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The easternmost European palaeolithic artists: Iconography and graphic features at Kapova Cave (Southern Urals, Russia)

The easternmost European palaeolithic artists: Iconography and graphic features at Kapova Cave (Southern Urals, Russia)
The easternmost European palaeolithic artists: Iconography and graphic features at Kapova Cave (Southern Urals, Russia)
Palaeolithic rock art is one of the most distinctive cultural traits of Upper Palaeolithic societies in Europe. Traditionally restricted to South-western Europe, especially to the Franco-Cantabrian province, in recent years, the geographic distribution of this phenomenon has noticeably expanded. Several years before these discoveries, the first decorated site found beyond southern Europe was Kapova cave, in Russia. This site, at the edge of the distribution area of European Palaeolithic art and far away from other cave sanctuaries, is key to define and understand potential long-distance cultural networks during the Upper Palaeolithic. In this paper, we present the first comprehensive inventory of the artworks, a renewed documentation of the graphic units (including the first digital tracings), the spatial distribution and the stylistic analysis of the different motifs. This led us to understand the role of Kapova within the Palaeolithic symbolism and to better integrate it in the Palaeolithic cultural dynamics.
967–988
Ruiz-Redondo, Aitor
f6627a93-d484-4c55-8838-feef4e04f9d8
Yanovskaya, Katherin
1da5d1e6-d5df-4f74-8096-100309eae589
Zhitenev, Vladislav S.
22b7e94b-41da-49af-a62f-9acf6a43426f
Ruiz-Redondo, Aitor
f6627a93-d484-4c55-8838-feef4e04f9d8
Yanovskaya, Katherin
1da5d1e6-d5df-4f74-8096-100309eae589
Zhitenev, Vladislav S.
22b7e94b-41da-49af-a62f-9acf6a43426f

Ruiz-Redondo, Aitor, Yanovskaya, Katherin and Zhitenev, Vladislav S. (2020) The easternmost European palaeolithic artists: Iconography and graphic features at Kapova Cave (Southern Urals, Russia). Journal of Palaeolithic Archaeology, 3, 967–988. (doi:10.1007/s41982-020-00065-2).

Record type: Article

Abstract

Palaeolithic rock art is one of the most distinctive cultural traits of Upper Palaeolithic societies in Europe. Traditionally restricted to South-western Europe, especially to the Franco-Cantabrian province, in recent years, the geographic distribution of this phenomenon has noticeably expanded. Several years before these discoveries, the first decorated site found beyond southern Europe was Kapova cave, in Russia. This site, at the edge of the distribution area of European Palaeolithic art and far away from other cave sanctuaries, is key to define and understand potential long-distance cultural networks during the Upper Palaeolithic. In this paper, we present the first comprehensive inventory of the artworks, a renewed documentation of the graphic units (including the first digital tracings), the spatial distribution and the stylistic analysis of the different motifs. This led us to understand the role of Kapova within the Palaeolithic symbolism and to better integrate it in the Palaeolithic cultural dynamics.

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e-pub ahead of print date: 1 September 2020

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Local EPrints ID: 455492
URI: http://eprints.soton.ac.uk/id/eprint/455492
PURE UUID: 6b22f976-ce94-435c-9846-b584d9514a3e

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Date deposited: 23 Mar 2022 17:34
Last modified: 16 Mar 2024 09:11

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Contributors

Author: Aitor Ruiz-Redondo
Author: Katherin Yanovskaya
Author: Vladislav S. Zhitenev

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