VISHAPS - ARMENIAN DRAGON STONES:

Vishaps, Armenian 'Dragon Stones', Armenia. Internet image, public domain.

Armenia possesses a great deal of interesting rock art, predominately petroglyphs. This column, however, is about a large number of stelae known as Vishaps, or dragon stones. “Vishaps, or dragon stones, are prehistoric stelae discovered in the high-altitude mountainous regions of modern-day Armenia and adjacent regions. The first statistical analysis of their elevation distribution and size reveals that their construction was intentionally labor-intensive rather than arbitrary. The findings support the hypothesis that vishaps were closely associated with an ancient water cult, as they are situated near water sources, including high-altitude springs, and discovered prehistoric irrigation systems. Furthermore, the unexpected bimodal distribution of their altitudes suggests specific placement patterns, potentially linked to seasonal human activities or ritual practices. These findings contribute to a deeper understanding of the symbolic and functional significance of vishap stelae within the framework of prehistoric social and religious systems.” (Gurzadyan and Bobokhyan 2025:1) The finding of a water relationship may make sense, but the distribution assumptions are based upon statistical analyses and readers of RockArtblog should recall that I am somewhat a skeptic on these. Not that I think that all statistical analyses are faulty, but I think that they often go too far. Also, in the illustrations we can see that some of the vishaps are set into concrete, suggesting that they have been tampered with, possibly moved, which would affect any statistical analysis of their distribution. And as far as ‘ritual practices’ goes I would need to hear the author’s definition of a ‘ritual practice’ before I can wholeheartedly adopt this assumption.

Vishap 'Dragon Stone', Armenia. Internet image, public domain.

 Since the dissolution of the Soviet Union we have been learning a lot more about rock art in the Caucusus. I do not know if rock art research was common back then or not but it might just be attributable of more of an attitude of openness now that these areas have become independent countries. “Armenia, officially the Republic of Armenia, is a landlocked country in the Armenian highlands of West Asia. It is part of the Caucasus region and is bordered by Turkey to the west, Georgia to the north, Azerbaijan to the east, and Iran and the Azergaijani enclave of Nakhchivan to the south. Yerevan is the capital, largest city and financial center.” (Wikipedia)

Landlocked, of course, means that Armenia is totally inland, it has no ocean coast, but there is a large lake, Lake Sevan, which covers approximately 1/6 of the country. This is important because some of the Vishaps (dragon stones) are carved to look like fish which may have been influenced by lake fisheries.

Lake Sevan, Armenia. Internet image, public domain.

A fallen Vishap, 'Dragon Stone' carved like a fish. Internet image, public domain.

“Based on their form and iconography, the vishaps are classified into three primary typological categories, ranging from 110 to 550 cm in height, and crafted from locally available stone materials, primarily andesite and basalt. The first class, termed piscis, consists of stones carved and polished into a fish shape. The second category, vellus, includes stones shaped to resemble a stretched or draped bovine hide. The third class, the hybrid, merges the iconographies of the piscis and vellus types.” (Gurzadyan and Bobokhyan 2025:1)

Vishap with stylized horned animal. Internet image, public domain.

As I stated above, this analysis seems to have been based on statistical analysis to a great extent. “The study of vishap stelae in Armenia, based on their dimensions and altitudinal distribution, provides compelling evidence for their deliberate placement and labor-intensive construction. We adopt the concept of the labor as an informative descriptor of the stelae, namely, the vishap size indicates the amount of the labor for its creation, while their location altitude refers to the limited time (limited labor) for their creation. Then, the findings indicate a general correlation between vishap size and altitude, thus challenging assumptions that larger monuments would be concentrated at lower altitudes. Instead, their presence at high elevations suggests significant cultural motivations, likely tied to the ancient water cult, as vishaps are predominantly located near springs as well as are represented by fish forms. Recall, that human history reveals that usually the cults are indeed associated to significant efforts (labor) of their societies.” (Gurzadyan and Bobokhyan 2025:10-11) Not only a considerable amount of labor, but cooperation within a group of people.

Dragon stone supposedly associated with an infant burial. Internet image, public domain.

There has been speculation that at least some of the vishaps are associated with burials of infants but it does not seem to have been addressed as to whether the stelae were erected over burials, or the burials added later because of the spiritual nature of the vishap site.

Carved Vishap with animal possibly interpreted as fire-breathing dragon. Internet image, public domain.

