Timarreh Golpayegan Petroglyph

Petroglyphs are any lines or markings left behind by humans on the surface of untouched rocks. Petroglyphs, or ancient rock arts, are the oldest surviving historical artifacts of humans, which can be considered the mother of art, writing, and cultures. By studying petroglyphs, we can trace the evolutionary history of writing and discover many lost connections in the artistic evolution of humans from ancient times to the present day. Furthermore, ancient humans used rocks to depict their beliefs, customs, and ways of life, both for the purpose of endurance and for the purpose of communication with others, and they were often skillful artists!

The existence of ancient civilization, suitable climate, hunting grounds, rivers, abundant springs, suitable rocks, and so on, caused the first humans to engage in rock art in the valleys and mountains of Golpayegan County, and now leave us with a very large and unique museum. In Golpayegan County, the largest and most complete collection of petroglyphs and rock carvings from ancient human life periods in Iran exists. There are various petroglyphs and rock writings in Golpayegan County dating back to the time of human success in making hunting tools and following that, hunting animals and then agriculture and planting various plants, to different periods after that until the present day. The excellent diversity of these carvings, their vastness and abundance, their diversity of carving techniques, their antiquity, and their belonging to different historical periods have led to the widest range of petroglyphs in Iran being located in this region, and in this regard, it can be said that Golpayegan County was one of the first human settlements in Iran. Only 21,000 rock carvings have been counted in the riverbanks of Golpayegan River in Tang-e Gharqab, which is only one of the areas with petroglyphs in Golpayegan County.

On rocky terrains, we sometimes come across carvings that have been engraved during different periods, some of which have been counted up to four periods. Among the petroglyphs of Golpayegan, various carvings can be seen, each with its own specific concepts (almost 84 different types of carvings). Similar carvings of ibex, sheep, deer, humans (in various postures and with different tools), horses, wolves, lions, camels, leopards, bears, deer (maral, shuka, Iranian yellow deer), Persian leopard, foxes, turtles, and many other unknown animals can be seen among them, of which ibex has the highest number of carvings (about 75%). The ibex has had various symbols among the people of Iran in different periods; it symbolizes water, abundance, fertility, and so on. It should be noted that the largest carving on the petroglyphs of Golpayegan, which is also the largest carving in Iran, is an ibex with a height of 112 cm and a width of 90 cm. Among these carvings, we also see petroglyphs with pictorial lines, ideograms, lines, Elamite (geometric), Middle Persian, Kufic, Hebrew, and Persian script, which have a very special place in the evolutionary history of writing. In Tang-e Gharqab in Golpayegan, we come across Middle Persian rock carvings, which are very beautiful in terms of meaning and require a lot of interpretations. In this 1500-year-old inscription, the writer has reminded us of something: "Keep these three things in mind: water, soil, and fire..."

The registration date of the carvings in Gharqab is 87/12/25, they are belonging to the Sassanid period; the address is the central district of Golpayegan, Kenar-e Rud village, Gharqab.

The registration date of the carvings in Kucheri is 84/5/19; the address is the central district of Golpayegan, Kucheri village; they are belonging to the third millennium BCE.