Mountain passes as sources of information about routes of human penetration into the territory of Oka Plateau in the Sayan Mountains

The Oka Plateau surrounded with mountain ridges is the part of the Sayan Mountain system which is difficult to access. The inaccessibility of this plateau has held the relevance from the ancient times till the middle of the XX century. In this relation for a long time mountain passes had special significance as the more important places on the paths of the people’s routs. This study shows the perspective of the mountain passes investigations in terms of left traces of material culture and not utilitarian intellectual activities. The purpose is determining the time and trend of the human groups’ movement in the frames of the Oka Plateau. The study considers the three mountain passes. The first of them is an example of the human groups’ communication in- side the Oka Plateau territory formed as far back as Stone Age. On the example of the stone mound built on the mountain pass in the Sailag riverhead, we can say about one of the paths of the human penetration to the territory of the Oka Plateau from the Angara Region. At the same time the questions concerning the age of installing this stone mound and its purpose remained unsolved. The authors consider argumentative issues related with the most known for the present days mountain pass Nuhu-Daban, which is located on the path leading from Tunka River valley to the Oka riverhead and further to the Oka River basin. This mountain pass was several times described in details in the records of travelers and researchers in XIX century that attracts the interest to this place even today. Nowadays there are suggestions about artificial character of the hole in the rock at the pass. Occurred investigations show the hole in the rock originated by the natural process.

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