Rock paintings dating back thousands of years in eastern Türkiye's Kars, a key passage between the Caucasus and Anatolia, are shedding light on the region’s early cultures and ancient people’s relationship with nature.
Located along one of the main routes from the Caucasus into Anatolia, Kars is home to some of the region’s earliest cultures.
The rock paintings in the Camuşlu village area of the Kağızman district are an important part of that heritage. More than 100 drawings depicting mountain goats, deer and other animals can be found on rocky surfaces in the area, preserving traces of the past.
Mustafa Karageçi, an associate professor at Kafkas University’s Department of Ancient History, told Anadolu Agency (AA) that numerous rock art sites have been identified through field research conducted in the region over several decades.
Karageçi said field studies were carried out under the leadership of professor Alpaslan Ceylan from 1999 to 2012 and professor Akın Bingöl from 2012 to 2022.
More than 100 figures have been identified in the rock paintings at Camuşlu, Karageçi said.
“Kağızman in Kars is an important region that contains some of the earliest cultures in Anatolia and is a passage point,” he said. “As we know, Kars is one of the most important gateways from the Caucasus into Anatolia. As a result of our research, we identified many rock art sites in the region. There are more than 100 figures in these rock paintings, including mountain goats, deer and similar animal figures.”
Karageçi said the paintings offer important clues about the lives of people who lived in the region at the time.
“These are paintings in which, in particular, nomadic groups etched their relationship with nature, their fears and beliefs onto the rocks,” he said. “For thousands of years, especially during periods when there was no writing, people conveyed the message, ‘We were here, and we lived here,’ by carving their own history into the rocks through images.”
The rock paintings are associated with the Paleolithic Age and later periods, Karageçi said.
“Looking at the techniques used to create the rock paintings, we see that drawing and engraving techniques were particularly prominent in Kars,” he said. “They used flint stones to engrave the smooth surfaces of the rocks and patiently carved these images into them.”
