Okunev Culture

Grâce à une coopération scientifique avec l’Institut des langues, littérature et histoire de la République de Khakassie (Fédération de Russie), le Musée d’Anthropologie préhistorique de Monaco propose aujourd’hui au visiteur une exposition sur la civilisation Okuniev qui occupait les steppes de Sibérie il y a plus de 4000 ans.

  Jamais présentée au public européen, la culture Okuniev est étonnante par la singularité de ses productions artistiques. De grandes stèles sculptées de visages mystérieux, des parois gravées d’animaux étranges, tels sont les vestiges parvenus jusqu’à aujourd’hui.

Благодаря научному сотрудничеству с  Хакасским научно-исследовательским институтом языка, литературы и истории (Россия) Музей доисторической антропологии Монако предлагает сегодня своим посетителям знакомство с окуневской культурой, существовавшей в сибирских степях более 4000 лет назад.
    Никогда не представлявшаяся европейской публике, окуневская культура поражает особенностями своего изобразительного искусства. Выбитые на больших каменных стелах таинственные лица, наскальные гравюры удивительных животных – то, что сохранилось до наших дней.

The article is devoted to the use of paint in Okunev culture rock art in the Minusinsk Basin (Central Asia) in the second half of the 3rd millenium to the beginning of the 2nd millennium B.C. A new classification of rock paintings in Okuniev culture art has now been established, based on the consideration of the technological role of paint in the creation of visual images (alone or auxiliary role) and the paint colour sometimes monochrome (red or black) and other times dichromatic. Dichromatic compositions, whose existence in Okuniev art had not been previously documented, were studied and reconstructed for the first time.
Laboratory studies have shown that the main pigment used was red hematite, with one sample contains a greater proportion of ochre. In all cases, the pigment is mixed with quartz grains, which may have either a natural origin (in the case of ochre) or they were deposited in the sample on the stone surface from the surrounding sub-soil. The black paint is composed of charcoal, and its application was probably carried out by rubbing a charcoal shard on the stone surface. The larger particle size of the black paint explains why is has lower resiliency than the red paint, as this particle size is not conducive to good traction with the surface of the stone. Traces of organics, which could have been used as a binder for the pigment particles, were not detected in the analysis. An important fact was established that charcoal was used for the creation of black paint, which also opens up the possibility for the direct dating of Okuniev rock art, as well as the study of different tree species used.
The use of red and black paint in Okuniev culture rock art and the presence of dichromatic images find a close analogue in Altai Karakol culture art. Although some images on the Karakol plates contain white elements, they do not come from white paint, but rather from abrading the surface of the stone. Perhaps, in connection with the Altai Karakol analogue, we might say that its characteristic white colour can be found in Okuniev art as well, inasmuch as when the carved and abraded lines were not coloured they had a very light, almost white colour (regardless of the type of stone). It is very important that similarities are observed both in the colours of paints and the style of images. The greatest similarity to Karakol art can be found in Early Okuniev images. The degree of similarity is so high that we can speak of two territorial variants of one visual art tradition.