Here’s what you’ll learn when you read this story:

• 4,000-year-old rock carvings made by the Trialeti culture of the South Caucasus reveal ancient beliefs and practices.
• Some carvings were likely ritualistic, while others were probably an ancient form of tracking work hours.
• Designs on the stones used in kurgans (burial mounds) show a symbolic repertoire shared across geographic and chronological boundaries.

Art engraved onto tomb walls 4,000 years ago in the South Caucasus tells the story of an ancient community—and, likely, of the families working to bury their dead. That story includes designs of geometric patterns, animals, schematic-style dwellings, and even some sort of prehistoric timesheet for workers crafting the prehistoric kurgan burial mounds in the Zurtaketi hills of modern-day Georgia.

In a study published in Adoranten, researcher Levan Losaberidze reinvestigated excavations from 40 years ago that covered 265 engraved slabs built into burial mounds in the Georgian mountains. He found artistic styles that spanned more than 1,500 years and a variety of cultural traditions, along with groupings of tally-like marks he interpreted as families recording the time spent constructing the burial sites.

But even though there were 265 engraved slabs used as building material within the chambers and passageways of the kurgans, Losaberidze did not have access to the full collection. The stones were originally discovered and recorded decades ago, when archaeologist Otar Japaridze excavated them between 1959 and 1964. Most of his work has been lost, and as a result, Losaberidze was left with only 32 examples of the incised marks in the form of photographs and tracings.

“The kurgans, dating to the Trialeti culture, showcase a variety of engraved motifs, including geometric patterns, zoomorphic figures, and depictions of dwellings,” Losaberidze wrote that, like carvings found across the South Caucasus, they likely held symbolic or ritual significance, as would be in keeping with a broader megalithic tradition throughout the region.

Geometric designs featuring zigzagging lines, chevrons, net patterns, triangles, spirals, and dotted rectangles are the most prominent, but the art also depicts animals, including deer and bovids. There are unique schematic-type drawings of dwellings or huts, in addition to the more abstract tally marks, which likely tracked the construction process and marked which families spent time creating the structures.

“The Zurtaketi Kurgans provide a glimpse into the artistic, symbolic, and ritual practices of Middle Bronze Age communities in the South Caucasus,” Losaberidze wrote. “The engraved slabs, with their rich array of geometric and zoomorphic motifs at Zurtaketi and elsewhere in the region, suggest a somewhat broad, long lasted and previously unexplored tradition of megalithic art in the South Caucasus.”

The Trialeti culture was active from about 2000 to 1700 B.C.E., and is known today for their creation of intricate objects made of precious metals and bronze. Losaberidze credits communities for being active in both building the structures and decorating the monuments.

The sheer volume of decorated stone was unlike anything found elsewhere in the region, but still, the Bronze Age burial mounds shared a symbolic repertoire across geographic and chronological boundaries that linked to megalithic art from Georgia, Armenia, and Azerbaijan for 1,500 years. The mixture of ritualistic and practical markings may also help reframe the entire monument structure and open up new interpretations across additional sites.

Since Losaberidze had to work off photographs and sketches, the absence of new excavations or radiocarbon dating means that the latest conclusions aren’t… well… all thatconclusive. Future research, experts hope, could deepen the understanding of the , art and record keeping of the Trialeti culture.