Rock Art Research

The Altai Mountains, southern Siberia, is an area very rich in rock art. Although there are no actively managed sites, there is increasing visitation, and among the visitors are indigenous inhabitants (the Altaians). The sites were engraved over millennia, and mountain ranges marked with petroglyphs are regarded as sacred places. Each generation of visitors appropriated the rock art heritage, converting the ‘alien’ into the ‘own’ by adding new elements and images, superimposing old compositions and transforming original motifs. Rock art sites can therefore be regarded as a form of ‘visitor book’. The ‘modern’ additions are divided into ‘ethnographic’ (authentic) and ‘tourist’ (non-authentic) ones. The authentic renovations of the Altaians are not considered acts of vandalism but an extension/continuation of a centuries-old tradition.