New Rock Art Sites in the Karakol Bassin (Central Altai): on the Issue of Redocumentation of Rock Art Sites

The paper touches upon once again the need of conducting redocumentation works at rock art sites in the Altai Mountains. Despite the long history of studying such monuments, many published materials contain inaccuracies, particularly due to the methods of copying that did not allow accurately reproducing images. Private examples of inaccurate copying of images related to early medieval times and not quite correct interpretations of semantic and chronological nature got based on these copies are given. The author has carried out redocumentation of some already known rock art monuments in the Karakol Basin (Central Altai), during which some images were clarified and new ones were recorded at sites such as Talda and D’aan-Koby. Images made with engraved lines, according to plot and stylistic features and presented realities are attributed to the VI–VII and VII–VIII centuries AD, respectively.