New petroglyphs in the Khoid Kholtsootin river valley, Mongolia

In 2019, the Russian-Mongolian Archaeological Team conducted research on petroglyphic complexes in Northwestern Mongolia. Main efforts of the expedition focused on identifying the Late Pleistocene layer of rock art. The objectives included survey and assessment of the already known site in a narrow canyon on the left bank of the Khoid Kholtsootin River 28 km from the Buyant District. Pleistocene terraces are observed only in its beginning of the canyon; the rest of the valley was uninhabited in the Pleistocene but became inhabited in the Holocene, as evidenced by burial mounds, style of the petroglyphs typical of the period, etc. Individual images and multifigured compositions were pecked on horizontal and gently sloping surfaces of brownish-black slate with strong desert varnish, and include images of bulls, deer, mountain goats, wild boars, as well as predatory wolves and dogs chasing and attacking herbivorous animals. Images of bulls with distinctive joint horns, with hooves and tails, which were made in the manner known from the Altai rock art (Kalbak-Tash, Elangash, Chaganka, Tsagaan Salaa, Baga-Oigur, etc.), can be attributed to the Bronze Age. A number of petroglyphs belonged to the Early Iron Age or the Middle Ages. Identification of the images made in the archaic style and comparable with the style of the earliest rock art of the Mongolian and Russian Altai was unfeasible at the site. The Khoid Kholtsootin site is a remarkable monument of rock art, which is deserves a special study and publication.