Late Paleolithic drawings discovered in caves of Chelyabinsk Region and Bashkiria

Lomonosov Moscow State University Archaeological Expedition consisting of university students summoned up the results of their work at the Southern Urals, TASS informs. Ignatyevskaya cave in Chelyabinsk Region and Kapova cave in Bashkiria were investigated by the participants of expedition, who managed to find fragments of ancient cave drawings inside.

According to the expedition head Vladislav Zhitenev, these images represent lines, handprints, some geometrical signs with dots and lines. The scientist said that old drawings were wiped off here and there and new images were painted above the old ones – some shapes of animals and signs.

Nowadays, there are several versions regarding such drawings’ time period in the scientific environment, however the latest discoveries prove that they were made at the late Paleolithic age.

The Ignatyevskaya cave contains more than fifty images inside, according to archaeologists. They were painted with two colors – black color was received out of charcoal, and the red color was received out of mineral pigment. Mainly, these were unreadable spots, signs, shapes of animals and people.

Most part of the drawings inside the Kapova cave is red spots. They represent hardly defined shapes – partially these are fragments of the wiped off drawings and partially they are traces of Paleolithic arts of unclear origin. They remind of images of woolly rhinoceroses, buffalos, horses and mammoths. Besides, figures of fish and a creature having traits of human being and animal were discovered.

Russkiy Mir