The State of Preservation of the Shakhty Rock Art Site and the Prospects of Its Conservation
The State of Preservation of the Shakhty Rock Art Site and the Prospects of Its Conservation
doi:10.17746/1563-0110.2022.50.3.113-120
I.V. Abolonkova1, N.N. Sayfulloev2, and I.E. Dedov3 1Kuzbass Museum-Reserve “Tomskaya Pisanitsa”, Tomskaya 5a, Kemerovo, 650099, Russia 2Donish Institute of History, Archaeology and Ethnography, National Academy of Sciences of the Republic of Tajikistan, Hieboni Rudaki 33, Dushanbe, 734025, Republic of Tajikistan 3Institute of Archaeology and Ethnography, Siberian Branch, Russian Academy of Sciences, Pr. Akademika Lavrentieva 17, Novosibirsk, 630090, Russia
This article deals with the preservation of the Shakhty rock art site, discovered in the Eastern Pamirs in 1958 by the leading Central Asian Stone Age researcher VA. Ranov. The analysis of photographs taken in the Shakhty rock shelter during the 2019 survey revealed the nature of destructive processes at the site due to environmental conditions of the Eastern Pamir highland. The article integrates the results of analysis of Ranov’s archives at the Donish Institute of History, Archaeology and Ethnography of the National Academy of Sciences, Republic of Tajikistan. Thanks to Ranov’s diaries and photographs, it was possible in 2019 to assess the degree of erosion on the rock surface, and the loss of fragments of painted images over more than 60 years. Emergency areas requiring conservation efforts were identified. Principles of conservation and restoration of rock art are outlined, and an overview of techniques developed for sites of this type in the post-Soviet space in the last quarter of the 20th century is presented. State of the art conservation methods for rock art, which, in the future, can be applied for the preservation of emergency areas at Shakhty, are described. A set of measures is suggested to preserve this site.
Keywords: Eastern Pamirs, rock art, paintings, Shakhty rock shelter, conservation of rock art sites
