ʊɧʇɸʒɸ-ʂʞɮɯʃɸ ʂʌʇɧ ɳʞʃɯ ɶɧʂɧʃɧʍɸ ʂʞɮɯʃɸɯʊ

109 
of life for animals and humans. This image can easily play as metonymy of a rich 
herd, of a moist locale, of an optimal hydrological season or of a pluvial phase. Or, 
by audaciously enlarging the spectrum of references, it can denote not just the humid 
niches of the living organisms but also the two humid extremes of the cosmos, the 
above and the below: above, the clouds and the cold starred sky of the night (the cow 
of the nocturnal sky of the Egyptians,) or, also by morphological similarity of the 
horns, the crescent of the moon and its humidifying effects; below, the subterranean 
waters, which in arid zones represent the most important water reservoir. In that way 
the image of the bull can support a maximal extension of its metonymical relations 
and become the synecdoque of the whole hydrological and vital cycles. 
Finally, in later periods (Bronze) and more abstract rhetorical contexts, the bull 
provided with a solar spot between the horns will become a metaphor or a compact symbol 
of the three superposed worlds that the water cycle links together as complementary and 
interactive in the production of fecundity and plenitude: the stellar-uranian world (where 
the yoked bull of the Mesopotamians is plowing among the stars), the solar-terrestrial 
world, and the subterranean world.  
If we analyze in detail the petroglyph representations of the auroch, we will note 
some particulars conęrming and reinforcing the above considerations. Its image, during 
the Archaic period, is mainly engraved as isolated ęgure on well patinated surfaces of 
rocky outcrops surrounding springs. Horns and tail are most oĞen prolonged inside 
cracks of the rock, just for remembering their genetic links with the moisture of the 
underground world (Figs 01, 02, 05, 06). There are images of bulls urinating from the 
masculine or feminine member, or from both; and in the small site of Almaly (northern 
Chu-Ili mountains) two humans in squaĴed position receive the urine (or the sperm) as 
fecundating rain. Rarely, already during this early stage, some elements appear that will 
become common during the Early Bronze: a spot between the horns, metonymy of the 
interaction of their growth with the sun (Fig 04, see below par 3); miniaturized ęgures 
of archers surrounding and shooting a large bull, metaphors of perforators of clouds for 
accelerating the hydrological circle and bringing more rain.    
The image of the auroch of the Archaic period refers, in its simplicity, by denotation, to 
a semantic cosmos compact and concrete. Compact, because there are not antinomies able 
to part it in different worlds. Concrete, because there are not qualities independent from 
their supporting subjects: there are condensations of meaning in the form of metonymy 
and synecdoque, but rare is the fragmentation and displacement of meaning in the form 
of metaphors, and totally absent are abstractions in the form of symbols. 
In this sense, the semantic form of the representation shows a scientięc-
environmental concern. The hieratic impression that this sumptuous image inspires in 
the modern spectator must not mislead: it is not necessarily due to the special nature of 
the represented subject, but more in general to the sense of ancestral temporality carried 
by the whole petroglyph art and, in particular, to the psychedelic effect provoked by any 
well founded scientięc formula.     
The Neolithic representations of the auroch and the semantic cosmos to which they 
refer are not corresponding to but underlying the magic and religious practices and verbal 
expressions posterior to those images by millennia. Irreducible partitions of the semantic 
cosmos, abstract rhetoric forms generated by those partitions, magic-religious conceptions 
built by those abstractions, are all characters that in Central Asia became affirmed only 
around the end of the II millennium BC, most probably together with the appearance of 
ideological partitions in the context of a progressive increase of social interaction and 
stratięcation. 

