Abstract
The article summarizes the results of monitoring of the most important Lower Amur rock art sites: Sikachi-Alyan, Sheremetyevo and the Kiya. The authors analyze and assess natural and anthropogenic impact, both on the petroglyphs and on the surrounding historical and cultural landscape. The dominant negative destructive factors are associated with the natural and anthropogenic infl uence, as well as with the problems caused by the complex hydrological situation, periodic movement of boulders due to ice drift, chipping of rocks and planes with images because of mechanical impact, and fl ooding the planes. The destruction of the planes is intensifi ed due to the temperature difference, wind erosion and under the infl uence of other natural processes, including growth of higher and lower plants resulting in biological invasion and decay of the stone surface. The increase in anthropogenic impact is of direct (tourist visitors and economic use of the territory) and indirect character (the change in the hydrology of the region can be presumably associated with the activities of the Bureyskaya Hydro Power Plant). Currently, over 40% of all known petroglyphs of the Amur-Ussuri rock art province are lost forever or temporarily (some images are lost from sight due to the movement of stones). However, specialists regularly monitoring the sites and improving research approaches succeed in replenishing the source corpus annually – new images have been revealed in all of the most important sites of the region (Sikachi-Alyan, Sheremetyevo, and the Kiya) located in the lower reaches of the Amur River and its tributaries. Sikachi-Alyan is monitored not only during fi eld trips, but also remotely by collecting and analyzing photos published by social-network users in the public domain. The accessibility and popularity of the site, located one hour’s drive from Khabarovsk, provide for a suffi cient amount of comparative material available, which allows assessing the state of conservation of petroglyphs in different seasons, including in winter, as well as the tourist impact on the site.
Keywords
Archaeology, rock images, petroglyphs, the Amur-Ussuri rock art province, Sikachi-Alyan, Sheremetyevo, the Kiya, destructive processes, cultural heritage preservation
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