ARCHEOLOGY OF THE LOWER AMUR RIVER: TO THE STUDY OF THE SUKPAI ARTISTIC STYLE AMONG THE PETROGLYPHS OF THE AMUR AND USSURI

Abstract

Among the hundreds of archaeological sites in the lower reaches of the Amur basin, a special place belongs to the stones and rocks with ancient drawings. The rock art of the Lower Amur region has been studied since the sixties of the nineteenth century. Among the discoverers and researchers are the names of local historians and scientists. Systematic academic scientific research of petroglyphs monuments was carried out only 100 years later, in the sixties of the twentieth century, by Soviet archaeologists. The research source base (topography, description, tracing, scientific interpretation and publication of materials) was prepared by a team of employees of the Far Eastern Archaeological Expedition of the Institute of Archeology and Ethnography of the Siberian Branch of the USSR Academy of Sciences under the leadership of A. P. Okladnikov. Pisanitsa on the Sukpai River in the Ussuri River basin is one of the new sites of rock art in the region, it was discovered in the 1980s by archaeologist V. I. Dyakov, an employee of the Institute of History, Archeology and Ethnography of the Peoples of the Far East of the Far Eastern Branch of the Russian Academy of Sciences. The article offers the experience of studying the stylistic diversity of the Lower Amur rock art monuments, namely, the drawings of the Sukpai petroglyph, which predetermines its relevance. The novelty of the study is due to the fact that the article highlights the signs of the Sukpai artistic style, the extent of its distribution among the petroglyphs of the region and adjacent territories. To write the work, a wide range of research methods was used, including the method of analyzing scientific literature, the sources were scientific papers on the topic of the study. The result of the research: a) the distinctive features of the style of plots on the rock of the Sukpai River are highlighted; b) similar images were traced on the stones and rocks of the Sikachi-Alyan-Malyshevo site; c) substantiation of the identification of the Sukpai artistic style among the petroglyphs of the Lower Amur; d) the similarity of the drawings of the sukpai style with the plots of the shamanic thematic direction of the rock art monuments of the adjacent territories of Eastern Siberia, Yakutia, the Upper and Middle Amur Region, and Transbaikalia was traced.