Abstract
This article examines the process of forming a culture, the main characteristics of the emotional and spiritual attitude to the world, and the transition of emotions into the artistic and sensual imagery sphere. The necessity of researching petroglyphs, as the earliest sign systems, was revealed and substantiated; they reflect the initial stage of the formation of ancient art. For the first time, the model of the ancient ritual ceremonies was directly related to the religious beliefs found in the petroglyphs, with their semantic filling, which allowed to reveal the cosmogonic functions of ritual melodies in the process of perception of the world.