• The Anashensky pine forest
• «The Novoselovskay» pisanitsa
• The Paleontologial site «Kurtak»
• «The Lighthouse» monument
• «The Large cape» pisanitsa

The Anashensky pine forest

There is a unique pine forest on the fertile Novoselovskaya land, at the northwest of the Yenisei right bank (5849 hectares), which takes up 18 km of sandy soils and stretches from the Krasnoyarsk water reservoir coast northward of the Anash village, to the east to the Koma gulf. The Anashensky pine forest which is washed by the sea is a nature miracle place where you can easily see a graceful roe slowly crossing the road.

The Anashensky pine forest reminds a whale which buried its nose almost into the very edge of the Krasnoyarsk water reservoir located just opposite the regional Novoselovo center. According to one legend the Sun took pity on a huge whale which admiring an evening glow didn't notice that the Ocean had left, and that is why it covered the whale with shining pines to protect it from the scorching heat.
The Anashensky pine forest is a riddle for biologists. Experts can't explain why it extends like a narrow tape which is 18 kilometers long in the direction of prevailing winds - from the west to the east. Generally there are mixed forests in the area, but here the forests are dark-coniferous. All the pines are the same- straight and slim. Their root system differs from the system of all pine forests in our country, it’s referred not to an anchor type but to a surface type although there is no rocky ground laying under top soil layers and preventing from the growth of a taproot.

According to historical documents, at the end of the century, before last forest stands in the Anashensky pine forest were damaged with a forest depredation and fires ,and as a result on a vast territory coniferous trees were changed with deciduous ones. To keep this surprising nature creation, in 1907 Anashensky pine forest was declared to be the wildlife area, and in 1987 it was given the nature sanctuary status, the pine forest became a protected territory where hunting and a forest depredation are forbidden. There are young pine trees in the «heart» of the forest which were planted nearly a quarter of the century ago.

A picturesque pine forest near the Krasnoyarsk sea coast is a favorite place for the rest. A balmy air, clean sands, unusual pines with a yellow bark, the absence of mosquitoes and other insects arouse pacification and only bright thoughts.

The Anashensky pine forest’s landscapes are attractive for tourists and can be seen far away: there is a small bridge laying above a brook, a tiny glade with a summerhouse and the place for a fire - where at any moment you can make tea or sit down to a diminutive table. There are mobile rest homes which in summer are put on a picturesque forest edge, besides there are parking places, playing fields, and places for domestic waste.

«The Novoselovskay» pisanitsa

Local population and scientists have been always interested in ancient drawings which were cut off in the rocks. Peter the Great was the first who showed a scientific interest to the monument. Under his protection ethnographical monuments were opened on the Yenisei rocks (the XVII-XX centuries) by the expeditions of D. G. Messershmidt's, I.G.Gmelin's, P. S. Pallas (XVIII century). People from the Iron Age, hunters of monstrous mammoths and Siberian hinoceroses, left on the rocks remarkable artworks and stories from their life.

So, the researcher Daniel Gotlib Messershmidt (1685-1735) found « The Novoselovskaya» pisanitsa (or «The town wall») during his 7 years expedition in Siberia in 1722. But scientists of that time couldn’t solve the secrets of the pisanitsa, although their works were well known in Russia and abroad.

Many times scientists tried to found out secret of rocks,making sketches and descriptions of the drawings. «The Novoselovskaya» pisanitsa was copied in 1847 by M.L.Kastren, and in 1883 was investigated by M. N. Martyanov. The new stage in researches of the archaeological monument was connected with the construction of the Krasnoyarsk water reservoir and the necessity to rescue rock drawings in its zone. The biggest and the most examined Yenisei monuments were destroyed. But later Y.A.Sher started a range of restoration works: thousands of drawings were copied, many photos were made, some new ways of making copies using a tracing-paper, a polyethylene film, and polymerizing plastics were applied. Unfortunately, during this work A.V.Adrianov’s (Sher's predecessor) investigation, his descriptions of the monument and copies were not used. They were not compared with new materials that is why it isn't always clear, what drawings were rediscovered, and what were copied, as the descriptions of the monuments location, where A.V.Adrianov's and Y.A.Sher's works were carried out, coincide only approximately.

The archaeological monument «The Novoselovskaya» is located on a coastal rock «The town wall», right opposite the Novoselovo village on the right bank of the Yenisei river . The drawing belongs to the Iron Age and represents an image of people’s and animals' figures, a quiver with arrows and tamga- signs which were painted with red ochre.

