Sheremetyevo 2

The Sheremetyevo 2 rock art site is located on the right bank of the Ussuri River. It is 2.6 km downstream of the northern outskirts of the village of Sheremetyevo. Distance to Sheremetyevo 1 is 0.6 km, to Sheremetyevo 5 – 1.1 km. Petroglyphs are observed on vertical rock surfaces and boulders in the floodplain of the Ussuri River and on the surface of the first terrace above the floodplain. The length of the rocky cliff is 70 m, the height is up to 10 m, the petroglyphs are relatively evenly distributed almost throughout its entire length. The identified images are located both at the foot of the rock and in its upper part, at a height of 1 to 9 m from the foot. 

To date, 20 surfaces and two boulders with petroglyphs have been known within Sheremetyevo 2. Three surfaces documented by A. P. Okladnikov are not currently observed.   

 

The petroglyphs of Sheremetyevo 2 were first described by V.A.Alftan (1894) and were further explored by the expeditions of A.P. Okladnikov (1958, 1968, 1970). In the course of these studies, 15 surfaces were identified and described (20 figures). The works of A.R. Laskin (2008, 2009) revealed 2 more surfaces with petroglyphs and discovered new images on one of the surfaces previously described by A.P. Okladnikov. In 2012, thanks to information received from the local historian V.A.Vasiliev (town of Vyazemsky), 115 m northeast of the eastern end of the rocky cliff with petroglyphs, V.R.Laskin identified and described a rounded boulder with petroglyphs.

In 2017 and 2019 joint efforts of the Center for Paleo-Art of the Institute of Archeology of the Russian Academy of Sciences, the  Khabarovsk Regional Heritage Preservation Center, and the RSSDA Laboratory at the Sheremetyevo 2 site, a complete mapping of the rocky cliff was carried out and documentation of all known stones and surfaces with images (17 surfaces and 1 stone) with the determination of their coordinates. Among them, in 2017, three previously unknown surfaces with petroglyphs were identified and documented. In 2019 E. S. Levanova discovered another boulder with drawings in the floodplain of the Ussuri River, but it was not possible to document it due to the high water level.

The layout of the drawings at the site of Sheremetyevo 2.  

Okladnikov, 1971

Photographing April 25-26, 2019.

Sheremetyevo 2 petroglyphs