New Data on the Rock Paintings of Eastern Pamir

Abstract

Purpose. Until recently, it was thought that colonization of the highlands of Pamir by humans had started in the early Holocene. But some recent investigations, especially dating of well-stratified archeological sites such as Istyk cave, demonstrate that humans appeared in the region in the late Pleistocene period. One of the important pieces of evidence of humankind's presence in an area all around the world is the rock art. Despite that there are no direct comparisons to rock art of East Pamir, V. A. Ranov considered rock art sites of Shakhty, Kurteke and Nayzatash belonging to the Stone Age.Results. We started redocumenting known rock art sites, using our experience and new technological approaches, which was beyond reach for V. A. Ranov and other investigators of 20th century. Also, some new rock art locations were found in the same area, and they gave us quite different graphical representations than those that were discovered in the middle of 20th century. One of the most urgent problems to solve for us is finding parallels to zoomorphic depictions and to the non-figurative ones in nearby regions and in other areas of rock art distribution. And still, we obviously know just a few samples of rock art varieties that existed in the East Pamir. Some of them were ruined due to natural factors, some of them could still be waiting to be discovered.Conclusion. So far, we are just in the beginning of the next stage of investigation of the East Pamir rock art and archeological remains as evidence of human presence in the region.