Rock Art of Greater Iran

Scientific estimates suggest that for at least sixty thousand years, humans -- in the sense we understand today -- upright and intelligent, possessing the physical capacities (particularly cerebral and neurological, if not yet cognitive) of modern humans, have lived in the mountains of Greater Iran.

These intelligent cave-dwelling humans were equipped with stone tools. In small groups, on rocky slopes, amid forests and thickets, and near springs and streams, they hunted and fed on plant seeds. It seems they did not possess an advanced spoken language, let alone a written script. They were so pressed by the demands of survival that little opportunity remained for cultural and artistic endeavours.

Perhaps it took tens of thousands of years for them to make their stone tools more efficient, to develop patterns for hunting and gathering, and to find the leisure to seek meaning beyond material existence -- to contemplate death beyond the horizon of life. At a time when they still had neither advanced language nor written script, the first artists and image-makers, with their primitive stone tools, set upon the rock faces and expressed what they saw and thought in the language of imagery, in the form of pictographs.

Petroglyphs are not the work of a single person or a single generation of artists. Over thousands of years, and in proportion to the material and spiritual advancement of human beings, they evolved: from naturalistic depictions resembling animals, plants, and humans themselves; to complex images in which the artist has distorted the natural proportions of the subject -- horns rendered larger than usual, or hands depicted oversized -- as if phenomenology was already at work even then! And ultimately, abstraction and stylisation into symbols and repeatable, simplified forms, and the birth of geometry.

One might assume that the minds of these earliest artists departed from nature only in symbolic or exaggerated images. Yet reflection upon even the most naturalistic depictions of ibex tells a different story: these images are formed from curved lines. Nature has no lines. Humans began image-making with the line, which in its evolution became written script, geometry, and architectural drawing. Written script was not invented in Sumer or anywhere else; it is the product of the evolution of abstract thought and stylisation.

Iran's rock art, in terms of the number of images, the number of regions containing these pictographs, and the artistic quality of the images, is unparalleled in the world. The total number of pictographs is estimated at more than fifty thousand. Among them, Teimareh (near Golpayegan) is the most extensive and complete -- in effect, a grand gallery of Iranian rock art, with perhaps around twenty thousand pictographs. As shown in Table 1, approximately 87 percent of Teimareh's images depict the ibex. Other rock art sites, though smaller, generally follow the same frequency pattern.

The reasons are partly clear: the remarkable equilibrium that ibex displayed in climbing rocks; the horns they possessed for self-defence, and from which perhaps the first musical instrument was fashioned; and most importantly, the ibex was among the first animals that humans domesticated. Some studies suggest that it was in Iran where the goat and sheep were first domesticated in the world. Humans, other animals, and plants appear in the petroglyphs with far lesser frequency. The ibex later found a special place in the ancient myths and legends of Iran.

Most petroglyphs are engravings, and if colour was ever applied, it has faded over time due to erosion. Some painted rock art has survived; the pigments were made from ochre clay and the red juice of rhubarb¹, which also served a medicinal purpose. Perhaps for this reason, rhubarb, like the ibex, holds a special place in Iranian myths and legends.

Table 1: Approximate Frequency of Rock Art Motifs at Teimareh

#	Motif	Percentage
1	Ibex	87%
2	Humans in various poses	3.5%
3	Symbols and geometric designs	3%
4	Horses in various poses	2%
5	Camels and cattle	1%
6	Felines and canines	1%
7	Other animals	1%
8	Unidentified animals	1%
9	Plants (haoma, etc.)	0.5%

General views of some of the rock art exhibition sites of Greater Iran. The petroglyphs are estimated to be between three and several tens of thousands of years old. Some images indicate that the petroglyphs are situated beside ancient rivers. As these rivers gradually dried up, the cave-dwelling artists migrated from these locations.

In all probability, the first generation of rock artists were naturalists. Natural proportions are observed in their work. But the striking point is the passion of these artists in conveying movement in nature. Although abstract and conceptual thinking is not evident in their works, we must note that the very creation of curved lines represents a form of abstract thinking. In nature we have no lines -- we have edges.

Later, the ancient image-maker departed from naturalism and, in accordance with the conceptual values assigned to the limbs of humans and animals, enlarged or reduced them. For example, the horn of the ibex represents the concept of protection, and given its importance, it has been carved larger than life. Images placed between the horns and the body of the ibex are depicted as being under the protection of the horns.

The presence of humans in the petroglyphs: shooting arrows and hunting; lassoing to capture alive those animals that could be domesticated.

Humans riding horses, which they had managed to domesticate, and communal ritual dance in daily life for the purpose of coordinating hunting and collective living.

The growth of abstract thought has manifested in the form of symbols in rock art. The topmost image is the Mithraic cross (chelipa), which for thousands of years was the most important symbolic image of Mithraic ritual.

The birth of geometry: the point, the straight line, the circle, the square, and the composition of squares with addition or multiplication signs.

As in all of art history, after the generation of great rock artists, subsequent artists turned to simplifying and making repeatable forms -- stylisation. The ibex was reduced to its essential features: the sweeping horns, the body, the legs, distilled into a symbol that could be quickly reproduced.

Images of animals other than the ibex, and the legendary haoma plant, which was pounded in rock cupmarks. Its juice was used as a remedy for fatigue and as a treatment for depression.

Darreh Negaran, Nahook, Baluchestan. After Teimareh, Darreh Negaran possesses the greatest number and diversity of petroglyphs.

Rasoul Majidi and his daughter, who play an important role in protecting the Teimareh petroglyphs. Destruction at the petroglyph sites is very widespread.

The shelter wall (western face of the rock) bears engravings. Photos from Kouhdasht by Jalal Adeli, cultural heritage expert of Lorestan.

The number of painted rock images in Greater Iran is small. The pigments were made by combining ochre clay with certain colour agents, particularly the red pigment from the juice of the rhubarb plant. The ochre palette, ranging from yellow to dark red, constitutes the first Iranian colour. Besides the painted pictographs of Lorestan, some examples also exist in Baluchestan.