Trialeti Petroglyphs
Six basalt panels found in the 1880s, lost for nearly a century and relocated in 1976 — Georgia's foremost gallery of prehistoric engravings.
In a narrow basalt gorge of the Patara Khrami river near Gantiadi village, some 12 km east of Tsalka, six panels carry roughly 100 engravings — Georgia's foremost gallery of prehistoric rock art. Tiny hunters draw their bows amid deer, horses, goats, birds, fish and coiled snakes; one scene shows a hind nursing her fawn, and crosses, grids and sun signs crowd the edges. First noticed in the 1880s and lost for almost a century, the panels were relocated in 1976 by Manana Gabunia's expedition, which dated the oldest images to the Mesolithic. The unguarded gorge remains open, though weathering and graffiti take their toll.
Gallery
Notable Features
- ◦ Six basalt panels bearing some 100 engravings from the Mesolithic onward
- ◦ Rare scene of a hind suckling her fawn
- ◦ Lost after the 1880s, relocated by archaeologists in 1976