Abstract
Petroglyphs were discovered in the Birir valley of district Chitral, Khyber Pakhtunkhwa
province, Pakistan, on an ancient route connecting the Kalasha valleys with Nuristan,
lower Chitral and Central Asia. The petroglyphs were engraved on a solitary schist
stone. The rock, with associated structures, occupies a strategic location in the
landscape, possibly representing a hunting outpost. The petroglyphs consist of 29
figures, including human, animal, geometric and indistinct figures. These figures seem
to have been created through the use of a metal stylus/burin. The figures were produced
through the percussion method, utilizing a stippling technique. The depiction of a dog, a
goat and stylized human figures suggest a possible link to the subsistence and hunting
strategies of the protohistoric people in the region. Based upon the limited
archaeological knowledge of the region, the present petroglyph site may tentatively be
dated to the 1
st millennium BCE.
Muhammad Zahir. (2020) Analysis and contextualization of potential protohistoric petroglyphs at the Kalasha valley of Birir in Chitral, The Journal of Humanities & Social Sciences, Volume-28, Issue-2.
-
Views
1322 -
Downloads
122
Article Details
Volume
Issue
Type
Language