110
 
ʊɧʇɸʒɸ-ʂʞɮɯʃɸ ʂʌʇɧ ɳʞʃɯ ɶɧʂɧʃɧʍɸ ʂʞɮɯʃɸɯʊ
During this process of partition and abstraction of the semantic cosmos, the Archaic 
image of the auroch has not been abandoned but submiĴed to multiform syntactic, semantic 
and pragmatic transformations coherent with the growing complexity of human societies. 
The transformations of this image, on the wide territories of the Centrasian tradition and 
of Asia Minor, went on for thousands of years in several directions. Being that the detailed 
analysis of these directions is a task beyond the dimensions of the present article, just two 
extremes cases are brieĚy quoted: the trajectory along which the auroch image acquires 
a metaphoric meaning; and the trajectory along which it acquires a symbolic arbitrary 
meaning.
In Kuljabasy (Chu-Ili mountains) a wonderful scene aĴributable to the Middle 
Bronze period (1500 BC) represents an auroch in naturalistic three-dimensional style, 
surrounded from the leĞ by humans and animal predators that pierce and bite him, 
and from the right by a man, a woman and a child in worshipping aĴitude (Fig 06). A 
regime of tragic-sacrięcial oppositions are here metaphorically expressed, anticipating 
some basic iconographies of the Christian religion that will manifest 1500 years later and 
4000 km far. The relational structure is the same, only the central personage changes: 
during the II millennium BC the tragic-sacrięcial subject is the auroch; with the start of 
the I millennium BC this role shiĞ to the ram; with the end of the same millennium to 
the human being.
Different is the abstract trajectory traveled by the auroch image in its condensation 
to the most simple primary iconographic element, i.e. head and horn, which will provide 
the sign (at ęrst still morphologically phonetic and ęnally purely conventional) of the 
leĴer α (alpha), ęrst character of the Phoenician alphabet and of all the western alphabets 
derived from it.
3 - The isotopy horns-sun 
During the Bronze age period become very frequent images of wild aurochs, ovines 
and caprides carrying horns of exaggerated length with a spot, sometimes even a circle, 
at their center. The spot has been correctly interpreted as an image of the sun, so that 
this recurrent scene can be deęned as an isotopy of the dyad horns-sun, characteristic of 
the entire Bronze period. At ęrst the meaning of this isotopy looks mysterious and, as 
always in these cases, the problem is brieĚy solved by classifying the scene as endowed of 
a magic-religious character: the sun is lord, the animal is solarized and totemic. It seems 
to be an intrinsic feature of religious paradigms to be used for veiling what we cannot 
understand by other ways! Luckily in this case another way exists, and consists in trying 
to understand what a pair of horns really is. In facts horns, more than any other physical 
organ and independently from the animal on the head of which are located, have the 
property to evolve cyclically depending from seasons and years, in strict correlation with 
the movements of the sun, with such a precision that they can provide a quantitative 
measure of the sun cycles.
Horns of ovines (ram, arkhar, mouĚon) and caprides (goat, mountain-goat) represent 
the most sophisticated chronometers of prehistory. They develop by discrete rings that 
constitute the marks of a real chronometer (or beĴer, at those times, of the best possible 
chronometer!). The horns of the ram grow by 4 rings per year, with rings more or less 
consistent depending from the season. They elongate twisting as a spiral and reaching 
a rotation of 360º at the end of the life of the animal, of which the life span, like the one 
of the humans of the II millennium BC, averages the 30-40 years. A solar spot engraved 
between the horns remembers, as a metonymy, the strict relation existing between the 
action of the sun (to create seasons, years, life cycles, and horn rings) and the horns of the 

