Shulgan-Tash Cave
Located on the Belaya River in the natural reserve Shulgan-Tash, the cave is best known for the 16,000 years old Upper Paleolithic rock paintings and drawings.[1] Today, this area of wild dense forest and high white rocks is home to deer, bear, and the Bashkort bee.Deep in the Portal lies the source of the Shul'gan, emerging from underground and forming a pool named Blue Lake.On the walls of the Middle Dome hall one can plainly discern spots of spread red paint as well as some geometrical figures - the signs.On the cave floor in the corner of the Hall of Chaos, the archaeologist Shchelinsky discovered remnants of a fire and vestigial traces of ancient people`s activity.In order to ascend to the upper tier of the cave, one has to return to the Stalagmite Hall, where there is a hole in the roof leading upwards.The speleologist and scuba diver Vladimir Kiselyov once traveled as far as 317 meters northwards inside the siphon before returning, having found no end to it.Among the sublime decorations of the cave are "milky rivers" composed of tiny calcite crystals, fragile and crisp, which haven't become solid yet.[6] In January 1959, Alexander Ryumin,[7][8][9] a senior researcher at the Pribelsky branch of the Bashkiriya Nature Reserve, made a sensational discovery.Alexander Ryumin, having gone down underground in search of bats, found colorful wall pictures of various animals - horses, rhinos and mammoths.Scientists of that time believed that drawings of fossil animals of the Paleolithic era were characteristic only of Western Europe - such an ancient cave painting is found in the world only in France and Spain.From that moment on, the Kapova cave acquired the status of an important historical and cultural complex, which is unrivaled in Eastern Europe.In the centre of the composition, within the reach of the ancient painter`s hand, is a drawing of an animal, "Ryumin`s horse", the first picture discovered in Shulgantash Cave.In this hall one can also see a trapezoidal shape painted with strange lines and signs inside the figure, and unusual ears at the top.The first written information on Shulgan-Tash Cave appeared in January 1760.During a visit to Bashkiria, the first corresponding member of the Russian Academy of Sciences, P.I.Ten years later (1770), the cave was explored by Ivan Lepyokhin, who studied the upper level and gave a vivid picture of it in his travel diary.In the middle and later half of the 19th century, Shulgan-Tash Cave was studied by a number of travelers and explorers (including by geologists of the South Urals N.G.Schelinsky believes that a significant part of the cave's drawings are combined into compositions reflecting the mythological beliefs of the ancient artists.Various artifacts were identified, including a clay fat lamp, stone, mostly flint tools, pieces of ochre, jewelry in the form of beads and pendants made of stone and small shells of fossil mollusks, and bones of animals of the ice age - mammoth, cave bear, fox, hare, marmot, pika, and jerboa were found.The Cult of Motherhood, substantiated the concept of pregnancy calendars for women and animals on the walls of the Kapova Cave, and also put forward a hypothesis about the deciphering of the signs of life and death of the Paleolithic era.The most striking thing is that the main actions in many ancient tales and other folklore works are tied to Shulgan-Tash Cave or the Shulgan lake as soon as possible.Shulgen is one of the major negative characters of Bashkir epic poetry (such as Ural-Batyr, Akbuzat, Kara-Yurga, Akhak Kola and others).A beautiful girl was presented to the padishah of the underwater (underground) world (Rychkov found a "dry human head" while visiting the cave in 1760).A young hunter, Haoban, receives a gift from her: the horse Akbuzat (Toolpar with wings) and countless herds of livestock.Batyr descends into the underwater kingdom, cuts down all seven heads of the monster and takes the girls, people, and cattle to the ground.Vladimir Dal, who visited the Orenburg province as an official, collected works of oral culture, particularly Bashkir folklore.
RussianBurzyansky DistrictBashkortostanRussiaPaleolithicBashkirromanizedlimestoneUral MountainsBelaya RiverUpper Paleolithicrock paintings and drawingstundracalcareous sinterprehistoric man's lifeLate Paleolithic eraCro-Magnonslast ice ageUranium-thorium datingBashkiriya Nature ReservemammothsFranceIgnatievka CaveOrenburg provinceIvan LepyokhinRussian Geographical SocietyBashkir State Universitymammothcave bearjerboainitiationSouth UralsAghidelHakmarNogoshUral BatyrАkbuthat (Akbuzat)Akbuzatcave paintingsDrachenhöhleGudenusLurgrotteSalzofenTischoferNauletteNeolithic flint mines of SpiennesScladinaTrou de l'AbîmeBadanjLedenjačaBacho KiroDevetashkaKozarnikaMaguraUtroba CaveGrapčevaKrapinaVela SpilaVindijaRomuald's CaveVeternicaAetokremnosAmatérskáBýčí skálaKoněprusyKůlnaMladečŠipkaVézère Valley World Heritage SiteCap BlancReverditLes Eyzies-de-Tayac-SireuilLes CombarellesCro-MagnonFont-de-GaumeLaugerie-BasseLa MicoquePataudLascauxLa MadeleineRouffignacOther World Heritage SitesChauvetArcy-sur-CureGargasCosquerCussacFontéchevadeLa Chaire a CalvinLa MarcheLombrivesGrotte de GabillouMarsoulasLe Mas-d'AzilMayrières supérieurePair-non-PairPech MerleRoc-aux-SorciersTrois FrèresVillarsOther cavesAurignacBruniquelCalèsLa Chapelle-aux-SaintsCombe GrenalLa FerrassieFontbrégouaLazaretLe MoustierNoisetierLa QuinaRaymondenLe RegourdouRochereilVallonnetCaves and Ice Age Art in the Swabian Jura World Heritage SiteBocksteinGeissenklösterleHohle FelsHohlenstein-StadelSirgensteinVogelherdBaumann'sBrillenhöhleKleine Feldhofer