HISTORY

CREATED 4,000 YEARS AGO: This is the Only Example of Cave Painting in Serbia! (PHOTO)

by Serbian Times20. May 2025.20. May 2025.

Knjaževac, Serbia – Near Knjaževac, overgrown with thorns and bushes, lies an important archaeological site that testifies to the existence of a prehistoric human community in our country. On the walls of a cave near the village of Gabrovnica, you’ll find the only documented example of cave painting in Serbia.

Five drawings were discovered in the cave in 1997, during research jointly conducted by the Faculty of Philosophy in Belgrade and the Homeland Museum in Knjaževac. The creation of these unique paintings is dated to around the end of the Bronze Age and the beginning of the Iron Age, meaning they are between three and four thousand years old.

On the wall of the small cave, five depictions painted in black were identified – a horse with a rider (in two places in the cave), a horse with a dagger, one irregular circle, and one very “unreadable” representation. The method of depiction is quite schematic and linear, and it is noticeable that the figure of the rider is disproportionately small compared to the horse.

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“Horses are depicted in all representations walking or trotting to the right, with a distinctly upward-curved tail and a slightly raised front leg. There is a certain discrepancy between the painter’s intention and the representation itself, at least insofar as the raised tail indicates a trot or gallop, while the position of the legs barely suggests a stride. The only exception is the main representation… although representations with weapons, starting from the Eneolithic (Copper Age – ed. note) often appear in rock art, until now, as far as we know, there has been no recorded case of spears being directed towards the horse. Such a composition can be interpreted in various ways, and the possibility of sacrifice cannot be excluded,” state the Museum of the City of Knjaževac.

All representations were painted with a black, soot-like color, which has blended with the limestone surface and does not rub off. The color on the drawings with the horseman is less preserved.

In 2018, unknown vandals damaged the drawing with a sharp object.