111 
ram (to measure such cycles). Also the mountain-goat carries horns that grow by rings 
and witness the plenitude of life by elongating and turning until touching the boĴom 
back: in that way the horns and the back deęne the circumference of a circle that deserves 
a solar spot at the centre (Figs 07-08). 
Also the horns of the auroch grow and twist, but without visible discrete rings. 
Anyhow, in some subspecies, they arrive, by the end of the life of the animal, to touch 
each other and to deęne a circle: the quantitative memory of years and seasons is lost but 
the duration and apotheosis of the life cycle are signaled by the horns’ conjunction, which 
so deserves a solar spot at the center (Fig 04). 
The horns of the deer have a different and more complex development conferring to 
the isotopies of this animal a chronometric character more seasonal and terrestrial when 
compared with the solar-astronomical character of the horned ungulates spoken above. 
Female deer don’t have horns at all; male deer have horns that fall in winter, grow and 
ramify during spring and summer, and reach their maximal development in autumn, the 
season of duels and love. The image of a solitary deer, when without horns, is denoting by 
metonymy the winter season, and when provided of well developed horns the summer 
season; the couple male and female will denote autumn, and the couple or the female 
deer with fawn will denote spring.  
The morphological ramięcation and the seasonal cycle of male deer horns are 
characters shared with the vegetation, its cycles, and the cycles of the sun; and, when very 
ramięed, deer horns can also mean an old age that saw several solar years.
In that way the deer, because characterized by physical transformations and 
behaviors strictly correlated with seasonal and solar cycles, provides an image endowed 
with a very high isotopic potential, i.e. capable to enter in signięcant composition with 
many other subjects of the repertory for denoting several levels of the cosmic order: 
celestial subjects (the solar disk and its seasonal and annual cycles), terrestrial subjects 
(vegetation), subterranean subjects (the snake, with which the deer shares the property of 
regenerating annually a most evident part of the body). Occasionally a compass is added 
to the scene (Fig 09). Thanks to this high isotopic potential, during the Archaic period, in 
the high latitudes of Southern Siberia, the deer image played as best synecdoque of the 
solar cycle and of the seasonal regeneration, exactly the same role that, in the arid zones 
of Southern Kazakhstan and Median Asia, has been played by the auroch as synecdoque 
of the hydrological cycle and of its fertilizing power.    
In all these examples, the concreteness of the relations established between the 
image of the horns and its isotopic partners is witnessing the presence of rhetoric forms 
not symbolic but denotative: imitative analogy, metonymy, synecdoque. 
The horns’ isotopies spoken above are typical of the Archaic or of the Early-Middle 
Bronze period, But the semantic power of the horns’ image is so high that horns continued 
to play an absolutely dominant role in the repertory of all the following periods of the 
Centrasian tradition…at the price of supporting more abstract rhetoric functions.
During the Late Bronze period, a time of incipient internal partition of the semantic 
cosmos, horns in Central Asia have been applied to the head of the horse (Fig 10), and 
in the Sinai peninsula to the head of Moses, in both cases as metaphors (or, beĴer, as 
absurd constructions) of the communication with the outer world. Again, like in the case 
of the sacrięcial auroch of Kuljabasy, the same relational structure applies to two different 
subjects, an animal and a human, located 4000 km far from each other but in this case 
contemporary: the animal in the context of remote pastoral societies (prototypes of both 
the subsequent vedic and shamanic cultures) that through the horse (mainly through its 
bloody sacrięce) open a door between the two worlds; and the human in the context of 

112
 
ʊɧʇɸʒɸ-ʂʞɮɯʃɸ ʂʌʇɧ ɳʞʃɯ ɶɧʂɧʃɧʍɸ ʂʞɮɯʃɸɯʊ
the most ancient urban societies (prototypes of the western urban and religious culture) 
that are opening such a door through a man (and even in that case through his bloody 
sacrięce).
 
Few centuries later, in Median Asia, the horns of the ram start to switch up 
and down between the heads of positive and of weird beings, and with the Christian era 
they get ęnally ęxed on the head of the devil. 
Around the V century BC ram’s horns appear on the head of Ahriman (‘destructive 
spirit’), the Zoroastrian embodiment of evil. But a couple of centuries later they appear 
again as positive aĴributes on the head of Alexander the Great, who inherited them in 332 
BC in Siwah (Western Egypt), out of direct initiation, from the high priest of the highest 
Egyptian god, Ammon-Ra, who with ram’s horn is represented already at the end of the 
III millennium BC. He kept them hidden until death, aĞer which his horns have been 
openly manifested on coins by his successors in order to underline the celestial origin of 
the Alexander royalty. Someone didn’t agree with such glorious metaphor and tried to 
change it into devilish. The writer of the biblical book of Daniel, around 175 BC, portrayed 
Alexander as a strong beast with 10 horns and iron teeth. 
 
