Cave Wall and Floor as a Cultural Layer: Specifics of the Methodology for Studying Paleolithic Artistic Practices

Abstract

There are three caves with Paleolithic rock paintings – Kapova, Ignatievskaya and Serpievskaya-2 – in the Southern Urals (Bashkiria and Chelyabinsk region). As a result of the 2009-2023 research, new evidence of human activity in decorated underground cavities was revealed, dating back to about 14,000–19,000 cal BP. The increase in evidence of diverse practices of the Upper Paleolithic period in decorated caves became possible due to the improvement of methods for studying such sites, despite the traces of visits to which are much less pronounced compared to the usual cultural layers of ordinary sites in underground cavities. The main doctrinal thesis of the applied approach is to treat the walls and roof of caves as a cultural layer of Paleolithic sites, where any visible to the eye, even tiny, traces of human activity are recorded during field work. One of the results of the work in the Ignatievka Cave, for example, was an increase in the number of wall paintings and other traces of artistic practices to more than 440 units. A multifactorial analysis of the pictorial ensembles of the Southern Urals caves with rock paintings indicates the relatively contemporaneous coexistence of two Upper Paleolithic styles at these sites, styles previously considered to be from different periods or not discussed at all.