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# Petroglyphs of the White Sea and Lake Onega inscribed on the UNESCO World Heritage List
- URL: https://theparnassian.com/en/institut-arkheologii-ran-o-vkliuchenii-petroglifov-karelii-v-spisok-iunesko/
- Published: 2021-07-29T11:12:00.000Z
- Updated: 2026-10-02T18:58:51.000Z
- Author: Alexandr Radayev
- Tags: Archaeology, Art, Heritage, Science, Ethnography

Institute of Archaeology of the Russian Academy of Sciences on the inscription of the Karelian petroglyphs on the UNESCO list:.

For the first time, monuments of Russian rock art have been inscribed on the UNESCO World Heritage List: at the extended 44th session of the World Heritage Committee, which is considering online the sites nominated in 2020 and 2021, it was decided to include the petroglyphs of Lake Onega and the White Sea.

“This is one of the largest sites of its kind in Europe, with petroglyphs documenting the Neolithic culture of Fennoscandia. The serial property comprises 33 monuments in two component parts 300 km apart: 22 petroglyph sites on Lake Onega in the Pudozh District, which together contain more than 1,200 images, and 3,411 images at 11 sites on the shore of the White Sea in the Belomorsk District. The rock carvings at Lake Onega mainly depict birds, animals, half-human and half-animal figures, as well as geometric shapes that may symbolise the moon and the sun. The White Sea petroglyphs consist mainly of images showing scenes of hunting and seafaring, including the relevant equipment, as well as the tracks of animals and people. They display considerable artistic quality and bear witness to the creativity of the Stone Age. The petroglyphs are associated with various places, including settlements and burials,” runs the announcement on the UNESCO website.

The White Sea petroglyphs were discovered in 1926 by a Leningrad student of ethnography, A.M. Linevsky. More than 3,000 of them are known. The largest complex of monuments, with some 2,000 images, is Zalavruga (Old and New). Separate monuments on islands have also been recorded, with varying numbers of images, from several dozen to several hundred: Besovy Sledki, Yerpin Pudas, Zolotets and others. The principal theme of the White Sea petroglyphs is man and his manifold activity: multi-figure narrative compositions show scenes of hunting at sea, of pursuing game over the snow, and numerous images of ungulates (chiefly elk and reindeer) and of boats. Most of the petroglyphs are dated to the Neolithic and Eneolithic.

The Onega petroglyphs, discovered in 1848 by the geologist K.I. Grewingk, form one of the largest concentrations of petroglyphs in Northern Europe. On the eastern shore of Lake Onega, along a stretch of shoreline 21 km long, some 20 clusters have been recorded, containing more than 1,300 images. More than half of the images are waterfowl, although there are also figures of elk, reindeer, bears, wolves, beavers, otters, ringed seals, fish and snakes, and anthropomorphic figures occur as well. Another popular motif of the Onega petroglyphs is discs, circles and crescents, which scholars interpret as lunar and solar symbols. The Onega petroglyphs are dated to about the 3rd to the first half of the 2nd millennium BC; for the oldest images the 4th millennium BC is not ruled out. Fragments of stone slabs bearing Onega petroglyphs are on display in the State Hermitage and in the Karelian State Museum of Local Lore in Petrozavodsk.

The petroglyphs of Karelia are an object of close study by the staff of the Centre for Palaeoart of the Institute of Archaeology of the Russian Academy of Sciences. One of the results of the study of the White Sea and Onega petroglyphs is the section “North-West of the European Part of Russia” on the Centre's website “Petroglyphs of Northern Eurasia”: [http://rockart-studies.ru/](http://rockart-studies.ru/?ref=theparnassian.com)

We congratulate our colleagues: the Department for the Protection of Cultural Heritage Sites of the Republic of Karelia, the Likhachev Russian Research Institute of Cultural and Natural Heritage and the Karelian Research Centre, through whose efforts the petroglyphs of Karelia are now under the protection of UNESCO.

The Karelian petroglyphs can be viewed on a virtual tour of the exhibition “Across Centuries and Spaces: The Rock Art of Russia”: [https://www.mospano.ru/museums/2019/rio1d/](https://www.mospano.ru/museums/2019/rio1d/?ref=theparnassian.com)