Lysimachos silver tetradracma representing Alexander the Great with ram’s horn and 
a headband of ivy leaves (288-281 BC)
Something similar happened further to the west during the same time (second half 
of the I millennium BC). Deer horns appear on the head of Cernunnos (the “horned”, 
lord of wild things, natural fertility, renaissance and passage between worlds), an 
important archaic divinity of the continental Celts oĞen represented with ram’s horn 
and holding a horned snake. With the establishment of the Christian era, the formidable 
iconographic power of such horned image has been tamed by the early Christian church 
only at the price of its adoption as symbol of the antichrist.
Until recent times, asides with their pictorial expressions, horns have been used by 
human cultures in several material and gestural ways more or less connected with their 
celestial or terrifying meaning. 
They have been materially used as ritual objects (burial markers), musical instruments 
(the ceremonial shofar of the Hebrews or the bukkehorn of the ancient Norwegians), 
drinking vessels, medical powders, horn bows and horned helmets (which appear in 
Europe during the Late Bronze and become widespread during the Early Middle Ages). 
A quite sophisticated gestural and social use of the horns is still widespread in the 
entire northern Mediterranean region, namely in Sicily. Here horns are conceived as 
a thing that everybody sees at the exception of the one who carries them on his head. 
And such property makes of them the metaphorical aĴribute of a sexual partner who has 
been secretly betrayed: the ‘cornuto’ is always the last one to know about his horns.  

113 
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Paris, Bibliotheca Shamanistica, vol 10 
Francfort H, Sher J (eds) (1994-2001) Repertoire des petroglyphes d’Asie Centrale. 
Fascicules n°1-6. Paris, Diffusion de Boccard
Greimas AJ (1966) Semantique structurale. Paris, Larousse
Medoev A (1979) Gravuri na skalak (Rock engravings). Alma-Ata (in Russian)
Robrieux J (1993) Elements de rhetorique et d’argumentation. Paris, Dunod 
Rogozhinsky A (ed) (2004) Rock Art sites of Central Asia: documentation, conservation, 
management, community participation. Almaty (in English and Russian)
Rozwadowski A (2004) Symbols through time: interpreting the rock art of Central Asia. 
Poznam
Sala R, Deom JM (2005) Petroglyphs of South Kazakhstan. Almaty, Laboratory of 
Geoarchaeology (in English and Russian)
Sala R (2010) Semiological methods in rock art studies. In: The role of nomads in the 
formation of the cultural heritage of Kazakhstan, Almaty, Sri-nomads (in Russian).
Sala R (2011) Semiological methods in rock art studies. In: Rock Art in modern society, 
vol 2. Occasional SAPAR publications, vol VIII. Kemerovo State University  (in Russian 
and English)
Sher JA (1980) Petrogliphi Srednie i Tsentralnoi Asia (Petroglyphs of Middle and 
Central Asia). Moscow, Nauka

