Единственные древние наскальные изображения Российской Европейской Арктики (Чальмн-Варрэ, Канозеро, Пяйва, Майка)

Abstract

Over the past 50 years (1973–2023), as the result of the researches by the Kola archaeological expedition of the Leningrad Institute of the Academy of Sciences of the USSR/IHMC RAS (since 1991), its employees discovered and studied the petroglyphs of Chalmn-Varre, Kanozero and pisanitsy on the Rybachy Peninsula (Pyaiva and Mayka) in the Murmansk region. Since other rock ensembles of the Russian European North (Karelian and Vishera) are located south of the Arctic Circle, only these Kola objects can reasonably be recognized as the only monuments of ancient monumental creativity of the Russian European Arctic that have so far survived. It is likely that if hundreds of small petroglyphic collections and all the writings of Fennoscandia were “chamber” sanctuaries for small groups of the ancient population, then large galleries served the same purposes for large communities, including not one, but perhaps dozens of settlements, distant from such famous places of worship over considerable distances. The sanctuaries themselves were a gathering place during certain agreed periods and served for joint ritualistic actions: celebrations, initiations, etc. Relics of monumental art are fascinating, complex and multifaceted objects of study. Their use as a source in historical and cultural developments, art history, the evolution of intelligence and cognitive psychology, religion and mythology requires careful archaeological analysis. To successfully work through this subject, in the first place it is necessary to carefully and accurately document images, determine the exact age, and give comparative characteristics (style, carving/drawing technique, composition, landscape environment, microrelief) of various places of ancient rock art. In connection with the development of new technical and natural methods, significant progress has recently been achieved in this “field”. This progress is the most obvious when specialists from different countries work together.