Comparative study between karafto cave and Aqrablu’s Rock Art

In different regions of Iran, numerous rock arts are obtained and the large number of them have been described and studied in various magazines and books. The rock art of Aqrablu in Bokan-Shahindej and karafto cave in Divandarreh, located in West Azerbaijan and Kurdistan provinces, are the valuable petroglyphs in the west and north-west of Iran. This study was based on literature review and field surveys. In the petroglyphs of Aqrablu and karafto, four-figure of antelope, picture or symbol of the altar, rhombic pictures and horseman’s picture who are shooting in the back of his head are analogous and comparable to each other. According to this, it can be proved that petroglyphs inside the cave (at least some of them) and Aqrablu’s rock art has belonged to a common culture and engraved by the same group of old artists and have been made in common time. Thus, according to the relative chronology which inferred on karafto motifs, a part of the designs belongs to the Parthian period and after that, it can be concluded that the Aqrablu’s petroglyphs also belong to the same historical period.