Rock paintings of Mongol’jin Rock in Eastern Sayan Mountain Ridge as an object of research: from P.A. Kropotkin to modern times
The data about investigations of the Rock Paintings located in the south-eastern part of the Eastern Sayan Mountain Ridge are considered in the article. The massive cretaceous rock Mongoljin with the paintings is situated on the border between the local Kropotkin mountain ridge and Oka highland. According to the administrative division into districts, the archaeological site with the arts is on the west of the present day Buryatia Republic in the Oka district, which has been hard-to-reach for a long time due to the absence of the good roads and bridges across the Mountain Rivers. These reasons have determined a very low degree of archaeological coverage in the region. In the first half of the 19<sup>th</sup> century, the rock paintings at Mongoljin Rock were examined for the first time and that was also when the first information about these rock paintings was published in the scientific literature. During the XX century, the data about Mongoljin Rock paintings were referred for the comparative investigations or demonstration different speculations. The only research work of that time stated the new stage of these rock paintings investigations. The analysis of all published data and its comparing with the contemporary data obtained in the course of the field survey of the rock paintings themselves allowed the conclusion that Mongoljin rock paintings has not been examined in-situ after the first data about them were published by P.A. Kropotkin.