Newly found rock painting sites in the Upper Atrak Valley, Northern Khorasan, North-eastern Iran

Abstract

The mountainous region of Northern Khorasan province in northeastern Iran is rich in rock art sites including several petroglyph and rock-painting sites. Rock paintings at the Zeynekānlu- Mardkānlu rock-shelters and Bāsh Mahalle near Fāruj are newly recorded pictographic sites in the Atrak River Basin depicting zoomorphic and geometric imagery. While the panel at Zeynekānlu shows several mountain goats possibly in a net hunting scene, the nearby Mardkānlu rock-shelters as well as the rock paintings at Bāsh Mahalle depict simple signs and geometric shapes that are difficult to interpret. On stylistic grounds, the Zeynekānlu pictograms appear to date to the Late Chalcolithic (c. 3500 BCE) or Early Bronze Age (c.3000 BCE) and the Mardkānlu and Bāsh Mahalle pictograms seem to relate to the Late Iron Age (c. 6th-2nd cent. BCE), possibly with later additions in late antiquity and the Early Middle Ages (c. 3rd-8th centuries CE). Whatever date they are assigned, the rock paintings of the Upper Atrak valley, predominantly located in foothill and highland zones, can be linked to pastoral models of subsistence in the past.