Akademik Veri Yönetim Sistemi
TURKIYAT ARASTIRMALARI DERGISI-JOURNAL OF STUDIES IN TURKOLOGY, sa.39, ss.371-390, 2016 (ESCI)
Since the dawn of history, early rockpaintings or petroglyphs were made on rock faces or walls of the caves. While some of them were done witht tattoos and carving technique, some of them were made by drawing and painting techniques. With rock paintings, people placed descriptive elements for their beliefs, economic structures, social events, perspectives, thoughts, and daily life of mystical affairs. Petroglyphs and stamps that create the first phase of the written culture can be found in almost all regions where Turkish culture is dominant. Starting from Mongolia, Kazakhstan, Kyrgyzstan, Uzbekistan, Eastern Europe, the Caucasus, Anatolia, Iran and so on, the rockpaintings are frequently encountered in the regions where Turks geographically spread over throughout history, and among the issues debated among scientists. Unity of style of petroglyphs and stamping appearing from thousands of miles and from different regions to each other dominated by a great similarity in terms of construction technique and places. This similarity shows us that the rock paintings are from the same root, the same culture, and it has reached a variety of different geographies of migration routes. The petroglyphs which provide us with important data about people lived in pre-writing period and their communal activities had infact been a communication device for that period. Erzurum, the gateway to the Anatolian steppe, and Eastern Anatolia of Turkey, is a region rich in in terms of rockpaintings. These rock paintings and their interpretations may shed light on the Anatolian Turkishnessin unwritten times leading to have historical, cultural ties existed already between Anatolia and Central Asia. In our region, previously studied Karayazi Cunni cave and newly fixed rock above boards at Oltu and Senkaya have pecularities that may reveal a variety of information about the history of Anatolia before and after unwritten periods. Thanks to the extensive surveys and studies in the region we believe the issue will be better explained.