Cultural and chronological interpretation of rock carvings: stylistic aspect (general methodological problems in works by academician A. P. Okladnikov)

In his monographs devoted to graphic images on ancient monuments in North and Central Asia, academician A. P. Okladnikov not only introduced new material, but also gave it some cultural and chronological interpretation. Some methods of cultural and chronological interpretation of rock panels and other forms of primitive art are still being introduced based on the materials found. The artistic-stylistic method can be considered as an established one while a number of natural science methods, such as radiocarbon dating, trace evidence analysis, lihenometry, etc., are being adopted. Purpose. In this paper we consider the concept and definition of style in reference to ancient rock carving images as understood by A. P. Okladnikov. The researcher used it as a cultural and chronological marker in relation to the ancient monuments with rock art in North and Central Asia. The paper defines the concept of «style» and adjacent terms which A. P. Okladnikov used in his data interpretation. We also provide a brief description of main stylistic groups of the monuments described. The researcher identifies two basic prerequisites giving rise to a certain artistic style. Firstly, it is the material used (namely, stone) which needed decoration. This material required the artist to invent some methods how to transfer the image and make it look natural, having volume and shadows. Secondly, it is limitation of the artistic skills of ancient masters. These factors can also explain a certain unity of the style in that period. According to Okladnikov, the unity of style emerged as an evidence of common artistic attitude in the community, which was expressed in the techniques used. He distinguishes two main trends in ancient petroglyphic art, realistic and abstract-schematic. The realistic form of art developed first and was concise and animalistic. In terms of cultural and chronological space it is regarded as the most archaic and ancient layer. Moving from the Neolithic to the Bronze Age, realistic images gradually lost their precise form but sharpened skills of expressing the core meaning. Thus, art was developing towards expressing some semantic content of an object, which was encrypted, however, in conventional images. Conclusion. Style can be compared to the DNA imbedded in graphic images, which carry clear markers of past features together with acquiring some new ones as a result of an inherited «mutation». It demonstrates appearance of some fundamentally new features in the real world that are expressed in the images studied. Stylistic and ideological features can form certain unity and indicate that this art bears a certain cultural component. At the same time, it indicates a certain chronological stage in social development. Thus, the unity of style is regarded as a «set of genes» typical for a certain area in terms of the graphic activity in certain cultural and chronological context. A. P. Okladnikov used the artistic-stylistic method but tried to give all the relevant information about his findings, which resulted in structured descriptions of them including their cultural chronological and stylistic interpretation. In addition, А. Р. Okladnikov was perfectly aware that it was necessary to use all possible methods for dating sites with rock art as the artistic-stylistic method allowed only rough, relative dating.