Now, the questions as to why they are called ‘dragon stones.’ A number of them are carved with highly stylized of horned animals, perhaps ibexes, which may have perhaps been interpreted as dragons. Especially a few of them in which the horned animal has something coming from its mouth, probably its tongue, but which may well have been interpreted as fire from a fire-breathing dragon.

NOTE: Some images in this column were retrieved from the internet with a search for public domain photographs. If any of these images are not intended to be public domain, I apologize, and will happily provide the picture credits if the owner will contact me with them. For further information on these reports you should read the original reports at the sites listed below.

REFERENCES:

Gurzadyan, V., Bobokhyan, A., 2025, Vishap stelae as cult dedicated prehistoric monuments of Armenian Highlands: data analysis and interpretation, npj Herit. Sci. 13, 435. https://doi.org/10.1038/s40494-025001998-z. Accessed online 18 October 2025.

Wikipedia, Armenia, https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Armenia. Accessed online 22 October 2025.

ALTXERRI, A DECORATED CAVE IN NORTHERN SPAIN:

Red painted panel, Altxerri Cave, Spain. Internet image, public domain.

A cave in northern Spain, in the Basque territories, provides some new examples of cave art.

Identified as an antelope, Altxerri Cave, Spain. Internet image, public domain.

“Altxerri Cave is located in the east of the northern Spanish coast, in the town of Aia (Basque Country, Spain). The present entrance (the original entrances collapsed) was uncovered by quarrying in 1956, and the first graphic representations were found in 1962. The cave system consists of three levels, connected by shafts and chimneys, where the modern entrance leads to the intermediate level. The important Magdalenian art ensemble in this level has been published in two monographs and warranted the inclusion of the site in UNESCO’s World Heritage List in 2008. However, neither of the monographs included the upper passage (Altxerri B), although the existence of paintings had been cited. These have since been studied briefly, confirming the existence of a large red bison and mentioning the remains of other red figures, which, according to the authors, were impossible to interpret. The authors also cited a bison vertebra inserted in a fissure and published the results of two 14C-AMS dates for two chamois bones (Rupicapra rupicapra) deposited beneath the wall with the paintings.” (González-Sainz, Cesar et al., 2013: 457) Altixerri B is the third, and upper, passage that is difficult to access and so had been pretty much overlooked in previous studies.

Mouflon, Altxerri Cave, Spain. Internet image, public domain.

“The cave, which had been sealed off for millennia, was discovered in 1956 when a temporary quarry was opened during road-building. This broke through to the intermediate level of the cave system. In 1962, speleologists discovered paintings in this passage (Altxerri A).” (Ruiz-Redondo, Aitor, et al., 2015:66)

Reindeer with fox inserted, Altxerri Cave, Spain.

Close-up of reindeer with fox inserted, Altxerri Cave, Spain.

My absolute favorite example of rock art here is the beautiful palimpsest of a fox superimposed upon a large reindeer, or vice versa. It is tempting to posit a relationship between them and look for a deeper meaning, but I do not think we have anywhere near enough information for such an analysis.

Fish, Altxerri Cave, Spain. Internet image, public domain.

Genetic testing has indicated that the modern inhabitants of the Basque regions are genetically related to the Paleolithic residents of the same area.

“In May 2012, the National Geographic Society Genographic Project released a study that showed through detailed DNA analysis of samples from French and Spanish Basque regions that Basques share unique genetic patterns that distinguish them from the surrounding non-Basque populations. The results of the study clearly support the hypothesis of a partial genetic continuity of contemporary Basques with the preceding Paleolithic/Mesolithic settlers of their homeland.” (Wikipedia)

Horse, Altxerri Cave, Spain. Internet image, public domain.

I find it personally quite exciting to learn that the modern descendents of the creators of this Cave art may still inhabit the area. What a feeling of attachment to the land and a sense of belonging might that confer.

NOTE: Images in this column were retrieved from the internet with a search for public domain photographs. If any of these images are not intended to be public domain, I apologize, and will happily provide the picture credits if the owner will contact me with them. For further information on these reports you should read the original reports at the sites listed below.

REFERENCES:

González-Sainz, Cesar et al., 2013, Not only Chauvet: Dating Aurignacian rock art in Altxerri B Cave (northern Spain), Journal of Human Evolution 65, pp. 4 57-464. Accessed online 21 September 2025.

Ruiz-Redondo, Aitor, et al., 2015, Back to the past: Symbolism and archaeology in Altxerri B (Gipuzkoa, Northern Spain), Quaternary International, March 2017, DOI: 10.1016/j.quaint.2015.07.013, Available online October 2015, pp. 66-76. Accessed online 21 September 2025.

