Six-thousand-year-old petroglyphs in the Timreh region of Iran are being destroyed, Iran’s Cultural Heritage website reports.
The petroglyphs, which include images of the birth of humanity, have been vandalized by unidentified people using stone cutters.
The Cultural Heritage website reports that the rock paintings date back 6,000 years and contain unique images depicting rites and legends of the people living at that time. The report criticizes the Cultural Heritage Organization for failing to protect the rock paintings.
Petroglyph researcher Mohammad Nasserifard told the Mehr News Agency in September that the mountains of Timreh contain more than 21,000 petroglyphs.
Of these, 90 percent depict landscapes while 10 percent show people and animals.
Nasserifard reported: “Geometric shapes, images of plants and extinct animals, symbols and patterns similar to images found in 23 other countries … show that many people lived in the region in ancient times.”
Last week, there were also reports of vandalism in Fars Province against parts of a Sassanid-era relief depicting King Bahram II.
