Some results of research in central and Southern Altai in 2022

This article presents the results of author ’s work on searching new petroglyphs and tamgas in Ongudai and Kosh-Agach Districts of the Altai Republic as well as studying and publishing Early Medieval stone sculptures from the Elangash River valley and from the collection of the Museum of Local History in the village of Altaiskoe. Documenting new and already known engraved images at the Kalbak-Tash I petroglyphic site was also an important part of author ’s research. Previously unknown composition of animals made in the so-called Arzhan-Maiemir style should be added to carved compositions at Kalbak-Tash I. Distinctive stylistic features of these images are slender animal figures, large “elk-like” heads with the rounded jaw, round eye on the line of the forehead, ear adjacent to the line of the eye, open mouth, and long thin legs. Images in this style occur quite rarely in the Altai. They have parallels with referential images from the royal burial mounds of Arzhan-1 and Arzhan-2 in Tuva and can be dated to the 8th- 7th centuries BC. Another part of research was Early Medieval Altai stone sculptures. Two of such sculptures were found in the Chuya Steppe in the lower reaches of the Elangash River. They were set on the eastern side of two commemorative structures (enclosures) located close to each other. Another sculpture was examined in the collection of the Museum of Local History in the village of Altaiskoe in Altai Krai. That statue was discovered in the Altai foothills at the source of the Bolshaya Poperechka stream. These sculptures belong to two most numerous groups of such monuments in the Altai - sculptures of male warrior in canonical posture and the so-called “facial” sculptures. Tentatively, all three sculptures and commemorative enclosures can be dated to the 7th-9th centuries and are attributed to the Karluks.