Severskaya Pisanitsa

On top of a hill at the northern spur of Medvezhka mountain, two kilometres north-east of the settlement of Severka, stands a ridge of five 'mattress-shaped' granite slabs 5–7 metres high. In 1985 the teacher Viktor Pronin, on a hike with schoolchildren, noticed traces of ancient painting on them — thus the Severskaya Pisanitsa was discovered. The images are painted in shades from pale red to red-orange, the lines 10–15 millimetres wide. Researchers distinguish five groups: a large hoofed animal (probably an elk) caught in a net — a drive-hunting scene; a flock of eight to ten waterfowl; conditional anthropomorphic figures; and geometric motifs — lines, a net, a V-shaped sign. The pictograph is dated to the 3rd millennium BC. Part of the rocks was destroyed by stone quarrying in the 18th–19th centuries — the paintings survive on three of the five. Today the Severskaya Pisanitsa is listed as a federal cultural heritage site; it is one of the most accessible rock-art monuments of the Urals — half an hour from central Yekaterinburg.