:Ignatievka Cave

{{Short description|Cave and archaeological site in Russia}}

{{Infobox ancient site

| name = Ignatievka Cave

| native_name = Игнатьевская пещера

| alternate_name = Yamazy-Tash

| image = Ignateva cave entry.jpg

| image_size = 240

| alt =Sim river and Ignateva cave

| caption = Sim river and cave entry

| map_type = Russia

| map_alt = Ignateva cave

| map_caption = Location in Russia

| map_size = 240

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| relief = yes

| coordinates = {{coord|54|53|57|N|57|46|50|E|display=inline,title}}

| location = on the banks of the Sim River, Sim, Chelyabinsk Oblast

| region = Southern Ural Mountains

| type = limestone cave

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| epochs = Paleolithic

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Ignatievka Cave (Ignateva cave, Ignatievskaya cave, {{langx|ru|Игнатьевская пещера}}, also known as Yamazy-Tash) is a large limestone cave on the banks of the Sim River, a tributary of the Belaya river in the southern Ural Mountains of Russia.{{citation|title=Collins Dictionary of Archaeology|first=Paul G.|last=Bahn|author-link=Paul Bahn|publisher=ABC-CLIO|year=1993|isbn=0-87436-744-1|page=[https://archive.org/details/collinsdictionar0000unse_d5k1/page/224 224]|url=https://archive.org/details/collinsdictionar0000unse_d5k1/page/224}}.{{citation|url=http://www.northcongress.ural.ru/index/en/arh/public?r_id=504|title=Review of the Ural cave and rock art|first=Vladimir|last=Shirokov|publisher=The Northern Archaeological Congress|year=2002|url-status=dead|archive-url=https://archive.today/20070810220113/http://www.northcongress.ural.ru/index/en/arh/public?r_id=504|archive-date=2007-08-10}} In 1980 a partial wall painting of a female figure was discovered. The twenty-eight red dots between her legs are believed to represent the female menstrual cycle.{{citation|title=Lost Civilisations of the Stone Age|first=Richard|last=Rudgley|author-link=Richard Rudgley|publisher=Century|year=1998|isbn=0-7126-7758-5|page=196}}.{{citation|title=The Story of V: A Natural History of Female Sexuality|first=Catherine|last=Blackledge|publisher=Rutgers University Press|year=2004|page=[https://archive.org/details/storyofv00cath/page/37 37]|isbn=0-8135-3455-0|url-access=registration|url=https://archive.org/details/storyofv00cath/page/37}}.

The cave also contains microliths, remains of animals and more cave paintings, as well as a stratum of Iron Age settlement.{{citation|title=Encyclopedic Dictionary of Archaeology|first=Barbara Ann|last=Kipfer|author-link=Barbara Ann Kipfer|publisher=Springer-Verlag|year=2000|isbn=0-306-46158-7|page=250}}. Although some sources associate the paintings to the Upper Paleolithic,{{Cite journal|last1=Dublyansky|first1=Yuri|last2=Shirokov|first2=Vladimir|last3=Moseley|first3=Gina E.|last4=Kosintsev|first4=Pavel A.|last5=Edwards|first5=R. Lawrence|last6=Spötl|first6=Christoph|date=May 2021|title=230 Th dating of flowstone from Ignatievskaya Cave, Russia: Age constraints of rock art and paleoclimate inferences|journal=Geoarchaeology|language=en|volume=36|issue=3|pages=532–545|doi=10.1002/gea.21851|issn=0883-6353|pmc=8048586|pmid=33883826}} the age of the drawings continues to be debated. The radiocarbon dating of the charcoal drawings has resulted in more recent numbers, between 6,000 and 8,000 years ago. The attempt to date the red pigment of the female figure yielded no result.{{citation|title=Radiocarbon dates for pictographs in Ignatievskaya Cave, Russia: Holocene age for supposed Pleistocene fauna|first1=K. L.|last1=Steelman|first2=M. W.|last2=Rowe|first3=V. N.|last3=Shirokov|first4=J. R.|last4=Southon|journal=Antiquity|year=2002|volume=76|issue=292|pages=341–348|doi=10.1017/S0003598X00090426|url=http://www.antiquity.ac.uk/ant/076/Ant0760341.htm}}. In this respect, the age of the drawings remains unclear so far.

Ignateva Cave can be freely visited although it is best to travel via the small village of {{ill|Serpiyevka|ru|Серпиевка}}, which is off the main road past Sim, Chelyabinsk Oblast, heading eastwards, about {{convert|15|km|mi|abbr=on}}. The track to the cave is very rough and has not been improved for years. The cave mouth is about {{convert|18|m|ft|abbr=on}} above the small river backwater and reached by a metal ladder. On entering the cave visitors must stoop low as the ceiling lowers quickly to about {{convert|1|m|ft|abbr=on}} in height, and then it increases again to {{convert|2|m|ft|abbr=on}} or more. Part of the inner cave can only be reached by crawling through a very narrow space about {{convert|0.5|m|ft|abbr=on}} in height but this provides views of some of the better red ochre markings. The local guide from Serpiyevka noted that the cave was not lived in (there were no fire markings), but hypothesized that it was a sacred site mainly used for religious ceremonies and adulthood rites from the markings.

The Kapova cave is located some {{convert|120|km|mi|abbr=on}} from the Ignatievka cave.

File:Игнатьевская пещера (Ямазы-Таш).jpg|Alternative view of cave entrance

File:Вход в пещеру..jpg|Looking out from the cave

File:Рисунок первобытного человека в Игнатьевской пещере.jpg|Ochre figure of a person