Tuesday 17 January 2023

Kam'yana Mohyla, Zaporizhia Oblast


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I've been watching this one. The open air site at Kam'yana Mohyla, about a mile from the village of Terpinnya, Zaporizhia Oblast Ukraine is a large complex of rocks and caves full of prehistoric paintings and petroglyphs lying just NNE of Melitopol (46°57′0″N 35°28′12″E). 

The site consists of a prominent outlier of large sandstone blocks (3d model here) in a former loop of the Molochna River [Ancient Greek: Γέρρος?]. On the surface of the rocks in natural and artificial cavities in them are a series of petroglyphs and also cultural layers.  and the petroglyphs have been dated to the Palaeolthic and Meso/Neolithic. Late activity is also evidenced. There is an onsite museum and a free-standing open air museum displaying several examples of the type of monument known as 'Kam'yana Baba' to the east of the main complex.

 Reportedly, Vladimir Putin has now ordered that the administration of the site and its museum is to be transferred to the care of the federal museum-reserve "Tauric Chersonesos" in Crimea. This action is a continuation of the integration into Russian institutions of the collections of the Ukrainian museums occupied by Russian forces (such as the evacuation of the collections of Kherson museum to Crimea). Of course such activities are against the Hague Convention for the Protection of Cultural Property in the Event of Armed Conflict (1954) ratified by Russia. Whether this will lead to better protection and documentation of the site or the converse in current war conditions remains to be seen. 

There is a lot of stuff about this site on You Tube, a lot of it fringe-Kookie stuff about 'proto-Sumerian signs' on the rocks (no), 'cradle of the Aryans' (no), 'Ukraine's Stonehenge' genre (it's a natural outcrop, not megaliths). A selection can be found here for example, or here. If you ignore the pseudo-archaeological and speculative /"what if?" waffle that many of them contain, you can get an idea of the  nature of the site and its setting as well as something about its fragility - people clambering over the stones - let alone adding their own graffiti - are damaging this site which is easily eroded sandstone rather than anything harder. 
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