- Ignateva Cave
Ignateva cave, also known as Ignatievka cave, Ignatievskaya cave ( _ru. Игнатьевская пещера), or Yamazy-Tash, is a large
limestone cave on the banks of theSim River , a tributary of the Belaya river in the southernUral mountains ofRussia . [citation|title=Collins Dictionary of Archaeology|first=Paul G.|last=Bahn|publisher=ABC-CLIO|year=1993|isbn=0874367441|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.] It was in 1980 the site of the discovery of a venus figure, with twenty-eight red dots between her legs that are believed to represent the femalemenstrual cycle . [citation|title=Lost Civilisations of the Stone Age|first=Richard|last=Rudgley|publisher=Century|year=1998|isbn=0712677585|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=37|isbn=0813534550.] The cave also containsmicroliths , remains of animals, and many othercave painting s, as well as a layer ofIron Age materials.citation|title=Encyclopedic Dictionary of Archaeology|first=Barbara Ann|last=Kipfer|publisher=Springer-Verlag|year=2000|isbn=0306461587|page=250.] Although some sources date the paintings in the cave to theUpper Paleolithic ,radiocarbon dating of thepigment s in the paintings places their origin more recently, between 6000 and 8000 years ago. [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|url=http://www.antiquity.ac.uk/ant/076/Ant0760341.htm.]References
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