Angara Style Rock Art: The Evolution of a Regional Emblematic and Syncretic Style

• Published in: Cambridge Archaeological Journal
• Main Author: McNeil, Lynda D.
• Format: Article in Journal/Newspaper
• Language: English
• Published: Cambridge University Press (CUP) 2024
• Subjects: Evenki; yenisey river
• Online Access: http://dx.doi.org/10.1017/s095977432300046x; https://www.cambridge.org/core/services/aop-cambridge-core/content/view/S095977432300046X

Rebutting previous claims, the paper employs comparative stylistic analysis and palaeoenvironmental data to argue that Angara style rock art originated in the Mongolian Altai during the Upper Palaeolithic (13,000–10,300 bp ) where it evolved in situ. Around 8200–7300 bp , drought forced the hunter-gatherers who created Angara style rock art to migrate to the Upper Yenisey and the Selenga and Angara basins. When drought impacted that area c. 7500–7000 bp , Kotoi (Ket) culture descendants sought refuge in the resource-rich Minusinsk Basin. On the Middle Yenisey River, Angara style rock art served as a mnemonic device that encoded the syncretism of proto Ket and Evenki cosmologies and beliefs resulting from their social alliance.