Shulgan-Tash museum will be replenished with newly discovered artifacts from Pearl Cave

The Shulgan-Tash museum fund will be replenished with bronze and bone arrowheads, a celt ax, a bone tool - an awl, and other artifacts found in the Pearl Cave during the expedition organized as part of the preparation of the "Rock Painting of the Shulgan-Tash Cave" dossier.

As Bashinform News Agency was informed at the Shulgan-Tash Cave Historical and Cultural Museum-Reserve, the expedition led by Vyacheslav Kotov, a senior researcher at the Institute of History, Language and Literature of the Ufa Scientific Center RAS, took place in October. The specialists had a task to make an archaeological survey of the Pearl Cave and conduct a thorough study of engraved images of the Shulgan-Tash Cave, and collect artefactual remains in the Main Gallery.

The Pearl Cave is located near the world-famous Kapova Cave in the Kuliurt gorge.

According to the head of the expedition Vyacheslav Kotov, traces of human presence, possibly of the Paleolithic time, were first discovered in Pearl in 2013. Then, after a while, interesting finds were made: eight bronze arrowheads of the 7-6th century BC, a bronze spearhead, a bronze Celtic ax, a bone tool - an awl, a human lower jaw and other bones of a human skeleton, animal bones.

Photographic recording and searching for engraved images were continued in the Shulgan-Tash Cave.

They have been searched for the Kapova Cave engravings for many years, but first, they were discovered only in 2008. The cluster of engravings was found by a professor at the University of Paris, Egor Reznikov, and studied by Kotov.

“The Shulgan-Tash Cave has been explored for over 250 years and brings new discoveries every year. In October 2020, a group of scientists continued to study and search for engraved images", the head of the expedition Kotov notes.

Thus, two groups of engraved images have been identified in the Shulgan-Tash Cave so far. The rest of the engravings, obviously, are under calcite incrustations, the scientist believes.

Also, during this expedition, the collection of artefactual remains was resumed in the Main Gallery and the Stalagmitov hall. About a hundred fragments of animal bones have been found here, including about a dozen Pleistocene preservation bones. Together with the bones, 3 Paleolithic flint tools were discovered.

In the Dome Hall in the Chapel of Skulls, 2 dozen animal bones were collected in the wall's crevice, including the skull bones of two human individuals. This is another seventh find of human bones in the Shulgan-Tash Cave.