1 April 2023 The Future is the Product of the Past

Artvin Demirkapı/Arılı rock paintings give information about Anatolian Bronze Age Nomadic

Rock paintings are material cultural assets that provide us with unique information about the socio-cultural structure, religious beliefs, and rituals, imagination, and nature of the nomadic communities of the period.

The Eastern Black Sea Region in Anatolia, Erzurum-Kars-Ardahan Plateau, and Hakkari-Van Region in Eastern Anatolia are home to rock drawings created by nomadic people as a form of communication, especially at a time when writing was unavailable.

Artvin Demirkapı/Arılı rock paintings give information about the life of nomadic communities

Demirkapı/Arılı rock paintings are located in a rocky area called Namazgah, at an altitude of 2200 m from the sea, 20 km away from Arhavi district in Artvin province, 6.5 km southwest of Arılı Plateau.

The region where the Artvin Arılı (Demirkapı) Plateau Rock Paintings are located
The region where the Artvin Arılı (Demirkapı) Plateau Rock Paintings are located.

Continuing his studies in this region, Atatürk University Faculty of Letters, History Department Lecturer Assoc. Dr. Oktay Özgül said that during their work within the scope of “Surveys of Artvin Province and its Districts”, they identified 56 paintings on 11 rocks containing various subjects, and they carried out photographing and drawing studies.

Oktay Özgül said that the ones usually depicted in rock paintings include mountain goat motifs, animated deer with exaggerated horns, hunting and trap scenes, sun course, and cavalry; He also pointed out that carefully drawn fish paintings, whose examples have not been seen before in Anatolia, also occupy a special place.

Özgül stated that “the rock paintings also contain themes that reflect a kind of nomadic life, including symbols that show the ritual area and paintings that depict the daily flow of pastoral life,” and stated that the two cultures carry traces of both sea and high plateau cultures.

Özgül gives the following information in the article “Artvin Arılı (Demirkapı) Plateau Rock Paintings” published in December 2021 by Belleten Journal.

It is surprising that the beliefs of Siberian shamanism are depicted in rock paintings

“The fact that these people, who carry out animal husbandry and fishing together, see rowboats/boats as a part of their rituals, makes the field of rock painting even more mystical. Scenes of boats, fish, and caught fish reflecting the marine culture appear as depictions that have never been seen before in the immediate surroundings and other regions.

In particular, we were surprised by the depiction of beliefs rooted in Siberian Shamanism, such as rowboats/boats transporting souls of people or other living creatures to other worlds. However, the depiction of people/shamans traveling between worlds with open hands on a mountain goat and another unidentified animal is also very interesting. Again, tent painting, drawn in a primitive form in a painting, appears as an element that clearly shows an important part of the oba life. In addition, the hunting scene in rock No. XII reflects an essential feature of hunter-gatherer life. Similar examples of such scenes can be found in the Kars Digor/Indirect rock paintings in the nearby region.”

Rock paintings point to Bronze Age culture unity

Özgül, who drew attention to the fact that the pecked method was used in addition to the striking-carving-line technique, which is frequently used in Eastern Anatolian rock paintings, said that another important piece of data is the similar rock painting examples of Erzurum-Hakkari mountainous region; He states that it also contains similar stone statues and that these features indicate the cultural unity of the two regions in the Bronze Age.

Özgül said, “There are difficulties in dating the rock paintings. The absence of any kurgan, necropolis, or settlement remains in the immediate vicinity makes it difficult to date the paintings. However, the formal features of the animal depictions in the rock paintings and the comparison of the construction techniques with the surrounding geographies by analogy gave us some ideas on this subject. Based on this, we can say that the Demirkapı/Arılıkaya paintings were made in the Early Bronze Age and the Middle Bronze Age.”

Why might Bronze Age people have chosen the region?

Putting forward two views as to why the region might have been chosen by groups of people, Assoc. Dr. Oktay Özgül said that it is highly probable that the first of these was the ritual area of the region because; He says that there are depictions of shamanism in the paintings and that such ceremonial scenes, which have become widespread among steppe tribes since the Middle Bronze Age and appear as a belief culture, are very clearly seen in open-air temples such as Saymalıtaş-Tamgalısay. He also stated that similar ritual scenes also stand out in Kars/Digor Dolaylı’s rock paintings.

