During the last Kola expedition organized by the Institute for the History of Material Culture, St. Petersburg archaeologists discovered ancient artifacts next to the famous rock paintings of this peninsula, the age of which was not as difficult to determine as the petroglyphs themselves.
And thus, as Vladimir Perevalov, director of the Petroglyphs of Kanozero museum, told TASS, the hypothesis, once put forward by the most daring researchers of this historical monument, is finally confirmed that the Kola rock paintings are at least 6 thousand years old. That is, they are fifteen hundred years older than the famous Cheops pyramid.
This monument of antiquity, designated as "The complex of petroglyphs - rock carvings of the IV-II millennia BC", is located in the Tersk region in the southeast of the Murmansk region. The artifacts found here recently were identified by scientists as tools for creating petroglyphs, and therefore the age of the rock paintings themselves, one might say, is determined quite accurately.
Petroglyphs of Kanozero are now among the five world monuments of the Neolithic era. This unique complex, stretching along the shores and on the Kanozero islands of the Kola Peninsula, includes more than a thousand images: all kinds of animals and people, fishing and hunting scenes, as well as solar and lunar symbols.
For the first time, these petroglyphs were discovered in 1997, and at first it was believed that they were created in the IV-II millennia BC, hence its current name, which we cited a little higher. Now, Vladimir Perevalov is sure, the name of the complex of petroglyphs on the Kola Peninsula will need to be corrected according to its real age …