Sacred Animals, Gods and Men in the Rock Art of Central Asia
(65th Meeting Astana, 2023)
Mongolia, Kazakhstan and Kyrgyzstan and neigbouring countries in Central Asia are exceptionally rich in petroglyphs and other rock art and rock paintings. The tradition of depicting human beings on rock surfaces and later as standing stone figures goes back to the stone age, though the heydays of rock art fall into the Bronze Age. Later especially the old Turks of the earliest Middle Ages developed the art of anthropomorphic stone statues for ancestor worship, partly connected to the earlier deer stone culture. This rock art shows family life, weapons, hats and clothing and religious beliefs in the Bronze and Iron Ages. Mankind over the millennia interacted with wild and domesticated animals which often appear side by side with anthropomorphic figures. Certain animals were sacred in certain societies, like the bull in early Bronze Age society, often associated with a sun cult, or the goat in Old Turkic and earlier societies. The wolf also appears amongst Old Turkic petroglyphs in Kazakhstan. In modern terms we may call them totem animals. Two wheeled carts of the Bronze Age drawn by oxen or horses are frequently seen on rock faces. They may be the chariot of the Sun God or transport for the dead to the underworld.