Survey of East Kazakhstan rock paintings
The expedition of the Ust-Kamenogorsk Pedagogical Institute explored rock carvings on the Kalba and Tarbagatai ranges. With the East Kazakhstan and Zaysan local history museums, work has begun on the complete copying of rock carvings in the Okey tract in Saur-Tarbagatai.
On the eastern spurs of the Kalbinsky Range, drawings were found in the tracts of Akbaur, Sagyr, Narymsak, Kamysty, near the villages of Lenin, Besterek, Nikitinki and Ekaterinovka (Ulan district). The bulk of the petroglyphs is made by continuous shallow embossing; less common dot technique, wiping and graffiti. Sometimes there are combinations of solid embossing with a slot and outline, skeletal images and drawings made in red ocher. The dimensions of the drawings are relatively small, from 2.5 to 40 cm. The rocks depict people, wild and domestic animals, solar signs, weapons. An image of a wagon made in red ocher was recorded in one case. Among the drawings of animals, there are images of deer, distinguished by the realism and dynamism of the pose; mountain goats, argali with hypertrophied horns and tamga-like images of mountain goats. Of the many different compositions, we note scenes of hunting for wild animals, ritual dance, attacks of wolves on mountain goats and deer, and scenes reflecting the cult of fertility. During the archaeological survey of the eastern spurs of the Kalbinsky ridge, adjacent to rock paintings, a burial ground (Kyzyl-Tas) was discovered, consisting of Andronovo fences and early nomad barrows "with moustaches" and Turkic burials.
An analysis of the technique of execution, the style of drawings, the degree of patination, the presence of well-dated archaeological complexes nearby and many other data show that the newly discovered rock art was left by more than one generation of ancient artists. Preliminary systematization covers the time from the beginning of the 2nd millennium BC until the end of the 1st millennium AD. 35 km south of the Zaysan, 3 km from the village of Taldy, in the tract Okey, during a preliminary examination, more than a thousand drawings were recorded, among which group images of animals predominate. There are household specialists and hunting scenes on camels and horses. Relating these drawings as a whole to the same pictorial tradition characteristic of Kazakh petroglyphs, it is necessary to note the presence of some new elements in style. In particular, there are schematic representations of animals with triangular and quadrangular bodies, which to some extent brings them closer to the famous rock carvings of Saimaly-Tash.