114
 
ʊɧʇɸʒɸ-ʂʞɮɯʃɸ ʂʌʇɧ ɳʞʃɯ ɶɧʂɧʃɧʍɸ ʂʞɮɯʃɸɯʊ
ʕɯʇɯʂɸʈɸʃ ɮːˆ˘˕ˆˇ ɪˏʲʹˆːˆ˕˓ʵˆˣ
ɸˑ˖˘ˆ˘˙˘ ʲ˕ˠʺ˓ˏ˓ʶˆˆ ˆ ˫˘ˑ˓ʶ˕ʲ˟ˆˆ ʈʅ ʇɧʃ
˖˘ʲ˕˦ˆˇ ˑʲ˙ˣˑ˩ˇ ˖˓˘˕˙ʹˑˆˊ, ˊʲˑʹˆʹʲ˘ ˆ˖˘˓˕ˆˣʺ˖ˊˆˠ ˑʲ˙ˊ
ʆɯʊʇʅɫʁɸʑʛ ɸ ʊɧʂɫɸ-ɶʃɧɼɸ 
ʈʅɪʇɯʂɯʃʃʛʒ ʃɧʇʅɮʅɪɫʅʇʃʅɫʅ ɧʁʊɧʠ
Наскальное искусство как часть современной этнической культуры исследова-
лись в Туве (М. А. Дэвлет), Хакасии (Л. Р. Кызласов, Н. В. Леонтьев, И. К. Кидиекова), 
Казахстане (А. Г. Медоев, З. С. Самашев). Содержание изображений новейшей эпохи 
представляет большой научный интерес, поскольку дает возможность изучения фе-
номена наскального творчества в этнографическом приближении, методами археоло-
гии и этнографии. Возможность обратиться к автору, оставившему автограф рядом с 
изображением на скале, существует лишь для новейших рисунков; археолог, изучаю-
щий древности столетней или тысячелетней давности, лишен такой привилегии. 
Петроглифы Алтая, относящиеся к новому времени и эпохе этнографической 
современности, известны всем специалистам, изучающим наскальные изображения 
региона. Они отличаются от наскальных изображений иных эпох по стилю, тех-
нике нанесения,  воспроизведенным реалиям. Зачастую они перекрывают древние 
рисунки, выбитые и выгравированные на скальных поверхностях и по сравнению с 
последними практически лишены патины – пустынного загара, для образования 
которого требовались тысячелетия. Большая часть новейших рисунков прошлифо-
вана или воспроизведена в технике тонкой гравировки; как правило, они либо вы-
резаны, либо процарапаны на патинированных скальных плоскостях и отличаются 
по цвету и от “фона” скалы, и от патинированных древних изображений. Гораздо 
меньше выбитых новейших изображений, но и они хорошо известны, как и древние 
рисунки, подновленные недавно.
Большого интереса у исследователей петроглифы данного хронологического 
пласта прежде не вызывали, очевидно, в силу того, что археологов, как правило, 
интересуют древние изобразительные материалы, а этнографы не владеют методи-
кой археологического исследования. Тем не менее, на этнографические петрогли-
фы обращали внимание многие археологи – Е.А. Окладникова, А.И. Мартынов, 
В.Д. Кубарев, Ю.В. Гричан, В.Н. Елин и другие. Опубликованы гравировки на 
камнях и скалах в долине р. Елангаш [1], на скалах в долине р. Чаган,  петроглифы 
в урочищах Шалкобы, Джалгыз-Тобе, Каракол, Бичикту-Бом, Курман-Тау и других 
[2].  Опубликована монография, посвященная петроглифам долины р. Каракол, 
значительную часть которых составляют наскальные рисунки новейшей эпохи [3]; 
многие сюжеты “тюркских средневековых наскальных изображений” интерпрети-
рованы на основе алтайской мифологии [4]. Ю.В. Гричан [5] опубликовал и про-
интерпретировал изображения, процарапанные на каменных плитках  из Горного 
Алтая (коллекция включает 41 экземпляр).
Большая коллекция современных наскальных рисунков собрана Д. В. Череми-
синым в долинах рек Чуя, Ак-Алаха, Аргут, Карагем, Чаган, Чаган-Узун и др. Неко-
торые результаты их изучения уже опубликованы [6]. Здесь были зафиксированы 
случаи включения древних петроглифов  в современные композиции. Достаточно 
условно выделены изображения, связанные с традиционной культурой алтайцев и 
сюжеты, отражающие реалии современной жизни. Ряд сюжетов в петроглифах 
р. Чаган (многофигурные батальные сцены с использованием луков, копий, а также 
сошниковых ружей) автор предложил датировать эпохой джунгарских войн [7].
В данной статье публикуются некоторые материалы изучения автором петро-
глифов этнографический современности в долине р. Елангаш, связанные с изобра-

