Fine engraved images of Tepsei

Images made in the engraving technique are typical for the art of almost any period from the Palaeolithic. In Southern Siberia, rock art fine engravings are documented for the periods at least from the Bronze Age till the ethnographic period. The discovering and documenting of such images have always been an important task and often become quite a challenge for the researchers. Due to many factors, such as general documenting of more visible carved images, insufficient skills for the proper documenting of fine cut lines and often just due to the lack of ability to find them, a huge number of images were left behind the research field. When digital technologies came into the investigation, the documenting of engraved images was brought to a new level. Nowadays, researchers have lots of possibilities in documenting: the use of full frame cameras which gives an opportunity to enlarge the image and to distinguish the thinnest lines; redrawing of the image directly from the photo; making panoramas of large panels; we obtained some approaches in the documenting of panels difficult to access; we started using the pigment maps method. The advantages of those techniques were used by the Tepsei detachment of Kemerovo State University when documenting rock art of the Tepsei archeologi-cal district (Krasnoturanski District of Krasnoyarsk Krai). There were lots of engraved images discovered on the rocks of the Tepsei mount and on the kurgan slabs under the mount, though it was thought for a long time that such images in Tepsei are quite few. In fact the images are numerous and diverse: there are sketches, certain images, large scenes, and even partial images, left accidentally or deliberately uncarved. The study of the engraved images at the Tepsei site not only appreciably supplements the collection of the image sources of the site, but also gives an opportunity to understand the primary intention of the artist. Among the discovered images and scenes there often is some dating information, such as head covers, armors, etc., or some important semantic features, such as a mane of a horse, which is very rare on the carved images. That gives us an opportunity for some cultural and chronological attribution and semantic interpretation. Now we can tell with confidence that due to the discovery of the fine engraved images on Tepsei, the collection of Tashtyk arts was significantly amplified, for it was known only by the carved images of deer and anthropomorphic images. The collections of other periods were also enriched. Some personages were discovered, which were unknown not only on Tepsei, but at other rock art sites of Siberia. Some quite rare images are also found there, for example, a skier, an anthropomorphic figure in a boat, a bird with a long beak, predators with opened jaws, etc. Tepsei is a rock art site which shows a wide variety of techniques, including fine engravings, and proper investigation of this site gives broad opportunities for historical reconstructions.

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