Problems of studying and interpreting ancient and medieval art in Siberia and Central Asia

The mountains of Southern Siberia are unique because of the highest concentration of rock art sites known in Eurasia and probably in the whole world. Another distinctive feature of this region is numerous chronologically multilayered sites/ sanctuaries. Using a common metaphor of such sites as a book, it is suggested that they performed a similar function of keeping tradition and passing it over. This function is mostly associated with execution techniques and iconographic tradition of representations. Rock art of Siberian peoples, such as the Altaians and Khakases confirm this approach. Preference for engraving technique in popular art is explained by its proximity to drawing on organic materials (leather). The art of the Modern period and contemporary art of these peoples had a ritualistic-everyday nature. Multi-temporal palimpsests should be studied from the point of view of visual integrity manifested by multi-figured compositions, as well as their enrichment with later drawings. The article proposes perception and understanding of relatively early multi-figured compositions at monuments-sanctuaries by “spectators” at different levels of the time scale. It is supported by the ethnographic data on the peoples of Siberia. This approach needs some corrections in reconstructing the meaning of the images. The Late Bronze Age representations in the Altai Mountains, Western Sayan, Mongolia, and China might have resulted from the Karasuk-Lugovskoe influence. The pictorial style of this time was strikingly different from the manner of rendering images in the Early Bronze Age and Seima-Turbino period. As opposed to mountainous regions, in the Minusinsk Depression this was associated with discontinued tradition of rock art during migration of the Andronovo population to the forest-steppe of the Middle Yenisei region. Finally, a model of rock art development from the early periods to the Middle Ages is presented.