115 
жением родовых знаков современных народов Алтая. Предполагается, что с нако-
плением подобных материалов в дальнейшем появится возможность выполнить 
классификацию петроглифов по сюжетам, определение датировки и этнокультур-
ной (этнической) принадлежности, например, по идентификации знаков-тамг или 
особенностям костюма, уточнение хронологии новейших наскальных рисунков.
Среди сюжетов – традиционные для наскального искусства темы: охота, изо-
бражения диких животных – маралов, архаров, горных козлов-теке, хищников 
– волков, барсов; батальные сцены с использованием огнестрельного оружия (со-
шниковых ружей); выпас скота, перекочевки;  жилища – юрты и аилы; загоны для 
скота, возможно, войлочные ковры, а также зимние транспортные средства – сани 
с запряженной лошадью. В композициях воспроизведены мужчины и женщины  
в традиционной одежде, чаще всего это всадники на лошадях, верблюдах и яках. 
Также часто изображали тягловых и верховых животных (лошадей, яков, верблю-
дов), нередко отмеченных различными тамгами – знаками собственности, мелкий 
и крупный рогатый скот, собак и т.п. Можно заметить, что иногда на скалах изо-
бражаются собственно знаки-тамги, сходные по облику с тамгами (тавром), пока-
занными на гравированных фигурах животных. В отдельных случаях наблюдается 
подновление более древних знаков, относящихся, вероятно, к средневековой эпохе: 
например, изображение змеи с раскрытой пастью, сопоставимое по иконографии 
с подобными знаками-тамгами из Монгольского Алтая. Знаки на петроглифах но-
вейшего времени долины Елангаш по форме и расположению имеют сходство 
с тамгами отдельных родов алтайцев.
Чрезвычайно интересная и важная тема новейших петроглифов – сюжеты, со-
держание которых связано с шаманизмом, и в которых, по-видимому, зафиксированы 
определенные моменты культовой практики. Это воспроизведение людей с бубнами 
в руках (сцены камланий), а также представление атрибутов шаманизма (прежде все-
го бубнов, а также специфических шаманских костюмов). Очевидно, эти петроглифы 
относятся к так называемому “палеоэтнографическому пласту”. Среди наиболее “све-
жих”, современных петроглифов – многочисленные автографы, стихотворные посла-
ния, в том числе пассаж В. Маяковского о партии, цитаты из классиков марксизма, 
“портреты” Ленина, зубцы и звезды кремлевских стен, различные морализаторские 
сентенции; “пейзажи” – схематично воспроизведенные горные пики, иногда с жи-
вотными на вершинах и надписью “Алтай”; многочисленные объяснения в любви, 
человеческие профили, возможно, портретные; математические задачи и формулы 
их решения, автомобили,  самолеты, оружие, бинокли и другие реалии современной 
жизни. Среди “новаций” – туристическая тема, призывы к гостям Алтая, повество-
вания о землетрясении и т.п. К огромному сожалению, совсем недавно появились и 
порнографические композиции, и нецензурные надписи на скалах.
Среди редких сюжетов – изображение динозавра (Джурамал) или воспроизве-
дение  на  г.  Джалгыз-Тобе  “глобуса  Алтая”  с  нанесенными  Кош-Агачем,  Тобелером, 
Жана-Аулом, Ташантой и горой Джалгыз-Тобе [8]. На скале по левому берегу р. Аргут 
мне довелось скопировать процарапанные изображения символики Национальной 
баскетбольной лиги США и надписи на английском языке, в том числе с грамматиче-
скими ошибками [9]. Любопытно, что эти граффити связаны вовсе не с почтительным 
отношением к баскетболу у алтайских чабанов и охотников, а  воспроизводят дизайн 
бейсболок, футболок и прочей недорогой одежды, импортированной на Алтай из со-
седних Китая и Монголии. Не исключено, что механизмы трансляции популярных, 
“модных” изобразительных сюжетов и образов современного наскального творчества 
мало отличаются от существовавших в древности. В том же ключе можно интерпре-
тировать наскальные изображения русалок на р. Чаган, – они идентичны татуиров-
кам на плечах отслуживших в морском флоте алтайских чабанов.

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