Ivan Savenkov’s Finds from Neolithic Burials on the Bazaikha River and the Age of Siberian Rock Art

This study examines objects of portable art such as realistic three-dimensional figurines of elks and an anthropomorphic figurine, carved from elk antler, which were found by Ivan Savenkov in 1885 during his excavations of burial VI at Bazaikha, near Krasnoyarsk, in the mouth of the eponymous river. This burial, like others at the same site, yielded also stone and bone artifacts of Neolithic appearance. This unusual sample is one of the main arguments favoring the Neolithic age of numerous examples of Siberian rock art (elks and other animals rendered in the so-called Angara style). The Neolithic attribution of figurines and stylistically similar petroglyphs is problematic largely because the Bazaikha sample has not yet been analyzed by modern methods or even documented or fully published. Here, an overview of the sample, based on available archival and literary records, is given, and the possibility of comparing figurines and petroglyphs is discussed with reference to the «Angara style». I propose to select from the heterogeneous array of representations those actually showing stylistic parallels with the Bazaikha figurines. Two avenues of further research are mentioned: a focus on the Bazaikha sample (archival studies, 3D documentation, cataloging, radiocarbon dating, etc.), and a revision of the notion of «Angara style» in rock art based on modern views and facts.