ROCK ART – PETROGLYPHS
Tomskaya Pisanitsa, Russia
iPROJECT Written by The IK Field Group
Some time ago, The IK Foundation searched for clues to one drawing in Johan Peter Falck's journal [
J P FALCK'S ILLUSTRATION] and recently within the “Bridge Builder Expeditions – Russia & Kazakhstan”, new facts of the petroglyphs have been revealed. Foremost by the assistance of Olga Romanova, Senior Research Fellow of the History of Earth Sciences at the Institute for the History of Science and Technology at the Russian Academy of Sciences and her group of researchers, together with The IK Foundation’s Field Group and the Historical museum “
Tomskaya Pisanitsa”. These well-preserved petroglyphs in the Tomsk area – are drawn or painted ocher rock paintings, on the bank of River Tom, near the confluence of the river Pisanaya. About 280 drawings of the Neolithic, Bronze Age and later periods still exist today. This is the largest number of preserved rock art preserved in one close geographical area.
At the end of 1771 the expedition of Johan Peter Falck went from Barnaul across the river Ob to Kuznetsk (now the city of Novokuznetsk), and then to Tomsk. Falck made observations of images – depicting deer, wolves, foxes, etc. animals – drawn on the high, rocky bank of the river. This place was also previously described by Samuel Gottlieb Gmelin et al. But even so, the exact geographical origin of the moose drawing in Falck’s journal and the name of the artist have not been possible to fully establish, but possibly it was drawn by the artist Peter Grigorev taking part in the expedition. At least six drawings from the Tomsk area in Russia were made during the Imperial Academy of Sciences’ natural history expeditions in the 18th century; including the mentioned drawing from Johan Peter Falck’s expedition, part of his travel journal (published posthumously by Johan Gottlieb Georgi 1785-1786).
Information about the rock art is also included in the recently published The Explorer’s Field Guide | The Linnaeus Apostles, Bridge Builder Expeditions – Sweden, Kazakhstan, Kyrgyzstan & Russia (London | Moscow | Astana | Bishkek, 2017).
Added: 01/08/2017
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