The archaeologists have been studying ancient burials for many years in order to get to know more about the ancient population of this region that lived thousands of years ago. Today, an interesting study of megalithic art dated to four thousand years ago and found in ancient burial chambers of Georgia has revealed important information about beliefs and rituals, the family life of ancient Bronze Age communities. The stone panels discovered inside kurgans depict geometrical ornaments, animals, houses and enigmatic tally marks. According to the experts, this art can serve as a kind of communication, ritual performance, or even some form of accounting practised by families building the tombs.
4,000-year-old megalithic art reveals an ancient culture
The topic of this research, entitled '
Message from the Dead: Megalithic Art from the Middle Bronze Age Kurgans in the Southern Caucasus', pertains to carved stone slabs found in Zurtaketi kurgans, a set of burial mounds in the mountainous area of southern Georgia. The monuments belong to the Trialeti culture, an ancient civilisation dating back to the period around 2000-1700 BCE.
This archaeological research work was undertaken by a Georgian scholar named Levan Losaberidze, who reviewed archaeological findings of Otar Japaridze, a renowned Georgian archaeologist, from his excavation in 1959–1964. While there have been 265 recorded engraved stones, only 32 specimens remain today, as evidenced by their photographs and tracings.
As revealed by Losaberidze, the inscriptions on the slabs feature a wide range of motifs, from geometrical patterns to images of animals and dwellings. This indicates that the people belonging to that era had an elaborate symbolism that could be shared both within generations and among distant regions.
The mystery of the ‘messages from the dead’
Perhaps the most fascinating feature about the carvings is the presence of some tally marks on several stones. These markings probably had a practical use and were not merely ceremonial in nature.
According to Losaberidze in his research paper, he stated that the marks might have been used to account for the labour that was done by families when constructing the monuments of death. Assuming that Losaberidze’s theory is correct, the carvings may be considered as one of the earliest pieces of evidence of community record keeping in relation to funerary monuments.
Nonetheless, there is no denying that many of these symbols must have been associated with rituals. From the geometric patterns to the animals and architectural depictions, the carvings speak volumes about a culture where practicalities and spiritual beliefs were interrelated.
Losaberidze noted that kurgans “featured various types of engraved motifs, from geometric patterns and zoomorphics to depictions of dwellings,” all of which probably played a part in ritual activities among megaliths.
Trialeti culture and South Caucasus archaeology
This research also draws attention to the cultural ties that existed between the communities from today’s Georgia, Armenia, and Azerbaijan.
Engraved motifs on the stones recovered from Zurtaketi bear similarities with megalithic art found in other parts of the South Caucasus. This means that there was a long-lasting artistic practice in the South Caucasus region that was practised over a period of more than 1,500 years. It is speculated that this similarity may have been instrumental in creating social cohesion and cultural unity among people in the region.
“Zurtaketi Kurgans offer a look into the artistic, symbolic, and ritual practices of Middle Bronze Age populations of South Caucasus,” says Losaberidze in the study. In addition, he explains that the engraving practice shows “a rather broad, long-lasting and previously unexplored tradition of megalithic art in South Caucasus.”
Why the South Caucasus cave discovery matters
Despite the lack of evidence, the findings make it evident that monuments were more than just burials. They represented expressions of identity, memory, and hard work of the communities.
The stone slabs found in Zurtaketi show that civilisations of the Bronze Age in the South Caucasus were able to create complicated symbolic representations through a combination of their ritual beliefs and language. It doesn’t matter if these carvings symbolised something sacred or were left as a message by their ancestors for future generations or represented information about the constructions; they represent the voices of the people who lived four thousand years ago.
Further excavations, advanced dating methods, and rediscovery of some lost material may provide researchers with additional insights regarding these amazing carvings and the civilization which created them.
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