The Paleontological site «Kurtak»

In 201 B.C. the Scythian civilization fell under the invasion of hunnskie tribes. Having come to the Khakass - Minusinsk hollow, the gyangun tribe increased the national structure of the local tagarsk population (dinlins), as a result appeared a new culture which got the name tashtykskaya (according to materials which were collected after excavations of a burial ground on the river Tashtyk near the village Bateni on the Yenisei). The archaeological culture of the Iron Age of the Southern Siberia (the 1st century BC - the 5th century AD) is richly presented in the Novoselovsky region of the Krasnoyarsk region. The ancient man site near the village Kurtak helps to restore theoretically the life of people of the mighty tashtykskaya culture on the last stage of the primitive-communal relations disintegration.

 The ancient man of the tashtykskaya culture constantly changed his settlement place in search of fuel that is why the tilt cart on wheels became the main dwelling, much better protecting from winds and frosts, than freezing-through walls of a ground or a stone house, besides a tent is convenient for an urgent evacuation of property in the case of an attack.

During excavations of the paleontologial site tips of darts and spears, stone tools were found. Days-long economic and especially military trips played an important role in economics of tashtykets in the conditions of emerging of the acquisition system at the expense of systematic seizures of their neighbors’ inventory. A war was a dangerous, but a profitable trade. The Chinese constructed the well-known Great Wall to protect themselves from tashtykskie attacks. Like many peoples, tashtykets passed the stage of an aggressive war, having soon made the income taxation of the conquered people and tribes the main source of profit.

Near Kurtak archeologists found the bones of a reindeer, a Siberian mountain goat, a bison, a saber-toothed tiger and a woolly rhinoceros. The Iron Age people are hunters for monstrous mammoths and Siberian rhinoceroses. A semi-nomadic cattle breeding and stock farming (horses, goats and camels) were the economy basis during the tashtyksky era. A deer becomes a saddle animal. The horse breeding played a significant role as a horse for nomads always was the life basis and many buried subjects of the tashtykskaya culture and numerous rock paintings, for example, the Novoselovskaya monument confirm this fact.

It is interesting that chicken breeding was widespread during the tashtykskaya era. Eggs were put into graves with the buried. Also special pins with heads on which ends volume or flat cock images were placed were found.

Farming development during the tashtykskaya era was closely connected with a wide application of iron, iron axes with holes for a handle, iron tips of mattocks for soil processing and sickles, along with a considerably advanced mattock serving for loosening and wooden plows with animals were applied.

«The Lighthouse» monument

In the south of the Krasnoyarsk region there is a set of rocky breeds concentrated on river and lake coasts, on tops and slopes of heights which are convenient for drawing. The local population called the rocks with drawings as «painted mountains», and the separate painted cornices – «pisanets», or «pisanitsas».

The world acquaintance with the Siberian pisanitsas began with the expedition of D. G. Messershmidt's, I.G.Gmelin's, P. S. Pallas's (XVIII century) when 6 pisanitsas were opened on Yenisei rocks, including «The Lighthouse» pisanitsa noting the lighthouse mountain on the left coast of the Krasnoyarsk water reservoir.

There were images of a horseman shooting from a bow and hunting an animal, two animal figures and two tamga- signs. All these pictures were made in the techniques of stuffing and engraving. Scientists refer «The Lighthouse» drawings to the Iron Age and the middle ages.

Intuitively, archeologists discussed what the drawings could hide: magic figures put with religious purposes, messages for descendants telling about the main life events of the generation or a graphic expression of the religious language. The different interpretation of plots in a certain degree was explained by contradictory opinions concerning whether to consider the figures on pisanitsa as ancient drawings or as the writing development stages.

Probably, an ancient master drew tashtyksky myths and epic legends in which a hero is a horseman with a magic horse enters into a fight with numerous enemies and wins , thanks to protection of the great bear. This plot can be seen on many archaeological monuments of the Minusinsk hollow, for example, on wooden slats in a tashtyksky crypt at the mountain Tepsey.

Along with battle scenes, images of running animals also tell about many things. Maybe, these wild animals is a hunters’ bag, it is also known that the semi-nomadic cattle breeding was the basis of the ancient man's activity during the Iron Age and the Middle Ages.

«The Large cape» pisanitsa

The Novoselovsky region of the Krasnoyarsk territory is generous in giving remains of the ancient history the biggest part of which is represented by rock paintings - pisanitsas. Ancient images are the monuments of a spiritual culture to which people worshipped for a long historical time. The cult of pisanitsas is one of the most widespread among the Siberian people and is known since the Stone Age. The hunting-trade magic, the reproduction magic and the fractional magic are connected with it.

It was N. V. Leontyev, the archeologist of the Minusinsk museum who discovered the pisanitsa. There were 6 drawings on 5 planes with images of horses, bulls and tamga- signs.
In 4 km to the South from the Large cape village on the bank of the Large cape lake there is a settlement place of the aeneolithic era. Fragments of arrow tips, scrapers and the retouched silver were found there.
Today, the Krasnoyarsk region petroglyphs, are being seriously studied, many of them including «The Large cape» pisanitsa, already became a place of tourists' pilgrimage, a surprising museum under an open sky.