Hunting in the Forest Steppe: An Examination of the Painted Panel at Takke Rock-shelter, Bojnord, Northeastern Iran

Abstract

The mountainous region of Northern Khorasan, north-eastern Iran is rich in rock art complexes including several petroglyphic and rock-painting sites. The rock paintings at Takke rock-shelter near Bojnord is one of the four recorded pictographs in the Atrak River Basin depicting a hunting scene. The panel shows a human with a spear accompanied by several dogs pursuing various species of wild animals in a hilly and wooded landscape. Most of the animals are depicted between the trees on steep footpaths. The Takke pictograms are the only identified rock paintings in Iran and the neighboring regions depicting a dog-assisted hunting scene in a forest zone characterized by several species of plants and animals. The plant and animal diversity in the panel as well as certain landmarks such as animal tracks could perhaps be interpreted as an attempt to illustrate features of the natural local landscape which is a rare phenomenon in the corpus of Iranian rock art. On stylistic grounds, the Takke pictograms appear to date between the Late Chalcolithic to Early Bronze Age. Located in the foothills and upland zone suitable for nomadic hunting groups, mobile pastoralists, and herding population, the pictograms of Takke, like other rock art complexes of Northern Khorasan, appear to linked to pastoral models of subsistence during prehistoric period