Rock Art Research

This paper presents newly found petroglyphs in the vicinity of Shatial village, at the Shatial Das site, in District Upper Kohistan, Khyber Pakhtunkhwa Province, Pakistan. An initial survey of these petroglyphs suggests that they belong to the late pre-Historic/proto- Historic and early Historic periods. These petroglyphs are dominated by the representation of footprints, ‘ibexes/markhors’, ‘horses’, ‘hunting scenes’, ‘horse riding scenes’, individual standing figures, a possible chariot drawing, and an inscription in Kharoshthi script. Unlike the previously discovered nearby rock art sites at Shatial with dominant Buddhist religious symbols, the petroglyphs at Shatial Das did not have a single representation of a Buddhist-inspired symbol. Furthermore, the discovery of possible late pre-Historic and early Historic petroglyphs at Shatial Das also problematises the previous dating of the petroglyphs in the Shatial region from the 3rd to 8th centuries CE. These new findings shed light on the possible re-routing of ancient access and communication routes and the Indus River crossings during the mid-1st millennium CE from Shatial Das to Shatial.