Rock Art Research

During an archaeological survey in the Firouzabad area of southern Zagros region in 2004, a cluster of rock art was discovered in a small rockshelter near the village of Lashkar Moselou. The site was re-surveyed and studied by the authors in 2006. The rock art consists mainly of finger paintings in red ochre. Depicting animal and geometric motifs, dotted patterns are observed inside or outside of some depictions. A bladelet core and a flake were found in the vicinity of the site, which might help in placing the rock art in a tentative chronological framework. According to archaeological evidence, the cave and rockshelter sites in Fars region were occupied at least from the Middle Palaeolithic through Upper Palaeolithic, Epipalaeolithic and Neolithic periods. The Epipalaeolithic occupations are the most common. The fact that no late pre-Historic and Historic archaeological materials were found in the site, along with the occurrence of two lithic artefacts found near the site, suggests that the cave was occupied possibly during the early Holocene (Neolithic-Chalcolithic periods).