Ancient Ochre Paintings Found in Rock Shelters of Uzbekistan’s Nurata Mountains

High in the mountains of central Uzbekistan, archaeologists have spotted ancient paintings made with natural ochre on the walls and ceilings of several rock shelters. Researchers tentatively place them in the Stone Age, but nobody has confirmed their age yet. The same survey also turned up Bronze Age pottery and a buried settlement layer, which hints that people used this landscape for a very long time.

Where the team worked

The work took place in October 2026 in the Samarkand region, in the Nurata Mountains area. According to the Agency for Cultural Heritage of the Republic of Uzbekistan, as reported by HeritageDaily, researchers from the Samarkand Archaeological Institute surveyed the Kushrabat district. Rock shelters are natural overhangs in cliffs, and people have used them for shelter and ritual across much of human history. Their sheltered surfaces often protect delicate art from rain and wind, so they are a good place to look for old paintings.

Paintings on walls and ceilings

In several shelters, the team found rock paintings made with natural ochre, a pigment from iron-rich earth that ancient artists used for thousands of years. The images appear on both walls and ceilings. The researchers tentatively link them to the Mesolithic and Neolithic, two periods of the Stone Age, but they stress that further research must confirm this. Dating rock art is notoriously hard, because paint rarely contains material that scientists can test directly. Researchers often rely on style, comparison with other sites, and the archaeology found in the same shelter.

Bronze Age pottery and a settlement layer

The survey did not stop at the paintings. In the Pangat area, the team found Bronze Age pottery at three separate locations. The Bronze Age in Central Asia broadly covers the third and second millennia BC, so these fragments may be roughly 3,000 to 4,000 years old, although the announcement as relayed does not give exact dates.

Near the village of Kumolokli, the archaeologists dug a small test trench. It revealed a Bronze Age settlement layer about 60 centimeters thick, containing pottery and animal bones. A layer that thick usually means people lived or worked there repeatedly or for an extended period, rather than passing through once. The animal bones may eventually tell researchers what people ate and how they kept animals, though nobody has reported such analysis yet.

Why it matters

Central Asia is a crossroads between the steppe, the Iranian plateau and the oasis cities of the Silk Road, yet its prehistory is less well known than that of Europe or the Near East. New rock art sites help fill that gap. If the paintings do prove to be Stone Age, they would show that hunter-gatherer communities used these mountains and chose to leave marks on the shelters. The Bronze Age finds add a later chapter, suggesting people kept returning to the same hills for millennia.

What we still do not know

Several important questions remain open. The age of the paintings is unconfirmed, and nothing has been published about what the images show or how many there are. The pottery dates come from surface finds and a single small trench, so they are preliminary. The researchers have recommended larger excavations, which could clarify the sequence of occupation and may help date the art if datable material turns up in the shelters. Until then, the Nurata paintings remain a promising but unresolved find, and we will watch for further reports from the Samarkand Archaeological Institute.

Sources

• Agency for Cultural Heritage of the Republic of Uzbekistan announcement (as credited by HeritageDaily; original release not located): gov.uz
• HeritageDaily, “New archaeological discoveries made in Uzbekistan’s Nurata Mountains”: https://www.heritagedaily.com/2026/10/new-archaeological-discoveries-made-in-uzbekistans-nurata-mountains/159826