Archaeological study of rock paintings in Jinsha River
There is new progress
The latest high-precision uranium dating confirmation
Rock painting of the Tiger Leaping Gorge in the middle of the Jinsha River
Largely by the Paleolithic period of the region
Hunter-gatherer creation
The study confirmed for the first time
The continent preserves Paleolithic painted petroglyphs
More than 70 petroglyphs of the Jinsha River have been discovered
Yunnan is located on the southeastern edge of the Qinghai-Tibet Plateau, bordering Southeast Asian countries, and has many petroglyphic heritages in the territory, mainly distributed in the lancang river and jinsha river basins. The Jinsha river petroglyphs were first discovered in 1988, and with the joint efforts of several generations of cultural relics workers and archaeologists, more than 70 petroglyphs have been discovered. Most of the places use the technique of depiction and the style of realism, showing images of bison, deer, rock sheep, goats, wild boars, chamois, roe deer, monkeys, wild horses, wild donkeys, bears, tigers and other animals, depicting accurately, skillfully with pens, and vivid forms. In addition, there are figures, bows and arrows, handprints and abstract patterns.
Jinshajiang rock paintings are the oldest painted rock paintings in East Asia with dating data records, which is a unique group of petroglyphs different from other parts of China, similar to the Paleolithic rock paintings found in France, Spain and South and Southeast Asia in Europe, and is an important cultural relic carrier of prehistoric culture in the upper reaches of the Yangtze River, which is of great significance for exploring the "roots of civilization" in the upper reaches of the Yangtze River.
Since 2008, cultural and museum workers at all levels in Yunnan have cooperated with a number of scientific research institutes to investigate and study the petroglyphic heritage of the Jinsha River Basin with Yulong County, Ninglang County and Shangri-La City of Diqing Tibetan Autonomous Prefecture as the core area, and put the rock paintings of the Jinsha River Basin in the context of international petroglyph research and incorporate them into the regional prehistoric archaeological and cultural framework (including the overall research of paleoanthropology, paleontology, paleometeorology, paleogeography and paleogeographic evolution).
Most of the petroglyphs in the cave are indistinct
On the south bank of the Tiger Leaping Gorge Scenic Area in the middle of the Jinsha River, there is a man-made cave, the mouth of the cave is about 150 meters above the jinsha river surface, the cave depth is about 40 meters, and the width is between 3 and 25 meters, developing on the Permian limestone rock wall. The petroglyphs in the cave are painted on the south wall near the mouth of the cave, and the colors are purple red, red, orange red, etc., and the content is mostly lines, and most of them have been blurred.
The research team collected 13 small pieces of cave carbonate sediment directly related to the petroglyph fragment as samples from 5 sampling points on the south wall of the cave. Among them, the red pigment layer of sampling points 1, 2, 3 and 5 is sandwiched between the two layers of carbonate, and the red pigment layer of sampling point 4 is located on the surface of the carbonate layer.
Using uranium dating, the researchers dated carbonate deposits in 13 samples. Dating revealed that the Cave of Man could be accurately reconstructed in at least three stages of petroglyphing: 13,000 to 13,580, 10,540 to 10,830, and 8,370 to 8,700, in the transition from the Late Pleistocene to the Holocene, significantly earlier than the earliest agricultural eras in the region (4600 years ago). Combined with collected information on Paleolithic artifacts, it is shown that these petroglyphs were largely created by the Paleolithic hunter-gatherer or gathering crowd in the region.
This high-precision uranium dating provides more accurate and sufficient empirical data for the study of rock paintings in the Man-Man Cave, and for the first time gives clear evidence to support the dating of petroglyphs in the Jinsha River Basin dating back to the end of the Pleistocene to the early Holocene, and the Jinsha River petroglyphs are also the earliest petroglyphs in China and even in the entire East Asian region, with absolute data supporting the age.
The diverse content and long age span of the rock paintings of the Ten Thousand Caves show that they are important cultural heritages in the southwest region, and their unique style content and geographical location are of great significance for the study of the exchange and connection between the prehistoric populations in the region and the prehistoric populations in northern Eurasia, Southeast Asia and South Asia.
Source: Spring City Evening News
Editor: Peng Yanhong