Speaking of human face petroglyphs, I believe that many people must have heard of it, and many scholars around the world have found this kind of strange face petroglyphs, which are carved with people's joys and sorrows, which look very frightening and terrifying. Later, after the research of archaeologists, it was found that these human petroglyphs were suspected to be the masterpieces of primitive people.
Eerie face petroglyphs
There are some strange human face petroglyphs in various countries of the world, and since the 1920s, these strange petroglyphs have been discovered by scholars around the world. From the west coast of North America to Alaska, the Aleutian Islands, and all the way to Chinese mainland. In the pen of the rock painter Song Yaoliang, a clear belt of human faces in the Pacific Rim is outlined.
These human face paintings all seem to point to the same fact: they have a consistent religious and cultural connotation, common compositional characteristics, production techniques and expressive styles. From this, a bold hypothesis was made that during the prehistoric period, there was a great human migration across the ocean between Northeast Asia and North America.
In the spring of 1969, Li Xiangshi, a young staff member of the Helan County Government of Ningxia Hui Autonomous Region, went to Jinshan Township to perform official duties. On the way back, he stumbled upon the densely carved human-like figures and various animals and strange symbols on the stone walls on both sides of the Helan Pass. At that time, it was late, and with a series of incomprehensions, Li Xiangshi went down the mountain.
Li Xiangshi was not the first to discover human face petroglyphs, as early as the fifth century AD, the Northern Wei geographer Li Daoyuan left a large number of vivid records about rock paintings in his famous book "Notes on the Water Classics". He said that the Yellow River flows from the north of Gansu to Ningxia, through Ningxia Toole County to Inner Mongolia, a section of five hundred miles along the Yellow River, there are carved mountain rocks, the image is like a tiger and a horse, so it is called a painted stone mountain.
In 1979, Li Xiangshi came to Helan Pass again. Over the past decade, he has never forgotten these rock paintings. The discovery of rock paintings on Helan Mountain caused great repercussions in Chinese academia as soon as it was disclosed, and a large-scale census of Rock Paintings on Helan Mountain began. The results of the survey were astonishing: tens of thousands of ancient petroglyphs were found in 27 mountain passes in the eastern foothills of Helan Mountain, involving people, animals, plants, celestial bodies and symbols of unknown meaning, and the most eerie and mysterious figures were nearly a thousand human faces also known as "humanoid heads".
A masterpiece of primitive man
The human face petroglyphs are known to be epic poems frozen in stone. Archaeological data show that the earliest human petroglyphs date back to the late Paleolithic period more than 20,000 years ago. However, the history of petroglyphs being discovered in large quantities is only more than a hundred years. Before the 1980s, China was still blank on the world's petroglyph distribution map, and the International Petroglyph Committee knew nothing about the status of The remains of Chinese petroglyphs.
In April 1986, Anati, chairman of the International Petroglyph Council, received a letter from China describing more than 100 petroglyph sites that had been discovered in China at the time. The person who sent the letter was Chen Zhaofu, a professor at the Minzu University of China. After receiving this letter, the International Petroglyph Committee immediately sent someone to Helan Mountain to investigate. When these world's top petroglyph experts came to the Helan Pass, they were shocked by the situation in front of them.
On a cliff 20 meters high, more than 60 human faces are densely carved from top to bottom. These people have different facial expressions: some are vicious, some are arrogant and dismissive, some are gentle and kind, and some are mysterious. These mottled faces throw questions into every pair of eyes that gaze at it: When were the human face petroglyphs carved? Who exactly created them?
Archaeological results show that 10,000 years ago, a group of primitive people lived under the slopes of the eastern foothills of Helan Mountain. In the struggle against nature, they slowly learned to build simple stone tools, and also learned to make rudimentary weapons to hunt animals and protect the safety of tribal groups. They had to migrate frequently for the sake of survival, and chasing abundant water sources and more herds of beasts was an eternal theme in their lives.