Writing memento or shamanism?: Two different interpretations of Iran's rock art

IntroductionUntil recently, if a researcher wanted to study Iranian rock art, s/he would be able to obtain information only about some important sites such as Kouh Dasht area rock paintings in Luristan or Timreh in the centre of Iran, and there was scant information about other regions of the country. However, over the past decades, due to the efforts of the recent generation of researchers, much more information is available across the country, resulting in several theses and many published papers, both internally and in foreign journals (Ghasimi and Mohammadi Ghasrian 2012).Generally it would be obvious from these publications that scholars have focused more on exploring, identifying and introducing the sites, while scant attention has been paid to key issues such dating or interpreting them. Among a few researchers who focused on the meaning of rock art, Rafifar (2007) has comprehensively investigated the meaning and interpretation of Arasbaran petroglyphs in northwest Iran. Comparing some Arasbaran anthropomorphs with those found in several rock art sites in northern neighbouring countries of Iran, like Armenia and Azerbaijan, he concluded that Arasbaran petroglyphs are connected to these and believed that they have been created by shamans, linking Arasbaran rock art to shamanism (ibid). But in our view the 'scenes' depicted in Arasbaran rock art are very similar to what is found in other sites within Iran (Fig. 1). The main features of Arasbaran rock art are the 'herds' of quadrupeds and anthropomorphous figures beside them, resembling hunting scenes. Such groups are the most common in Iranian rock art and can be seen in more than 80% of sites. Rafifar mentions nothing about this and also ignored to mention the apparent similarities between Arasbaran 'hunting scenes' and other Iranian rock art, especially anthropomorphous Arasbaran rock art (Fig. 1), which is depicted exactly with the same technique as in other Iranian rock art sites, like Saravan (Heydari 2004; Sarhadi 2013) (Fig. 2), central regions (Farhadi 1998), (Naserifard 2007; Mohammadi Ghasrian 2007), Khera Hanjran (Mohammadi Ghasrian and Naderi 2007), Luristan (Remacle et al. 2007) (Fig. 3), Kurdistan (Lahafian 2010, 2013) (Fig. 4), north of Khorasan (Vahdati 2011) and Hamedan (Beik Mohammadi et al. 2012). So if we accept the shamanistic interpretation of Arasbaran petroglyphs and Rafifar's belief that these motifs were engraved with ritual intentions, such assumption would need to be extended to other rock art sites in different parts of Iran. We are not in agreement with Rafifar that Arasbaran rock art is not connected with other rock art sites in Iran, but strongly believe that Arasbaran petroglyphs are linked with other sites inside Iran and, as Vahdati (2011) believes, Arasbaran petroglyphs do not reflect shamanistic intentions.Observing hunting scenes of antelope herds on tombstones of the late Islamic period cemeteries in vast areas of Kermanshah, Ilam and Luristan provinces and their apparent similarities with probable hunting scenes of antelope herds depicted in rock art sites throughout the country led us to perceive the meaning and interpretation of the rock art differently. This perception was created when an interview was conducted with one of last remaining hunters in Bisotun, the late Aziz Morad.Writing memento or shamanism?Aziz Morad, known as Mir-Shekar, was one of the survived hunters of Bisotun area in Kermanshah, who had before his death engraved on his own tombstone a scene depicting him hunting (Fig. 5) and had requested his relatives to lay it on his grave. Fortunately, before he died we could meet him and conduct an interview. Reliefs and scripts on the tombstone grabbed our attention, which included his hunting scene followed by: 'The memory of Aziz Morad, Mir- Shekar'. Aziz Morad had been interested in hunting from his youth and due to his exceptional ability in hunting, people knew him as a Mir-shekar (a title given to exceptional hunters). …