Boar or bear? Rock art of the Shakhty rock-shelter (Eastern Pamir)

Abstract

One of the fundamental lines of rock art research is chronological attribution of images. State-of-the-art methodology includes a set of direct and indirect approaches aimed at correlation the imagery with specific archaeological cultures or at least at definition of the chronological boundaries.The highlands of Eastern Pamir (Tadjikistan) is known by a very few rock art sites among which the Shakhty rock-shelter located at the height of 4200 m above sea level representing a very unique hunting scene which is created in an archaic naturalistic style which has no direct parallels. It was preliminary attributed to the Stone Age by its discoverer V. A. Ranov at the beginning of the 1960s. A taxonomic identification of zoomorphic figures from Shakhty was not clear. The main hypothesis proposed two options: brown bear or wild boar. The species definition could be a chronological marker in correlation with data on paleofauna and paleoenvironment in the region.The present study focuses on indirect dating of the Shakhty rock-shelter rock art through the determination of the taxonomic affiliation of zoomorphic figures and correlation with data on the fauna composition and paleoclimate of the Eastern Pamir in the Pleistocene and early Holocene.