Archeologists of Kemerovo State University (a member of the Kuzbass Research Center) are investigating a microdistrict located in the Minusinsk Basin in the Krasnoturansky district of the Krasnoyarsk Territory within the framework of the Russian Foundation for Basic Research grant "Rock Art of the Tepseysky Microdistrict in the context of archaeological materials". The goal is to form ideas about the cultural and historical space.
The archaeological microdistrict covers an area of more than 27 km2. It includes the Tepsei Mountain with a height of more than 630 m. Numerous archaeological sites located in the coastal part of the Yenisei River are recorded on this territory, including rock carvings dating back to different historical eras: from the Stone Age to the ethnographic time.
KemSU archaeologists, in collaboration with the RSSDA laboratory (Moscow), implemented a three-level documentation scheme using unmanned aerial vehicles (UAVs) with various details, forming digital three-dimensional and three-dimensional polygonal models. Mutual linking of the collected data is achieved by using a single system of spatial coordinates.
Currently, a virtual 3D model of one of the sites where the largest concentration of ancient rock paintings is concentrated has been created. This model will be marked with dots indicating the location of drawings on rocks, burial grounds, and individual slabs. The excavation sites will also be listed there. This will make it possible to delineate the boundaries of the archaeological microdistrict and more reasonably present the ancient history of Southern Siberia: the change of cultures, migration routes, settlement of the region, and the worldview of the population who left drawings on the rocks.
In the course of field work on Tepsei, previously unknown rock carvings were found, including an archaic image of a wild horse (at least the third millennium BC), figures of animals of the Scythian period (VIII–III centuries BC) made with thin engraved lines.
As a result of the work, a geographic information system of the monument will be obtained, which provides the accumulation of reliable spatial data and a quick search for information about documented rock paintings. All this will allow you to analyze the relative position of individual images and identify the relationships between them. In 2021, scientists started implementing the tasks of the third year of work under the grant.