TY - JOUR

T1 - Geological dating of the earliest Minusinsk Depression rock art, the Maydashy site, Southern Siberia

AU - Malikov, Dmitriy G.

AU - Zotkina, Lydia V.

AU - Davydov, Roman V.

AU - Malikova, Ekaterina L.

AU - Miklashevich, Elena A.

AU - Petrozhitskiy, Aleksey V.

AU - Ershova, Olesya V.

AU - Cherezova, Anna A.

PY - 2025

Y1 - 2025

N2 - The hypothesis of Paleolithic rock art in Siberia remains neither proven nor disproven. This research provides key evidence for a later age of the earliest known images in the Minusinsk Depression. A set of geological, geomorphological, and absolute-dating methods was utilized to reconstruct the geological history of the Maydashy rock art site (Minusinsk Depression, Southern Siberia). This research for the first time has allowed us to date the lower chronological boundary of the period when the earliest images known in Southern Siberia as "Minusinsk Style"were created. In the Late Pleistocene, the cliff area of the site was buried under alluvial deposits of the first floodplain terrace of the Yenisei River that formed in the second half of MIS 2. At the beginning of the Holocene, before its optimal onset, Yenisei eroded the terrace and exposed the rock surface to mark the potential lower boundary (< 11 ka) when the Maydashy site images were carved. This approach can be useful in rock art research for dating carvings from open-Air sites; it is applicable for the rock art sites of other regions where ravine formation affected their natural context.

AB - The hypothesis of Paleolithic rock art in Siberia remains neither proven nor disproven. This research provides key evidence for a later age of the earliest known images in the Minusinsk Depression. A set of geological, geomorphological, and absolute-dating methods was utilized to reconstruct the geological history of the Maydashy rock art site (Minusinsk Depression, Southern Siberia). This research for the first time has allowed us to date the lower chronological boundary of the period when the earliest images known in Southern Siberia as "Minusinsk Style"were created. In the Late Pleistocene, the cliff area of the site was buried under alluvial deposits of the first floodplain terrace of the Yenisei River that formed in the second half of MIS 2. At the beginning of the Holocene, before its optimal onset, Yenisei eroded the terrace and exposed the rock surface to mark the potential lower boundary (< 11 ka) when the Maydashy site images were carved. This approach can be useful in rock art research for dating carvings from open-Air sites; it is applicable for the rock art sites of other regions where ravine formation affected their natural context.

KW - AMS

KW - Geological dating

KW - Maydashy rock art site

KW - Minusinsk Depression

KW - OSL

KW - Southern Siberia

KW - earliest imagery

KW - holocene

KW - rock art

UR - https://www.mendeley.com/catalogue/78f445bf-6383-3239-b993-30c26d571f89/

UR - https://www.scopus.com/record/display.uri?eid=2-s2.0-105004292186&origin=inward&txGid=c4eb4544c359d3656559b95ff1ff0ce0

U2 - 10.1017/qua.2025.5

DO - 10.1017/qua.2025.5

M3 - Article

JO - Quaternary Research (United States)

JF - Quaternary Research (United States)

SN - 1096-0287

ER -