Abstract
The images of the animal and the human are two main subjects of the Upper Paleolithic figurative art in Europe. Depictions of animals and a human, executed in the form of drawing, painting, and sculpture are represented both in rock art and in the portable art. The Paleolithic art is considered deeply animalistic in its nature, animals are undoubtedly the most common subject of monumental cave art. As for the small art objects, the images of a human are not so few, as it is customary believed. Quantitatively, they are fewer than some herbivores and are signifi cantly ahead of predators. This peculiarity was fully confi rmed by the analysis of the portable art of the Dnieper-Don geographical area located on the Russian Plain. There, the figurative art consists almost exclusively of the materials of the middle period of the Upper Paleolithic of the Russian Plain (24–21 thousand years ago). The vast majority of the objects are sculptural images, among which anthropomorphic dominate over animalistic ones. During the Gravettian period, the art of small objects in the Dnieper-Don region was thoroughly imbued by the female image, which probably refl ected serious challenges associated with the necessity of procreation for groups of people exploring the vast expanses of the Great Russian Plain. The research results show that the issue of the leading subject in the visual artistic activity of the European Upper Paleolithic should be resolved strictly within a certain type of art and only in view of its geographical, chronological and cultural context.
Keywords
Upper Paleolithic Age, Russian Plain, Gravettian period, Paleolithic portable art, images of the animal and the human
Abramova, Z.А. 1962: Paleoliticheskoye iskusstvo na territorii SSSR [The Paleolithic Art on the Territory of the USSR] (Svod arkheologicheskikh istochnikov [Corpus of Archaeological Sources] A4-03). Moscow–Leningrad.
Abramova, Z.А. 2005: Zhivotnoye i chelovek v paleoliticheskom iskusstve Evropy [Animal and Man in the Paleolithic Art of Europe]. Saint Petersburg.
Abramova, Z.А. 2010: Drevneyshiy obraz cheloveka. Katalog po materialam paleoliticheskogo iskusstva Evropy [The Earliest Image of Man. Catalog based on the materials of the Paleolithic art of Europe]. Saint Petersburg.
Amirkhanov, Kh.A. (ed.) 2009: Issledovaniya paleolita v Zarayske 1999–2005. Paleolithic studies in Zaraysk in 1999–2005. Moscow.
Breuil, H. 1952: Quatre cents siècles d’art pariétal. Montignnac (Dordogne).
Dyupyui, D. 2014: Skul’pturnyye izobrazheniya iz izvestnyaka vostochnogravettiyskoy stoyanki Kostenki 1: tematika i funktsional’noye naznacheniye [Sculptural limestone images from the Eastern-Gravettian site Kostenki 1: subjects and functions]. Svod arkheologicheskikh istochnikov Kunstkamery.. 4: Istoriya arkheologicheskogo sobraniya MAE. Verkhniy paleolit [Corpus of Archaeological Sources of the Kunstkamera. 4. History of the MAE Archaeological Collection. Upper Paleolithic]. Saint Petersburg., 118–288.
Еfimenko, P.P. 1931: Znacheniye zhenshchiny v orin’yakskuyu epokhu [The signifi cance of woman in the Aurignacian period]. Izvestiya Gosudarstvennoy Akademii Istorii Material’noy Kul’tury [Transactions of the State Academy for the History of Material Culture] XI, 3–4. Мoscow.
Еfimenko, P.P. 1938: Pervobytnoye obshchestvo. Ocherki po istorii paleoliticheskogo vremeni [Primitive society. Studies on the History of the Paleolithic Age]. Leningrad.
Еfimenko, P.P. 1958: Kostenki I [Kostenki I]. Leningrad.
Fradkin, E.E. 1975: Pamyatniki paleoliticheskogo iskusstva Kostenok I [Sites of Paleolithic art by Kostenki I]: dis. … kand. ist. nauk [PhD Thesis]. Leningrad. (Unpublisned).
Gvozdover, M.D. 1985: Tipologiya zhenskikh statuetok kostenkovskoy paleoliticheskoy kul’tury [Typology of female fi gurines of the Kostenki Paleolithic culture]. Voprosy antropologii [Journal of Anthropology] 75, 27–66.
Gvozdover, M.D. 1987: Arkheologicheskiy kontekst zhenskikh statuetok kostenkovskoy verkhnepaleoliticheskoy kul’tury [Archaeological context of female fi gurines of the Kostenki Upper Paleolithic culture]. In: Problemy interpretatsii arkheologicheskikh istochnikov [Issues of Interpretation of Archaeological Sources]. Ordzhonikidze, 18–33.
Gvozdover, M.D. 1992: Obrabotannaya kost’ iz novogo zhilogo ob’’yekta Avdeyevskoy paleoliticheskoy stoyanki (raskopki 1982–1988 gg.) The processed bone from a new dwelling structure of the Avdeevo Paleolithic site (excavations of 1982–1988). Voprosy antropologii [Journal of Anthropology] 172, 25–59.
Gvozdover, M.D. 1995: Art of the mammoth hunter: the fi nds of Avdeevo. Oxford.
Khlopachev, G.А. 1998: Two approaches to forming the shapes of female fi gurines from the eastern Gravettian sites of the Russian Plain. In: Kh.A. Amirkhanov (ed.), Vostochnyy gravett [Eastern Gravette]. Мoscow, 226–233.
Khlopachev, G.А. 2006: Bivnevye industrii verkhnego paleolita Vostochnoy Evropy [Tusk Industry of the Upper Paleolithic in Eastern Europe]. Saint Petersburg.
Khlopachev, G.А. (ed.) 2016: Verkhniy paleolit: obrazy, simvoly, znaki. Katalog predmetov iskusstva malykh form i unikal’nykh nakhodok verkhnego paleolita iz arkheologicheskogo sobraniya MAE RAN [The Upper Paleolithic: Images, Symbols, Signs. Catalogue of art objects of small forms and unique fi nds of the Upper Paleolithic from the MAE RAS Archaeological Collection]. Saint Petersburg.
Leroi-Gourhan, A. 1965: Préhistoire de l’Art Occidental. Paris.
Praslov N.D., Rogachev А.N. (eds.) 1982: Paleolit Kostenkovsko-Borshchevskogo rayona na Donu. 1879–1979 gg. Nekotoryye itogi polevykh issledovaniy [The Paleolithic of the Kostenki-Borshchevo District on the Don. 1879–1979. Some results of fi eld research]. Leningrad.
Rogachev, А.N. 1962: Skhematichnye skul’ptury zhivothykh iz Kostenok (Anosovka II) [The schematic sculptures of animals from Kostenki (Anosovka II)]. In: Z.A. Abramova (ed., Paleoliticheskoye iskusstvo na territorii SSSR [The Paleolithic Art on the Territory of the USSR] (Svod arkheologicheskikh istochnikov [Corpus of Archaeological Sources] A4-03). Мoscow–Leningrad, 78–80.
Stolyar, А.D. 1985: Proiskhozhdenie izobrazitel’nogo iskusstva [The Origin of Fine Art]. Мoscow.
Zamyatnin, S.N. 1935: Raskopki u sela Gagarina (Verkhov’ya Dona, TsCHO) [Excavations near the village of Gagarino (the Upper Don, Central Black Earth Region)]. In: N.K. Auerbakh (ed.), Paleolit SSSR: Materialy po istorii dorodovogo obshchestva. Izvestiya Gosudarstvennoy Akademii Istorii Material’noy Kul’tury [The Paleolithic of the USSR: Materials on the history of the pre-tribal society. Transactions of the State Academy for the History of Material Culture] 118. Мoscow–Leningrad, 26–77.