1 THE ARMENIAN ROCK ART: THE ORIGIN OF NATURAL PHILOSOPHY AND METAPHYSICS Gregori Vahanyan 1 , Vahan Vahanyan 2 Abstract Philosophical, rationalist ideas, social science and culture, the doctrine of four classical elements and four bodily fluids are still interlinked to Ancient Greece. A Classical Element in Ancient and Medieval Natural Philosophy typically refers to one of the four fundamental concepts of the world: earth, water, air and fire. The authors reveal part of this cognition, expressed in visual form (pet- roglyphs and rock art), in a number of clusters of Armenian Rock Art (10th -5th millennium BC) remarkable for their form and content, as well as implemented in the motif of birth of the first human in the ancient Armenian song “Birth of Vahagn”. Reconstruction of ideas on Natural Philosophy, Meta- physics, Mythology and Religion in the context of the genesis of knowledge shows, that the visualization of the four elements, fundamental principles of the world, including the archetypes of the major common Indo-European motifs, were first recorded, “documented”, in the Araratian Mountains c. 10th - 5th millennium BC. Keywords Principles of Natural Philosophy and Metaphysics, Four Forces, Birth of the First Man, Rock Art, Temple of Knowledge 1. Introduction The History of Ancient civilization is usually associated with Classical Greek philosophical ideas, the conception of four classical elements and four bodily fluids (mainly influenced by Aristotle’s epistemology). It is vital to touch upon some of the most important events, which together developed from the illiterate and the first literate societies into the complex historical tapestry within which the history of Armenia unfolded. A Classical Element (from Latin elementem “rudiment, first principle, matter in its most basic form”; Greek stoikheion “origin and original sense”) in Ancient and Medieval Natural Philosophy typically refer to one of the four fundamental concepts of the world: earth, water, air and fire. The authors reveal part of this cognition, expressed in pictorial form (petroglyphs and rock art), in a number of clusters of Armenian Rock Art (10th -5th millennium BC) remarkable for their form and content. This cognition is similarly implemented in the motif of the birth of the first human (man) in the ancient Armenian song (“The Birth of Vahagn”) [1]. In the “History of Armenia” medieval historian M. Khorenatsi (5th century) gives a clue to the nature and origin of the ancient song. Thus, relating the philosophical ideas to the historical and cultural background, the authors trace the original conception of the definition, the function, and the task of Natural Philosophy and Metaphysics. It forces us to reconsider a number of questions having to do with the origin of Natural Philosophy and Metaphysics. 2. The Origins of Natural Philosophy and Metaphysics in Armenian Rock Art 2.1. Birth of the First Human (man) Birth is the act of genesis, the beginning of life. Birth is the physiological act or process of emergence and separation of offspring from the body of its mother or an egg. In a symbolic sense, birth is the 1 Head of the Rock Art Research Centre “KareDaran”. 2 Member of the Union of Designers of Armenia, Valcamonica Centre of Prehistoric Studies, Italy. Translated by Baghdasaryan V.