Kam and drum: new evidence for the use of rock affordances in shamanic petroglyphs in southern Siberia

Although shamanism and rock art have been widely discussed worldwide in recent decades, surprisingly little is still known about shamanic rock art in Siberia. What makes Siberian shamanism different from other forms of shamanism, however, is the fact that in Siberia it is a historical indigenous cultural tradition, not just a theory of interpretation. Siberian shamanism is also rich in ethnographic record, yet this data has rarely been used by archaeologists. The article presents new research from the territory of the Republic of Khakassia in southern Siberia, where a unique combination of petroglyphs depicting kams, or ‘shamans’, and the shape of the rock and its natural features have been observed. Importantly, this replicates an earlier discovery in the Minuinsk Basin, where a shaman holding a drum was placed in a large rock crevice. Rather than generalising, this research contextualises the issue and for the first time identifies a local symbolic pattern in Siberian shamanic rock art, which, based on ethnography, may refer to an initiation ceremony involving a symbolic journey into the interior of a mountain. Finally, implications for the broader issue of shamanism and rock art are shortly discussed.