The Relative Chronology and the Function of Rock Arts in the Eastern Hurānd of Karadagh, Northwest of the Iranian Plateau

Abstract

Along with the archaeological survey program of Karadagh, which started in 2008, the expedition team of authors succeeded in recognizing, reporting, and documenting three archaeological sites including 1571 human and animal abstract petroglyphs from the three villages of “Gutānlu”, “Lighlān”, and “Noghādā” in the east of “Hurānd” County, East Azerbaijan province. In addition to naked humans, some dogs and camels, and a number of quasi-geometric motifs were identified. It should be noted that most of their animal motifs are similar to the genus of Capra and Gazella. They are comparable to the Nakhichevan, “Gegham-Jingirdagh”, and “Gobustan” collections of rock art in “South Caucasia” and they even have similar examples in the Italian rock art collection of “Valcamonica”. This research is based on field surveys, documentation, and the ethnological interpretation of these petroglyphs. The data were categorized into three groups: “Gutānlu”, 700 motifs, “Zardarasi”, 171 motifs, “Dāshlisārāy” of “Noghādā”, 300 motifs, and “Qishlāghdarasi” of “Noghādā”, 400 motifs. The authors attempted to examine relative chronology and the function of the Eastern “Hurānd” petroglyphs based on two hypotheses: a) the relative dating of this rock art is late prehistory, circa 6th-5th millennium BCE; and b) the function of them should be interpreted based on the theory of hunting magic associated with forager bands. Ethnographically, the belief in hunting magic is recorded from forager people of Australian “Aborigines” and African “Bushmen” (Sans). Additionally, the evidence of Shamanic rites, which have been recorded/hypothesized during the 1997-2002 surveys, are re-recorded from the rock art in Eastern “Hurānd” of Karadagh.

Keywords

• northwest of the iranian plateau
• karadagh petroglyphs
• relative chronology
• hunting magic
• shamanism