Academy of Sciences of the Soviet Union organized #Pamir Archeological Expedition in 1960s. The “paleolithic group” of the expedition studied caves in the eastern pamirs. 8 locations were studied. There were no archeological finds in 6 of them, although they were populated back in the days. The most interesting one was Shakhty Cave, where they found Stone Age graphities. Shakhty cave is located 40 km from Murgab towards Jarty-Gumbez, at the beginning of Kurteke-say. The area is called Shakhty-say gourge. The cave is located 80 m high from the gourge. Absolute elevation is more than 4000 ASL. It is easily accesable through small pathway. The cave faces the East and the pictures are on the southern walls. There were possibly more pictures but the wind destroyed them. Only few of them survived protected by rock formation preventing its destruction from winds. There are 7 pictures, 4 of which are well preserved. The pictures are made of ochre mineral paint. The paint has two shades: mainly light brick colour and at some places dark red colour. The second shade is used as additional colouring. The most eatern picture is “a man in the form of a bird” (23 cm). The bird is probably oustrich. This can be the scene of hunting (the man is throwing something) or a totem. It is known that oustrich is the most widespread totem. Ostrich exhisted in Central Asia untill late Paleolithic period. It exhisted in deserts of Central Asia and Iran even in historic period. Chinese sources inform us about ostrich eggs imported from Central Asia to China.
There are two unfinished pictures below and to the right of the “bird-man”. Then come two animals depicted against each other. They can be two different boars or a boar and a bear. The left picture is possisbly boar. The front side is well-preserved. Some lines below the picture are obscure. They can be animal paws or men surrounding their hunt. It is worth noting that there is an arrow depicted around the ear of the animal. The survived part of the “boar” is 40 cm. Next comes larger animal(60 cm) in the position of “leap”. This is boar as well although high level of stylization makes identification of the animal difficult. The paws are not depicted in detail. Picture of boar in Central Asian rock carvings is very rare. There is another one in Northern Tajikistan and that’s all. The largest body of pictures is 85cm-long yak, possibly. Some ignore this hypothesis and suggest bear instead. The picture is well-preserved with its head and body. The back pair of paws are depicted in detail. The line of abdomen and front paws are also exact. The arrows are interesting. The largest one is “piercing” the neck of the animal. The second arrow have already “pierced” the jaw and you can see the head of it. The third arrow is flying towards the nose of the animal. The dark line under the jaw of the animal can be harpoon. The head of the arrows are different. This form of depiction is very ancient. They are popular in Paleolithic graphities of France in Nio, Portelya and Castilio.
There are some other fragments of pictures around this picture which is hard to identify. The style of Shakhty Cave pictures prove their antiquity. They are very different from other rock carvings of the Pamirs, the age of which don’t exceed 25 hundred years. The pictures are between Paleolithic realism and stylization of Bronze Age. The dating is hard considering the fact there si not analogy to them in the entire region. Even the pictures in Singanpura(India) which dates back to Paleolithic Period has small in common with Shakhty pictures. To date the pictures the archeologists dug a ditch. They found some objects that prove there was some Stone Age habitation. However, the date of habitation and pictures cannot 100% the same.
