Petroglyphs, images carved in stone, have been known to the inhabitants of Karelia since ancient times. This is evidenced by the name of the cape and the nearby village on Lake Onega — Devil’s Nose. They got their name thanks to one of the large images — the stone depicts a human-like creature, resembling a demon.
Scientific research of Onega petroglyphs began in 1848, when an employee of St. Petersburg Mineralogical Museum, Konstantin Grevingk, visited these places. In the same year, Petr Shved, a teacher at Petrozavodsk Gymnasium, wrote a small article about the “drawings on the rocks” in the local newspaper. At the beginning of the 19th century, the Onega petroglyphs were studied by Swedish explorer Gustav Hallström.
In the late 1920s, museum specialists from the State Hermitage Museum extracted a part of the rock art depicting the plot called the “Roof of the World”. To do this, they had to blow up the rock. The petroglyphs are still on display in the museum. The fragment of the rock was brought to Petrozavodsk, to the Karelian State Museum of Regional Studies in 1927. On this slab, there is a boat with people, a deer, two wood grouses and an animal that could not be identified. These petroglyphs later became the basis for the logo of the National Museum of the Republic of Karelia. Researchers assume that the boats with people on the rocks are the “boats of the dead” that go to another world. According to another version, such images symbolize a tribe or a family.
In the 1930s, expeditions of Leningrad archeologist Vladislav Ravdonikas and Karelian archeologist, ethnographer and writer Alexander Linevsky worked in Karelia. Linevsky was the one who discovered a significant group of petroglyphs on the White Sea. For his discoveries, Linevsky was awarded the State Prize of the Karelian ASSR. In 1970–1980 Karelian archeologist, Yury Savvateev, discovered new petroglyphs in the estuaries of the Vodla and Chernaya rivers and on the island of Maly Gury.
Now there are three fragments of plates with ancient Onega carvings in the new museum exhibition: in 2009, the collection received two additional fragments discovered by the archaeological expedition of Alexander Zhulnikov on Peri Nos cape. Groups of petroglyphs are still being found today.
Scientific research of Onega petroglyphs began in 1848, when an employee of St. Petersburg Mineralogical Museum, Konstantin Grevingk, visited these places. In the same year, Petr Shved, a teacher at Petrozavodsk Gymnasium, wrote a small article about the “drawings on the rocks” in the local newspaper. At the beginning of the 19th century, the Onega petroglyphs were studied by Swedish explorer Gustav Hallström.
In the late 1920s, museum specialists from the State Hermitage Museum extracted a part of the rock art depicting the plot called the “Roof of the World”. To do this, they had to blow up the rock. The petroglyphs are still on display in the museum. The fragment of the rock was brought to Petrozavodsk, to the Karelian State Museum of Regional Studies in 1927. On this slab, there is a boat with people, a deer, two wood grouses and an animal that could not be identified. These petroglyphs later became the basis for the logo of the National Museum of the Republic of Karelia. Researchers assume that the boats with people on the rocks are the “boats of the dead” that go to another world. According to another version, such images symbolize a tribe or a family.
In the 1930s, expeditions of Leningrad archeologist Vladislav Ravdonikas and Karelian archeologist, ethnographer and writer Alexander Linevsky worked in Karelia. Linevsky was the one who discovered a significant group of petroglyphs on the White Sea. For his discoveries, Linevsky was awarded the State Prize of the Karelian ASSR. In 1970–1980 Karelian archeologist, Yury Savvateev, discovered new petroglyphs in the estuaries of the Vodla and Chernaya rivers and on the island of Maly Gury.
Now there are three fragments of plates with ancient Onega carvings in the new museum exhibition: in 2009, the collection received two additional fragments discovered by the archaeological expedition of Alexander Zhulnikov on Peri Nos cape. Groups of petroglyphs are still being found today.
