Problems of Indexing in Documentation and Mapping of Rock Art Sites

In early 21st century, there were a number of tendencies in the search for rock art, mainly due to the development of digital technologies. The development of documentation and analysis tools (mapping of sites using drones and GNSS receivers, digital photography, three-dimensional modeling of individual sites elements) allowed researchers to start a continuous (rather than a selective) process documentation on the new technological base, using elements of a system approach. The next stage of these studies, to the extent that the quality of the documentation is maintained, is to accumulate knowledge about rock art in geographical information systems and databases. However, existing indexing systems of sites do not withstand the new digital reality and, for various reasons, are not suitable for use in digital information systems. The article summarizes the experience of creation of indexing systems in the studies of the beginning of the 20th — beginning of the 21st century. The authors present the principles of “topographic” indexing system, based on ignoring semantics and chronological attribution of images and thus separating the documentation of rock art from its interpretation.