SOME INFORMATION ABOUT THE PREDATORY FELINES OF CENTRAL ASIA IN THE LITERATURE ON THE HISTORY OF THE ANCIENT WORLD.

Our ideas about the ancient natural geography of Central Asia, especially its flora and fauna, are formed by the sources of ancient Greece, Iran, India, and China, as well as the information in the Zoroastrian holy book "Avesta". On the other hand, the archaeological research conducted in our country served to enrich the information in written sources. It can be seen that the information in the historical literature about the presence of feline predators such as lions, tigers, and leopards in the composition of the ancient fauna of Central Asia is in some cases interpreted in a mythical way. Since ancient times, all peoples have paid special attention to wild cats, believing that they are representatives of divine forces on earth. It is also believed that the wild cat is able to protect against various disasters and calamities. For these reasons, we can see that many images of wild cats have been preserved on rocks since the earliest times in our country. For example, in the images on the rocks of Sarmushsay; "Wild bulls, stags and deer with their antlers stuck around, mountain deer, deer, boar, wolf, leopard, dogs... are depicted[5,21]," writes academician A. Muhammadjanov. So, we can witness that the attitude towards wild felines in our country was reflected in rock paintings even in the Mesolithic period.