G. Magay

By this author

PAINT IN ROCK ART OF THE OKUNEV CULTURE OF THE MINUSINSK BASIN

Issue 3 from 01.07.2014

The article is devoted to the use of paint in the rock art of the Okunev culture of the Minusinsk basin at the Northern-Eastern outskirt of the Central Asia in the second half of the 3 ^rd - the beginning of the 2 ^nd millennium BC. A new classification of painting has been developed which taking into consideration the technological role of paint in creating a visual image (individual or supportive role) and its color (monochromatic, red or black, or dichromatic). The dichromatic compositions, existence of which in the Okunev culture was unknown earlier, have been studied and reconstructed for the first time. It has been discovered as a result of laboratory research of paint tests that the main pigment of red color was hematite (three tests) and one sample contained a large amount of ochre. In all samples the pigment was mixed with grains of crystal. The black color (two tests) consists of charcoal (which in prospective gives an opportunity to date straightly the monuments of the Okunev rock art, and also the studying of the used wood species), and its laying probably was being made by rubbing. Using black and red colors in the Okunev culture rock art and the presence of dichromatic images have the closest analogues in the Karakol culture art of Altay. The similarity can also be seen in the style, especially with Early Okunev culture images. This similarity is of such a level that two variants of one picture tradition can be discussed.

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