Ignatievka Cave (''Ignateva cave'', ''Ignatievskaya cave'', russian: Игнатьевская пещера, also known as ''Yamazy-Tash'') is a large

limestone Limestone ( calcium carbonate ) is a type of carbonate sedimentary rock which is the main source of the material lime. It is composed mostly of the minerals calcite and aragonite, which are different crystal forms of . Limestone forms whe ...

cave A cave or cavern is a natural void in the ground, specifically a space large enough for a human to enter. Caves often form by the weathering of rock and often extend deep underground. The word ''cave'' can refer to smaller openings such as sea ...

on the banks of the

Sim River The Sim ( ba, Эҫем, russian: Сим) is a river in Chelyabinsk Oblast and the Bashkortostan, Republic of Bashkortostan in Russia. It is a tributary of the Belaya (Kama), Belaya, part of the Volga Drainage basin, watershed. Its length is , and i ...

, a tributary of the Belaya river in the southern

Ural Mountains The Ural Mountains ( ; rus, Ура́льские го́ры, r=Uralskiye gory, p=ʊˈralʲskʲɪjə ˈɡorɨ; ba, Урал тауҙары) or simply the Urals, are a mountain range that runs approximately from north to south through western ...

Russia Russia (, , ), or the Russian Federation, is a transcontinental country spanning Eastern Europe and Northern Asia. It is the largest country in the world, with its internationally recognised territory covering , and encompassing one-eig ...

. In 1980 a parietal wall painting of a female figure was discovered. The twenty-eight red dots between her legs are believed to represent the female menstrual cycle. The cave also contains

microliths A microlith is a small stone tool usually made of flint or chert and typically a centimetre or so in length and half a centimetre wide. They were made by humans from around 35,000 to 3,000 years ago, across Europe, Africa, Asia and Australia. Th ...

, remains of animals and more cave paintings, as well as a stratum of

Iron Age The Iron Age is the final epoch of the three-age division of the prehistory and protohistory of humanity. It was preceded by the Stone Age ( Paleolithic, Mesolithic, Neolithic) and the Bronze Age ( Chalcolithic). The concept has been mostl ...

settlement.. Although some sources associate the paintings to the

Upper Paleolithic The Upper Paleolithic (or Upper Palaeolithic) is the third and last subdivision of the Paleolithic or Old Stone Age. Very broadly, it dates to between 50,000 and 12,000 years ago (the beginning of the Holocene), according to some theories coin ...

, the age of the drawings continues to be debated. The radiocarbon dating of the charcoal drawings has resulted in more recent numbers, between 6,000 and 8,000 years ago. The attempt to date the red pigment of the female figure yielded no result.. In this respect, the age of the drawings remains unclear so far. Ignateva Cave can be freely visited although it is best to travel via the small village of , which is off the main road past Sim, Chelyabinsk Oblast, heading eastwards, about . The track to the cave is very rough and has not been improved for years. The cave mouth is about above the small river backwater and reached by a metal ladder. On entering the cave visitors must stoop low as the ceiling lowers quickly to about in height, and then it increases again to or more. Part of the inner cave can only be reached by crawling through a very narrow space about in height but this provides views of some of the better red ochre markings. The local guide from Serpiyevka noted that the cave was not lived in (there were no fire markings), but hypothesized that it was a sacred site mainly used for religious ceremonies and adulthood rites from the markings. The

Kapova cave , image = Капова пещера.jpg , image_size = 240 , alt =Kapova cave , caption = Kapova cave entrance , map_type = Russia , map_alt = Kapova cave , map_caption = Location in Russia , map_size = 240 , altitude_m = , altitude_ ...

is located some from the Ignatievka cave. File:Игнатьевская пещера (Ямазы-Таш).jpg, Alternative view of cave entrance File:Вход в пещеру..jpg, Looking out from the cave File:Рисунок первобытного человека в Игнатьевской пещере.jpg, Ochre figure of a person

References

{{Navbox prehistoric caves Caves of Russia Limestone caves Caves containing pictograms Landforms of Chelyabinsk Oblast Archaeological sites in Russia