Rock paintings of the Yinshan Mountains
The rock paintings of the Yinshan Mountains ( Chinese 阴山 岩画 , Pinyin Yīn Shān yánhuà , English Rock Paintings of Yinshan Mountains ) can be found in the following areas of Inner Mongolia in the People's Republic of China : Front Urad Banner , Rear Urad Banner , Middle Urad Banner and Dengkou County . The petroglyphs were already described in the 5th century by the geographer and prose writer Li Daoyuan from the time of the Northern Wei Dynasty in his commentary on the Book of Waters ( Shuijing zhu ). They were created using the techniques of engraving, scraping and picking into the dark patinated surface of the stone so that its lighter material becomes visible. The Chinese researcher Gai Shanlin (1986) dates them to a time from the early Neolithic (approx. 9th millennium BC) to the 19th century.
People, animals, hunting scenes, wagons and horses, dance are shown. Inscriptions were written in Old Turkish ( Orkhon-Yenisei script ), Old Uighur , Tangut and Mongolian script . The rock carvings provide important material for research into the society, economy, customs and religion of the ancient pastoral nomads of the Chinese north. The rock art of the Yinshan Mountains ( Yin Shan yanhua ) has been on the list of monuments of the People's Republic of China (6-818) since 2006 .
literature
- Gai Shanlin ( 盖 山林 ): Yin Shan yanhua (rock art of the Yinshan Mountains). Beijing: Wenwu chubanshe 1986
- Paola Demattè: Writing the Landscape: the Petroglyphs of Inner Mongolia and Ningxia Province (China). (Paper presented at the First International Conference of Eurasian Archeology, University of Chicago, 3 May-4 May 2002.)
reference books
- Cihai ("Sea of Words"), Shanghai cishu chubanshe, Shanghai 2002, ISBN 7-5326-0839-5
Web links
- The Rock Paintings of Yinshan Mountains - English