Петроглифы Чальмн-Варрэ = Čalmn-Varrė petroglyphs / Колпаков Е. М., Шумкин В. Я., Мурашкин А. И. ; Институт истории материальной культуры РАН, Кольская археологическая экспедиция. - Санкт-Петербург : [б. и.], 2018 (ООО «Издательство «ЛЕМА»).

Foreword Professor Knut Helskog, University of Tromso (Norway) Petroglyphs of Čalmn-Varrė This is the second publication of a petroglyph site on the Kola Peninsula in NW Russia by members of the Kola archaeological expedition of the Institute for the History of Material Culture of the Russian Academy of Sciences, in St.Petersburg. Like the former publication on the petroglyphs at Kanozero in 2012, the aim is to present Čalmn-Varrė, here dated to 4000–2000 BC, in great detail for anybody who desires to study the site. The Russian and English texts will reach a wide international audience in the research to understand north Eurasian rock art in relation to hunter-gatherer populations. The last part of the book, a photo gallery, gives a good presentation of the panels and the petroglyphs themselves. The site is not easily accessible and few will experience the petroglyphs in situ and the changing seasonal contexts that might add some understanding about what they might have meant for those who made and used them. No text can replace that experience, but gives insight about the history of research and methods of documentation. The main thrust is focused on describing the individual figures, the compositions and the totality of each of the 10 panels along the shores of the Ponoy river. The figures, – zoomorphs, anthropomorphs, hoofs, “geometric” figures, cup-marks and vague/indecisive figures – , are presented by drawings and photographs including the smallest pecked marks and all in scale. The authors also point out morphological similarities to figures in other regions of northernmost Europe. Even though there is no sites in northernmost Eurasia identical to Čalmn-Varrė in absolute and relative figurative morphology and content, as well as location, the figures themselves fall within the general repertoire of northern rock art. But as a whole Čalmn-Varrė is unique like so many of the other sites in the north. As such, the book is a valuable addition to the increasing numbers of databases of rock art in northernmost Europe and is a welcome and significant addition to the literature that will inspire and form the basis for future research. 5