Wikipedia, Origin of the Basques, https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Origin_of_the_Basques. Accessed online 8 November 2025.

 

ARABIAN PETROGLYPHS AS SIGNPOSTS TO WATER:

 

Large camel petroglyph. Internet image, public domain.

I have previously written a column about large camel petroglyphs in Arabia. On 10 March 2018 I wrote a column titled “Ancient Saudi Guest Artists-In-Residence” about these. Now, a new study (Guagnin et al. 2025)  published by Nature Communications online suggests that many  of these, as well as images of a number of other creatures, date back over 10,000 years, and may be indicators for the presence of water.

 

Heavily eroded large camel carved in the round. Internet image, public domain.

“Dated archaeological sites are absent in northern Arabia between the Last Glacial Maximum (LGM) and 10,000 years ago (ka), signifying potential population abandonment prior to the onset of the Holocene humid period. Here we present evidence that playas became established in the Nefud desert of northern Arabia between ~16 and ~13 ka, the earliest reported presence of surface water following the hyper-aridity of the LGM. These fresh water sources facilitated human expansions into arid landscapes as shown by new excavations of stratified archaeological sites dating to between 12.8 and 11.4 ka. During the Pleistocene-Holocene transition, human populations exploited a network of seasonal water bodies - marking locations and access routes with monumental rock engravings of camels, ibex, wild equids, gazelles, and a urochs. These communities made distinctive stone tool types showing ongoing connections to the late Epipaleolithic and Pre-Pottery Neolithic populations of the Levant.” (Guagnin et al. 2025:1) The recording of these animals (other than camels) considerably enlarges our data pool for this area.

Palimpsest of animals (camel, donkey, oryx) outlined. Image from M. Guagnin et al., Nature Communications, 2025. 

I have also written a number of columns about rock art in Saudi Arabia which can be found by clicking on Saudi Arabia in the cloud index at the very bottom of the blog. “Rock art has been found in Saudi Arabia before, but those petroglyphs date from the Neolithic period around 8,000 years ago. The engravings found at Jebel Misma, Jebel Arnaan and Jebel Mleiha – all rock outcrops in a remote part of the Nefud, near its southern edge – are much older. The engravings can be seen for miles and were probably intended to mark territory or indicate nearby sources of water, says Petraglia, the director of the Aurstalian Research Center for Human Evolution at Griffith University in Brisbane.” (Metcalf 2025) So, the new rock art written about is almost 50% older than most previous sites.

Tracings of the four camel engravings with greatest similarity (after Figure 4). The two camels on the right have been mirrored for better comparison (© G. Charloux and M. Guagnin, Figure 5, page 1306. 

In order to learn more about the people and culture involved the team literally dug in to the subject. They conducted excavations under the art. “Looking for buried clues that might shed light on the new engravings, Guagnin and her colleagues dug trenches in sand beneath the art. The excavations uncovered over a dozen animal bones and thousands of artifacts, including hearths, stone beads and tools, and shells from various animals. One palm-sized stone with clear battering marks matches pecking tools discovered at petroglyphs sites in Europe and South America, indicating it was likely used to peck some of the nearby engravings. Radiocarbon dating of an ostrich egg, oyster shell, and charcoal from one of the hearths, in conjunction with measurements of how long it had been since the sediments around the buried artifacts were last exposed to sunlight, revealed the art and artifacts were between 12,800 and 11,40years old.” (Brown 2025) Finding significance in a hammerstone that supposedly matches sites in Europe and South America is silly. So, it doesn’t match hammerstones from North America, or Asia, or Africa? Of course it does, a hammerstone is a hammerstone. This statement is the result of the obsessive need to cite every statement in such a paper, the researchers found papers about hammerstones from Europe and South America.

Three large camels and one very small antelope (in lower left). Image from arkeonews.net.

Their surveys and research hve contributed a great deal of new knowledge of rock art of Saudi Arabia. “Surveys identified previously unknown rock art landscapes with life-sized depictions of wild mammals and human figures. Across the three areas 62 rock art panels were recorded, containing 176 engravings. Of these, 130 were life-sized and naturalistic engravings depicting camels (90), ibex (17), equids (15), gazelles (7), and aurochs (1), with individual representations frequently measuring up to 2.5–3.0m in length and 1.8–2.2m in height. In addition, we identified 2 camel footprints, 15 smaller scale naturalistic depictions of camels, 19 human figures, 4 human faces or masks, and 6 unidentified, partial engravings. Most of the recorded engravings show camels in a detailed and naturalistic style that echoes the reliefs of the Camel Site to the north of the Nefud desert. This includes the frequent depiction of a bulging neckline, indicating they represent male camels in rut.” (Guagnin et al. 2025:3) Such remarkable attention to detail indicates the importance of the imagery to its creators.

