Characters of “Kalgutinsky” Style

The study of petroglyphs in the Altai Mountains, both in the Russian and Mongolian parts, has a rich history. Evidently, events related to the discovery of the most ancient rock art sites in the region take a special place in this history. In the late 1990s, researchers found some of the oldest rock art images on the Ukok Plateau in the Russian Altai. Since then, the increasing number of similar sites has been reported from the neighboring Mongolian Altai. This is due to a large-scale research carried out by various international eams, including the Joint Russian-Mongolian, Russian-Mongolian-American and Russian-Mongolian-French teams, as well as due to the efforts of Mongolian scholars. To date, many of these images have been introduced into scientific circulation, although there are still many significant complexities that require further study and monographic publication. Currently, the northern and southern slopes of the Sailugem Mountain range can be regarded as a special area of distribution of prehistoric petroglyphs. The “Kalgutinsky” style of imagery dating back to the late Pleistocene has been identified in the course of systematic rock art studies. The Kalgutinsky images are characterized by the large size and distinct style. The Kalgutinsky rock images are often found in the palimpsest overlapped by younger petroglyphs of the Bronze Age and other historical periods. The isolated Kalgutinsky rock images showing unique Pleistocene characteristics have been also found. Over time, both the number of “Kalgutinsky” sites and the number of individual images, both figurative and abstract, have increased. This article provides a summary of the identified characters of the “Kalgutinsky” style.