Imagination runs sky high in interpreting rock carvings

There are herds of camels, sheep and wolves, human figures apparently on skis, and, the biggest surprise of all, a flying object that resembles an aircraft or a rocket. These are the ancient pictographs of Altay prefecture, Xinjiang Uygur autonomous region, which is endowed with one of the richest collections of ancient rock art in China.

There are at least 114 rock carving or drawing sites and 11 pictographs, according to the latest national cultural relic survey, completed four years ago.

In one case, archeologists discovered a site in Habahe county of a pictograph that seems to depict a flying object resembling an aircraft, says Liu Shihe, an official with the county's information office. Archeologists are still baffled by the pictograph, he says.

"Some people say it's a scorpion, but I tend to think it is something that has been conjured up from the imagination," says Liu, who has a keen personal interest in rock art.

Preliminary analysis suggests the pictograph is about 10,000 years old, he says.

Liu Cheng, an archeologist with Northwest University in Xi'an, Shaanxi province, first visited the pictograph sites in Altay six years ago after having spent nearly 10 years studying the Kangjia Shimenzi rock carving in Xinjiang.

Liu believes one of the important implications of the paintings on stone outcrops relates to belief systems.

"Those pictographs were located in areas that were very easily accessible, but nobody has left a single trace on them over thousands of years. I cannot imagine there is any other reason than that they were regarded as highly sacred."

However, identifying what pictographs signify and their age is extremely difficult, he says.

Liu, who plans another visit to Habahe county soon, says he will take a group of art students with him to determine what the pictographs depict.

"You need a lot of imagination to work out what they represent."

His team will also employ a new method to determine the age of the pictographs, one of whose messages seems to be that the region was one of the first in the world where skiing started.

Local archaeologists have already made up their minds on that issue, having declared in 2006 that Altay was indeed the birthplace of skiing. They point to the painting on the roof of a cave in Dundebulake village that seems to depict humans on skis, bending their knees as they travel alongside animals, including deer and moose.

The archeologists reckon the painting is about 12,000 years old.

In a research paper published in October, the International Centre of Rock Art Dating and Conservation under the Hebei Normal University in Shijiazhuang, capital of Hebei province said the rock art in Dundebulake is so well preserved because the pictographs were well hidden in the cave, in addition to which Altay's dry climate has been a useful preserving agent.

The researchers, some from Australia, says that the caves' sacred place in Tibetan Buddhism also helped protect the rock art, effectively deterring unauthorized entry into the caves.

Liu says the widespread occurrence of rock art suggests frequent cultural exchanges among nomadic tribes in ancient times, long before the Silk Road.

The research into the pictographs and rock art in Altay has provided evidence of a long history of human activities in the Altay region, he says.

"Previously we could only trace back about 7,000 years. Through the discovery of new pictographs, we can now stretch the history much further back."

Through the discovery of new pictographs, we can now stretch the history much further back."

(China Daily USA 02/11/2016 page8)