What defines the “Minusinsk Style” in the earliest rock art of the Minusinsk Basin, southern Siberia?

Abstract

This article defines a set of features typical of a particular rock art complex in the Minusinsk Basin of south-central Siberia; the so-called “Minusinsk Style.” The combination and repetition of specific typological and technological features allow us to consider not only morphological data, but also employ an image processing strategy. Here, we analyze not only formal signs describing visual characteristics of rock art, but also ways of organizing visual space within depictions – a suite of behaviors referred to as image construction methods.We analysed classic examples of the earliest rock art imagery in the Minusinsk Basin – “Minusinsk Style” petroglyphs. Until recently, this corpus of images was defined based solely on typological characteristics of zoomorphic representations. In recent years, technological aspects of petroglyph production have been studied more broadly. Here, we identify features specific to this stylistic assemblage in the rock art of the Minusinsk Basin.Although morphological components can be relatively easily imitated, it is much more difficult to replicate image construction methods, which makes them more reliable markers for defining specific rock art styles.