China News Service, Zhongwei, January 25th, title: Walk into the rock paintings of Damaidi: Visit the "Book of Heaven without Words" carved on the stone
China News Service reporter Yu Jing Yang Di
It took millions of years for the apes and the apes to enter the era of writing.
In the prehistoric era before the appearance of words, rock paintings were the "Esperanto" used by ancestors to record their lives and express their emotions.
Rock painting is a kind of rock carving culture. Human ancestors used stone tools as tools to depict and record their production methods and life content on rock walls and stones.
Today, rock paintings have become a window for the world to understand the activities of early ancestors, and are also a precious cultural heritage left by the ancestors of mankind to future generations.
On January 25, the reporter drove into the deep desert hinterland of Beishan Zhongwei at the junction of Ningxia and Inner Mongolia, and came to the core area of Damaidi rock paintings, the only world-class "main area of rock paintings" in China, recalling the most agile side of human prehistoric relics. Appreciate the extraordinary wisdom of human ancestors.
Ningxia's rock paintings are not only second to none in China, but also occupy a place in the world of rock paintings due to their large number, wide range of subjects and exquisite carvings.
The Damaidi petroglyph belt in Ningxia covers an area of about 450 square kilometers. Due to its secret location, it retains its basic original state.
At present, there are more than 10,000 prehistoric petroglyphs in the Damaidi petroglyphs. Among them, there are 8,532 individual images of the remaining petroglyphs in the core area with a radius of 6 square kilometers, with an average of 1,422 individual images per square kilometer, which exceeds the internationally recognized requirements for the world's rock art "main regions" More than 140 times the standard, which is the best in the world.
Zhou Xinghua, the former curator of the Ningxia Museum who accompanied him, told reporters that Ningxia rock paintings cover almost all the content of the world rock paintings, mostly animals, symbols, hunting, grazing, fighting, dancing, etc., full of perceptual vitality and life force.
The Damaidi petroglyphs are mostly based on various scenes of primitive society activities. Among them, the ibex carved on a stone is 4 cm high and 8 cm long. The petroglyphs on this kind of stone, also known as miniature petroglyphs, are currently rare in the world.
According to the internationally-used Lishi Huangyi dating, petroglyph experts have measured the early period of the Damaidi rock art from 13,000 to 10,000 years ago, and the middle period from about 10,000 to 4,000 years ago. The earliest rock art was between the Paleolithic and Neolithic. between.
The discovery of the Damaidi rock paintings provides extremely precious image "historical materials" for future generations to study the labor forms, economic activities, and lifestyles of human ancestors, and at the same time has extremely high artistic value.
According to Zhou Xinghua, the rock art heritage spreads across five continents, covering two-thirds of the countries and regions along the “Belt and Road”.
Nowadays, the petroglyphs left on the rocks or cliffs between the lofty mountains and ridges have experienced wind and sun, natural corrosion, and man-made destruction, the degree of damage is gradually increasing.
Petroglyph experts urged that rescue protection of Chinese petroglyphs is imminent, and petroglyph protection areas should be established in areas where the petroglyphs are relatively concentrated, and they should be protected by special personnel on the spot.
For small petroglyphs that are scattered and easy to move, ex-situ protection methods should be registered and filed. For those with serious natural damage and great research value, physical, chemical or biological engineering methods should be adopted for reinforcement and protection.
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