THE BRONZE AGE ROCK ART OF MALYE ARBATY

The present article introduces the results of new studies into earlier images at the Malye Arbaty rock art site located in the Western Sayan Mountains, on the southwestern periphery of the Minusinsk Basin. The red-painted images are dated to the end of the 3rd and beginning of the 2nd millennium BC. Two stylistic groups have been distinguished one of which includes figures comparable with early Okunev images located in the steppe part of the Minusinsk Basin, while the second comprises petroglyphs resembling the Dzhoy style of the mountain taiga zone. The Malye Arbaty style appears to have originated from early Okunev art under the influence of other non-Okunev traditions of the southern Minusinsk Basin.