Image of snake in early rock art complexes of Northern and Central Asia in the Works of Academician A.P. Okladnikov

In the middle and second half of the 20th century, Academician A.P. Okladnikov researched hundreds of petroglyphic sites over large areas of Northern and Central Asia. The published monographic works not only summarize his comprehensive study of rock art left by the ancient population, but also serve as invaluable source. From the entire array of petroglyphs, among others, A.P. Okladnikov included a rare subject - snakes. He proposed a semantic basis for better understanding the aspect of worldview associated with the image of snake among ancient people who explored and incorporated the surrounding space in their circle of interests. Nowadays scholars of prehistoric art still turn to this image. This article consolidates the sources discovered by the greatest researcher of prehistoric art A.P. Okladnikov, provides a quantitative indicator of this category of images in the works of A.P. Okladnikov according to the regional location, overviews images of snakes from the Stone Age, and summarizes the main stylistic parameters which A.P. Okladnikov used for identifying bands ad lines as figures rendering images of snakes. The image of snake on rock surfaces is widespread and ambiguous in its meaning across different cultural and chronological junctures. In the Paleolithic, it might have been associated with everyday life and "the world of primary sensations.” Social and sacred mythologems and components of rituals and cult emerged in the Neolithic. They were determined by unconscious artistic processing, human emotional experiences and awareness of nature and social existence on a part of the ancient people. In the Bronze Age, more sophisticated vision of image became included into the set of beliefs about creation of the world and in shamanistic ritual practices. This image also continued to exist in the subsequent periods of time.