Petroglyphs of Sikachi-Alyan

Description

At the end of the XIXth century the Russian orientalist Pallady Kafarov noted down in his diary the first information about cliff-pictures which he saw travelling down the Amur river. The article of P.I. Vetlitsin about the ancient images on the cliffs near the Sikachi-Alyan village was published in the newspaper "Priamurskiye Vedomosti" in 1895. The in literature first special article about "Petroglyphs of the Amur river" belongs to the famous American orientalist Bertold Laufer who took part in the ethnological expedition to the Amur. It was published in english in America in 1899. V.K. Arsenyev described petroglyphs of Sikachi-Alyan during the expedition in the mountains of Sikhote Alin in 1908. This monument was also researched by L.Ya. Sternberg, ethnographer I.A. Lopatin, Japanese historian Riuzo Torii from 1910 till 1919. The archaeologist N.G. Kharlamov studied the drawings of Sikachi-Alyan in the 30th years of the XXth century. He was the first scientist who exactly described in the soviet literature the geographical location of petroglyphs. N.G. Kharlamov photographed and traced the ancient drawings and also made the collection of archaeological artifacts in this place. Since 1935 under the leadership of A.P. Okladnikov the research workers of the Institute of ethnography, Academy of Sciences, USSR, later the workers of the archaeological and ethnographical Institute , Russian Academy of Sciences began to study and to describe the petroglyphs of Sikachi-Alyan. The scientific researches in the district of the monument's location were carried out by such famous scientists as A.P. Okladnikov, A.P. Derevyanko, I.V. Galkovsky, Yu.A. Polumiskov, S.G. Glinsky, V.E. Larichev, V.E. Medvedev and many others in 1953, 1954, 1958, 1963, 1969, 1980, 1988. In view of this a lot of scientific articles were published, but the main of them was the monograph of A.P. Okladnikov " Petroglyphs of the Low Amur" published in Leningrad in 1971. "Petroglyphs of Sikachi-Alyan" in accordance with the decree of the Soviet of Ministers from 4.12.1974. N°624 are the archaeological monument of the state significance and on the ground of the decree of President of the Russian Federation from 20.02.1995. N°176 it belongs to the objects of historical and cultural heritage of the federal meaning. Petroglyphs of Sikachi-Alyan belong to the unique monuments of history and culture and are of great scientific-historical and artistic value. The process of its study gives the opportunity to trace the evolution of the art of ancient Amur tribes. This is also the most valuable source of the cognition of history and culture of the indigenous peoples in Priamurye. The ancient cliffpictures is the unique scientific and cultural property not only for Russia but also for the whole world. Annually the monument is visited by the great number of russian and foreign tourists. In present time it is necessary to get to the monument the status of the world meaning. This event can allow to improve the keeping and using of the property in the scientific and cultureeducational objects for all humankind.