Large camel. Image from cambridge.org.

The researchers also tackled the difficult task of working out the stratigraphy of palimpsest panels that had experienced multiple occasions of petroglyphs creation. “The depictions span multiple engraving phases, with images often overlapping on rock surfaces. Sometimes this was done to update an existing representation or to depict a different animal species. We distinguish four phases here. Two early rock art phases: small, stylised depictions of women (phase 1, traced in green), followed by large human figures in frontal view (phase 2, traced in yellow). These human figures were always noted to be older than, i.e. underneath, the recorded life-sized animal representations, and they make up a much smaller proportion of motifs. The third phase shows detailed, extremely naturalistic representations of animals, where each depiction has individual characteristics (traced in white). A later, fourth phase (traced in blue) shows more stylised depictions of animals with cartoonish features, including rounded eyes and horn ridges, and more standardised, near-identical depictions of animals.” (Guagnin et al. 2025:3)

 

Large camel carving. Internet image, public domain.

If these animal images point to sites where water is available the sheer variety somewhat mystifies me. If I had produced an image of a camel as a marker to fresh water wouldn’t I use the same image to mark the next fresh water source as well? And, if there is already a picture marking the site why did I need to add another picture to mark it again. While some of these may incidentally mark water sources my guess is that they are found near where water was available because the people were found near where water was available, the propinquity may be a coincidence. Yes, they mark sites near water, but no, they are not purposeful signs pointing to a water source.

NOTE: Some images in this column were retrieved from the internet with a search for public domain photographs. If any of these images are not intended to be public domain, I apologize, and will happily provide the picture credits if the owner will contact me with them. For further information on these reports you should read the original reports at the sites listed below.

REFERENCES:

Brown, Taylor Mitchell, 2025, Prehistoric camel art pointed to precious water sources in the Arabian Desert, 30 September 2025, Science (online), American Association for the Advancement of Science. doi:10.1126/science.zzwcsrv. Accessed online 1 October 2025.

Charloux, Gillaume, Maria Guagnin, Michael Petraglia, and Abdullah al Sharekh, 2022, Project Gallery Arock art tradition of life-sized, naturalistic engravings of camels in Northern Arabia: new insights on the mobility of Neolithic populations in the Nafud Desert, Antiquity 2022 Vol. 96 (389): 1301–1309 https://doi.org/10.15184/aqy.2022.95 , Accessed online 12 October 2025.

Faris, Peter, 2018,Ancient Saudi Guest Artists-In-Residence, RockArtBlog, 10 March 2018. www.blogger.com/blog/post/edit/7760124847746733855/8288369396956779505.

Metcalf, Tom, 2025, 12,000-year-old rock art hints at the Arabian Desert’s lush past, Science News (online), https://www.sciencenews.org/article/ancient-rock-art-arabian-desert-wet. Accessed online 5 October 2025.

A GIANT CARVED SNAKE IN SOUTH AFRICA’S RHINO CAVE:

Coulson et al., 2011, Fig. 2, page 22.

A natural rock feature in a cave in Botswana has been found that had been modified to resemble the head and part of the body of a python. “Rhino Cave, located at the World Heritage site of Tsodilo Hills, is one of the three main Middle Stone Age (MSA) sites in Botswana. Initial investigations during the mid-1990s left unanswered a number of key questions regard­ing the early use of the cave. This prompted the current investigations, which have unearthed a wealth of MSA artifacts from a lag deposit. Results of a selectively employed chaîne opératoire analysis have revealed a very special set of behavioral patterns. It will be argued that the best-fit interpretation of the results from this investigation lies within the realm of ritualized behavior. The assemblage is characterized by an unexpectedly large number of MSA points, which are for the most part produced in non-locally acquired raw materials. These points are colorful, care­fully and often elaborately made, and, once complete, never left the cave. They were either deliberately burned to the point where they could no longer be used, abandoned, or intentionally smashed. These artifacts were found together with tabular grinding slabs and pieces of the locally available pigment, specularite. This assemblage was recovered directly beneath a massive, virtually free-standing rock face that has been carved with hundreds of cupules of varying sizes and shapes. A section of the carved rock face was recovered from well within the MSA deposits in association with handheld grinding stones.” (Coulson et al. 2011) The large number of artifacts and the fact that so many of them had been broken immediately said to the researchers that this was evidence of ceremonial use of the cave.

