Some results of the 2022 field study of the earliest petroglyphs in the Minusinsk basin

The article presents some results of fieldwork in 2022 to study the earliest imagery on the rock art sites in the Minusinsk Basin (South Siberia). The main objects for the research were the Tepsey I, Ust-Tuba III, and Oglakhty I sites located in southern part of the Krasnoyarsk Reservoir, at the confluence of the Tuba and Yenisei rivers. Petroglyphs on the coastal cliffs of these locations, containing a large number of the earliest imagery, were flooded by the reservoir more than halfa century ago, but during periods of seasonal water level recession some of the preserved panels become available for study. The significant and prolonged recession of water levels during the 2022 field season made it possible to carry out new documentation of several dozen panels, using photography, photogrammetry, and other modern methods and techniques. Some panels were cleared from sand and boulder deposits. During the field work, it was found that some panels were lost forever not only due to flooding, but also due to powerful rockslides and landfalls. As a result, technological, iconographic, stylistic, and compositional characteristics of the images were significantly revised and specified, their localization and geomorphological context were recorded, the state of preservation and dynamics of destruction were studied, and samples for OSL-dating of the rock surfaces were taken. Special attention was paid to the assessment of the state ofpreservation ofpetroglyphs and to the comparison with their photographs and trace-drawings obtained by researchers in previous years. The collected materials, after their laboratory processing and systematization, will be added to the database on the earliest rock art of the Minusinsk Basin, aimed at solving the issue of its chronological attribution.