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Abstract

Kapova Cave is a rock art site situated in South Ural and it is known to be one of a few Paleolithic cave rock art sites in Eastern Europe. Sometimes Kapova is presented as a part of so-called “Paleolithic artistic tradition” or similar poorly defi ned concept, build on the bestiaries similarities between Kapova and Franco-Cantabrian rock art sites and a thin base of stylistic comparison.

The paper is an attempt to summarize some data about what makes Kapova Cave unique and what is in there that can be matched with other rock art sites, especially those well-known Paleolithic ones in the Western part of Europe. Author compares some of the features of Kapova to some well-known rock art sites in Franco-Cantabrian region mostly, for Western Europe cave art is what Kapova is being compared to quite frequently.

There are two parts in the article: the fi rst part is about originality of Kapova and its rock art and in the second one some topics on which Kapova can be compared with other rock art sites are listed. Some refl ections on Kapova rock art studying perspectives are provided also, when it comes from the questions asked and the problems considered. The paper is of a discussible kind, author was not inclined to suggest any hypothesis or make any statements.

Keywords

Kapova Cave, Shulgan-Tash, rock art, Paleolithic rock art.

Alexey K. Solodeynikov

Historical and Cultural Museum-Reserve ‘‘Shulgan-Tash Cave’’, Ufa, Russia

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