The serpent highlighted, internet image, public domain.

This discovery certainly fits within the belief system of the local San people who historically resided in the area.

“Associate Professor Sheila Coulson, from the University of Oslo, can now show that modern humans, Homo sapiens, have performed advanced rituals in Africa for 70,000 years. She has, in other words, discovered mankind’s oldest known ritual. The archaeologist made the surprising discovery while she was studying the origin of the Sanpeople. A group of the San live in the sparsely inhabited area of north-western Botswana known as Ngamiland. Coulson made the discovery while searching for artifacts from the Middle Stone Age in the only hills present for hundreds of kilometers in any direction. This group of small peaks within the Kalahari Desert is known as the Tsodilo Hills and is famous for having the largest concentration of rock paintings in the world. The Tsodilo Hills are still a sacred  place for the San, who call them the ‘Mountains of the Gods’and the ‘Rock that Whispers’. The python is one of the San’s most important animals. According to their creation myth, mankind descended from the python and the ancient, arid streambeds around the hills are said to have been created by the python as it circled the hills in its ceaseless search for water. Sheila Coulson’s find shows that people from the area had a specific ritual location associated with the python. The ritual was held in a little cave on the northern side of the Tsodilo Hills. The cave itself is so secluded and access to it is so difficult that it was not even discovered by archaeologists until the 1990s. When Coulson entered the cave this summer with her three master’s students, it struck them that the mysterious rock resembled the head of a huge python. On the six meter long by two meter tall rock, they found three-to-four hundred indentations that could only have been man-made. ‘You could see the mouth and eyes of the snake. It looked like a real python. The play of sunlight over the indentations gave them the appearance of snake skin. At night, the firelight gave one the feeling that the snake was actually moving’.”  (AtHope 2017) So the adding of the pecked pits are assumed to be a way of representing the scales of the python.

Drawings by Damien AtHope, 2017.

Dating for the great serpent is uncertain. Samples from excavation within the cave below the panel were taken for radiocarbon and thermoluminescence dating. The radiocarbon date came back at 14,500±50 BP for the Middle Stone Age level, and the thermoluminescence date retrieved was 18,175±2,871 BP. (Coulson 2011:23) However, when artifacts were compared to dated material from nearby locations they led to conclusions of much older dates. “The dating of the MSA assemblage from this site then had to revert to a typological comparison to the nearby well-dated MSA sites of White Paintings Shelter (66,400±6,500 and 94,300±9,400 BP) (Robbins et al. 2000b: 1092) and the open-air pan site of ≠Gi (77,000±11,000 BP) which is approximately 120km southwest of the Hills. For example Laurel Phillipson (2007: 20), who recently re-examined a selection of the MSA points from the 1996 excavations, states that she concurs “with the excavators that the Middle Stone Age lithics from these adjacent sites appear so similar…that the series of age determinations from the White Paint­ings Shelter can also be applied to the material from Rhino Cave.” Therefore, although the exact dating of Rhino Cave remains unresolved, this MSA assemblage can be consid­ered to be generally comparable to those from White Paintings Shelter.” (Coulson et al. 2011:23)

Diagram of the pecking, drawn by Damien AtHope, 2017.

So, which is it, fourteen to eighteen thousand years, or sixty-six to ninety-three thousand years? If fourteen thousand we might go a little way out on a limb and guess that the serpent was made by the earliest ancestors of the present-day San residents. But, if it is seventy thousand years old that may be a bough too far.

 

REFERENCES:

AtHope, Damien, 2017, Stone Snake of South Africa: first human worship 70,000 years ago, 5 March 2017, https://damienmarieathope.com. Accessed online 24 August 2025.

Coulson, Sheila, et al., 2011, Ritualized Behavior in the Middle Stone Age: Evidence from Rhino Cave, Tsodilo Hills, Botswana, Paleoanthropology 2011:18-61, DOI:10.4207/PA.2011.ART42. Accessed online 26 August 2025.

SECONDARY REFERENCES:

Phillipson, L., 2007, Reassessment of Selected Middle Stone Age Artefacts from Rhino Cave and from White Paint­ings Rock Shelter, Tsodilo Hills, Botswana. South Afri­can Archaeological Bulletin 62(185): 19–30.