobets (Commucation préliminaire). In Congrès international d’Archéologie et d’Anthropologie préhistoriques. Vol. II: 1111-ème Session, à Moscou. Moscow: Imprimerie de lʹUniversite Imperiale, pp. 323–330.
23. Sher Y.A. 1980 Petroglify Sredney i Tsentralnoy Azii. Moscow: Nauka.
24. Studzitskaya S.V. 1987 Iskusstvo Vostochnoy Sibiri v epokhu bronzy. In Epokha bronzy lesnoy polosy SSSR. Moscow: Nauka, pp. 344–350. (Arkheologiya SSSR; iss. 8).
25. Studzitskaya S.V. 2007 Izobrazheniye losya v drevney plastike Pribaikalya i “angarskiy stil”. In Arkheologicheskiye materialy i issledovaniya Severnoy Azii Drevnosti i Srednevekovya. Tomsk: Tom. Gos. Univ., pp. 286–300.
26. Vdovin A.S., Makarov N.P., Maizik E.I. 2024 Zhiznenniye marshruty Ivana Timofeyevicha Savenkova. Krasnoyarsk: Ofset.
Review
For citations:
Miklashevich E.A. Ivan Savenkov’s Finds from Neolithic Burials on the Bazaikha River and the Age of Siberian Rock Art. Archaeology, Ethnology & Anthropology of Eurasia. 2024;52(2):74-84. https://doi.org/10.17746/1563-0110.2025.53.3.074-084
Views:
37
Email this article 