8,000-year-old deer drawings found in caves of Turkey’s east
ERZURUM
Experts discovered some 8,000-year-old deer drawings made with ochre on the walls of mountain caves in the eastern province of Erzurum’s Tortum district on June 26.
“We have found cave drawings in [the eastern provinces of] Kars, Ardahan and Erzincan. But these paintings are the first of its kind made with ochre in the region,” Yavuz Günaştı, a professor from Erzurum Atatürk University who has been conducting research for 20 years, told Demirören News Agency.
Ochre is a natural clay earth pigment that is a mixture of ferric oxide and varying amounts of clay and sand and is the name of the colors produced by this pigment, especially a light brownish-yellow.
According to the expert, the cave drawings of two male and two female deers and their two fawns differ from the other cave paintings in many ways.
“First of all, they are the only drawings made with ochre in northeastern Anatolia. Second, the figures and the technique of the paintings are different than the others in the region,” he said.
“Third, deers are figures that are indigenous in Central Asia. From Central Asia to Anatolia, we have come across various deer drawings over time,” he added.
The expert highlighted that the most beautiful examples of these kinds of cave drawings were found in Mongolia, Uzbekistan, Kyrgyzstan, Turkmenistan, Armenia and Iran.
Oğuzhan Türk, an expert in Günaştı’s team, is confident that the deer drawings might change the 7,000-year-old history of Erzurum.
“The place we found the drawings is a place that treasure-hunters have not discovered yet. So, we will keep this place secret from the public for a while,” he added.
