Shishkinskye Pisanitsy, Rock art site in Kachugsky District, Russia
Shishkinskye Pisanitsy is a rock-art gallery on four sections of the right bank of the Lena River near Kachug, stretching about 3.5 km and holding more than 3,000 images. Figures were painted with ochre, engraved, or pecked in dotted technique. A flat reddish-brown face shows a large antlered animal facing left, a smaller four-legged animal, and the inscription "ИКУЛЕВ".
The oldest petroglyphs at Shishkinskye Pisanitsy date to the Neolithic, while the latest were made in the late Middle Ages, in ethnographic times (16th–19th centuries CE). The gallery thus records several millennia of use along the Lena. The site is now a federal cultural heritage site, and its images are threatened mainly by vandalism.
The name pisanitsy comes from the Russian word for writing, though the figures were pecked or painted with ochre rather than written. Among the images are scenes of hunting and of nomad migrations, and one ancient horseman was chosen as the emblem of the Sakha Republic. The site is a federal cultural heritage monument.
The site lies along the right bank of the Lena near Kachug, in four separate sections over about 3.5 km. Access is by rural roads; wear sturdy shoes for uneven ground. The petroglyphs are vulnerable to vandalism, so stay on established paths and do not touch the rock surface.
The site's most reproduced image, an ancient rider, was chosen as the emblem of the Republic of Sakha (Yakutia). The petroglyphs are also under threat of destruction, mainly from vandalism.
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