Preservation
The state of preservation varies greatly depending on the weathering influences to which the paintings have been exposed in the course of the millennia. In many cases only traces of colours have been preserved. A large part of the original corpus of paintings has thus been irrevocably lost.
Colour
With a few exceptions, the paintings were executed in red. Only in one example, the picture on the left half of the rock slab of Balıktaş, was yellow used in addition (1-3.5-6). The material for these pigments is a ferrous oxide occurring naturally in the Latmos. It was ground to powder, mixed with a liquid binding agent and then applied to the rock face by hand or with a tool. White was also used as a third colour in two cases, one of which is among the pictures of Kavalan (see below).
In the case of the copies of the rock paintings, the motifs executed in red are reproduced in black, those in yellow in dark grey and the no longer definable colour remains in light grey. The details of the rock painting of Kavalan painted in white (see below) are also depicted in light grey.
Style
Regardless of the size of individual pictures, the portrayals are of small figures. The height of the human figures ranges from 5 to 50 cm. On average they are 20 to 30 cm high.
The human figures, as also the few portrayals of animals, are not reproduced true to life, but are highly abstracted and schematised. In the case of the human figures two stylistic trends can be discerned here. One, which is only represented by a few examples, prefers round forms, the other linear, angular ones. The difference becomes clear above all in the depiction of the head. Whereas in the first case it is portrayed round, half-round or club-shaped, in the second case it has the form of a large M or T. Both styles occur side by side, as is to be seen in the left-hand picture on the rock slab of Balıktaş (2-6), but also in other images, such as that of Göktepe (see below).
The state of preservation varies greatly depending on the weathering influences to which the paintings have been exposed in the course of the millennia. In many cases only traces of colours have been preserved. A large part of the original corpus of paintings has thus been irrevocably lost.
Colour
With a few exceptions, the paintings were executed in red. Only in one example, the picture on the left half of the rock slab of Balıktaş, was yellow used in addition (1-3.5-6). The material for these pigments is a ferrous oxide occurring naturally in the Latmos. It was ground to powder, mixed with a liquid binding agent and then applied to the rock face by hand or with a tool. White was also used as a third colour in two cases, one of which is among the pictures of Kavalan (see below).
In the case of the copies of the rock paintings, the motifs executed in red are reproduced in black, those in yellow in dark grey and the no longer definable colour remains in light grey. The details of the rock painting of Kavalan painted in white (see below) are also depicted in light grey.
Style
Regardless of the size of individual pictures, the portrayals are of small figures. The height of the human figures ranges from 5 to 50 cm. On average they are 20 to 30 cm high.
The human figures, as also the few portrayals of animals, are not reproduced true to life, but are highly abstracted and schematised. In the case of the human figures two stylistic trends can be discerned here. One, which is only represented by a few examples, prefers round forms, the other linear, angular ones. The difference becomes clear above all in the depiction of the head. Whereas in the first case it is portrayed round, half-round or club-shaped, in the second case it has the form of a large M or T. Both styles occur side by side, as is to be seen in the left-hand picture on the rock slab of Balıktaş (2-6), but also in other images, such as that of Göktepe (see below).
Site: Balıktaş
1) Location of the left-hand, two-colour painting on the fallen rock slab.
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