A second opinion is; is that it can be thought of as a highland of communities that lead a nomadic life. In this view, Özgül says; “As it is known, steppe communities migrated to higher places in summer and to lower places in winter throughout history. We can understand the existence of life similar to this one from the independent pictures on the petroglyphs. Hunting scenes in rock paintings, tents, fires, hearth, wild animals, etc. depictions appear as scenes from the life of the highland. We think that when the entire rocky area is scanned, more rock paintings will be found. It may be possible to find new compositions such as entertainment, games, wars, which give more detailed information about the highland life in new rock paintings.”

Artvin Arılı (Demirkapı) Plateau Rock Paintings Pointing out that they also provide information about the animal fauna seen in the region during the Bronze Age and now extinct, Özgül said, “The rock paintings also give us information about the animal fauna in the region. “We can state that a figure in the pictures, which we interpreted as a bison, is probably a Caucasian bison and is extinct.”

You can read the full article from the December 2021 issue of Belleten Journal.

Banner
Related Post

Ancient terracotta dancers, and musicians unearthed in China

13 November 2022

13 November 2022

Chinese archaeologists recently discovered a large group of terracotta figurines from a tomb in a group dating to the Northern...

Great Wall Castle Remains Found in China’s Shaanxi

8 June 2021

8 June 2021

The remains of a Great Wall castle dating back to the Ming Dynasty (1368-1644) were discovered in northwest China’s Shaanxi...

Ancient Ruins of an Ancient Capital Found in Beijing

15 March 2021

15 March 2021

After two years of excavation, Chinese archaeologists recently exposed Zhongdu, the capital city of the Jin Dynasty (1115-1234) next to...

Earliest Modern Human Genome Identified

7 April 2021

7 April 2021

The fossilized skull of a woman in the Czech Republic provided the oldest modern human genome to date, which has...

Researchers excavating the burial site along Caleta Vítor Bay in northern Chile found an Inka Tunic or unku

15 February 2023

15 February 2023

A recently published study, co-authored by a research professor at George Washington University, looks at the Inka Empire’s (also known...

8000-year-old with balcony architectural structure belonging to the Prehistoric period found in Anatolia

31 October 2021

31 October 2021

During the excavations in Domuztepe mound, it was revealed that an architectural structure thought to be 7-8 thousand years old...

Researchers Finds Nearly 500 Ancient Ceremonial Sites in Southern Mexico with Lidar Technique

26 October 2021

26 October 2021

A team of international researchers led by the University of Arizona reported last year that they had uncovered the largest...

Hidden 13th-century carving of ‘face of Christ’ discovered in Ballymore, Ireland

12 May 2022

12 May 2022

At Ballymore, in the county of Westmeath, Ireland, sunlight led to an interesting and special discovery. The sunlight revealed that...

Elamite clay tablet discovered 4500 years old, in southwest Iran

4 December 2021

4 December 2021

A clay tablet, estimated to be from the Elam period, about 4500 years old, was recently discovered in southwestern Iran....

A Gold Mourning Ring Found on The Isle of Man

21 April 2021

21 April 2021

The ring found with a metal detector on the Isle of Man in December 2020 will be exhibited in the...

3500-year-old menhir discovered in Mahbubabad, India

15 March 2022

15 March 2022

Six feet in height stone, also called a menhir, was found on the roadside of Ellarigudem, a hamlet of Beechrajupally...

40 Skeletons in Giant Jars Found in the Corsica Necropolis

16 May 2021

16 May 2021

Archaeologists working on the French island of Corsica discovered around 40 ancient graves where persons were buried inside gigantic jars...

Persian-era plaster walls were discovered during excavations at Zeyve Höyük in central Turkey

2 August 2022

2 August 2022

This year’s excavations at Porsuk-Zeyve Höyük (Zeyve Mound) near the Porsuk village of the Ulukışla district of Niğde, located in...

Archaeologists have discovered the ruins of what may be one of the four lost Ancient Egyptian “Sun Temples”

31 July 2022

31 July 2022

A Polish and Italian archaeological mission, while conducting an excavation in the Abusir necropolis near Saqqara in Egypt, unearthed the...

Cave paintings discovered in western Turkey carry the region’s past back to prehistory

18 December 2021

18 December 2021

During the archaeological survey carried out in and around the ancient city of Alinda in Aydın province in western Turkey,...

Comments
Leave a Reply

Your email address will not be published. Required fields are marked *