Old Pre-Sumerian Rock Carvings – Ukhtasar, Armenia

Rock carvings dating at the 5th-9th millennia BC were discovered in Armenia. The unencrypted petroglyphs are considered Pre-Sumerian.

In the opinion of an English astronomer Olcott, people who invented the ancient constellation figures lived between 36 ° and 42 ° northern latitudes, presumably in the area near Mount Ararat and in the Euphrates River valley.

According to the studies of rock carvings, historians found out that they have been “drawn” during different epochs. Each generation added its own epochal handwriting to the stones. Rock paintings are popularly known as “itsagir” and are scattered along hundreds of kilometers of the slopes of Ukhtasar.

They can also be found in dozens of other places in Armenia – in the mountains near Tzghuk (Mets Karakhach), on the ridges of Vardenis, at the springs of Yeghegis (Mount Vardenis), at the rivers Arpa (Khachatsar mountain) and Vorotan (Mount Davagoz).

Nature, mountains, lake, and petroglyphs of Ukhtasar are impressive not only in an artistic sense but also semantic. After all, they have reached our days almost unscathed. Only small fragments were ripped off of the rocks by bursts of wind. Some of the images that had been near water sources were covered with earth.

According to the locals of the area near Ukhtasar, their grand-grandparents celebrated Navasard (the old Armenian New Year’s Day) near a glacial lake located on the territory of Ukhtasar (Ուխտասար). There, they sacrificed lambs and met the first rays of the sun, which was an obligatory part of the ritual. As for how exactly all this was done, no one remembers.

However, the ritual was performed every year. In the mountains, pilgrims prayed for health, good harvest, abundant rains, and prosperity. And as soon as the first rays of the sun shined over the worshipers, “the mountains gave them their blessing.”

Ukhtasar is another miracle that is definitely worth a visit.

by Ashot Ter-Abrahamyan (Alexander Bakulin)