1. Civilizations and Rock art of Asia
Teaching Module in World
Archaeology 2012-2013
Ruman Banerjee
University of Bristol
Department of Archaeology and Anthropology
arxrb@bristol.ac.uk
2. What is already there
. A broad review (Rock art and civilisations)
• India
• Pakisthan
• China
• Japan
• East Asia
• Southeast Asia
What we are doing
.Present day research
.India
What can be done and why
. Research work for the recent future
3. What is rock art?
Rock art certainly includes images, or motifs, placed on natural surfaces. Moreover, rock art is also par
excellence, an artefact of past ideologies and world views. Rock art is both different and special: additive or
subtractive as paintings (pictographs) or engravings (petroglyphs), rock art usually remains static in perpetuity.
To go to a rock art site today – however great the cultural gulf that separates the viewer from the artist – is to
go to the self-same spot of its creation.
Why is it important?
It allows us to know and understand the rich cultural heritage of a given region from the prehistory to the
contemporary.
It creates an awareness about our predecessors representing the nature of the challenges and the
methodologies, they devised to face them, revealing the law that past is the key to the present and vice versa.
It delineates the possible routes of human mobility and evolution and their subsistence pattern in a given
region, across the regions or across the continents.
Finally the painted motifs of rock art constituted, reproduced and occasionally subverted beliefs and social
relations forming cultural identities.
Civilisations: Concepts and parameters,
Settlements and their settings,
Trade patterns: Craft specialization
Material culture: Public communication and economy, Art and architecture
Religion
Bronze age social formation
Origins and decline
4. Field work in October when the jungle is still green, but it
becomes difficult to locate the actual route. One should be very
careful about ferocious animals while creating the path towards
the rock-shelters..
How do we find sites??
1. We start by exploring the landscape.
Looking for particular geological
formations.
2. Fist we reach to the top of the mountain to
understand the area.
3. Then we come down from the top. We
cross the valley or other hillocks to reach to
the destination.
View of a rock-shelter while
approaching it
5. East Asian rock art
• China (Fu 2001)
– The earliest known discoveries of rock art in the world took place in China, 2300
years ago
– Presence of ostriches in the paintings informs us that some images are at least
10,000 years old
– 95% of all images are animals, produced by both hunting and pastoral groups
– Chinese rock art produced by many different communities at many different
times...
• Japan (Fu 2001)
– Most important site is Fugobe Cave in Hokkaido, which contains 609 engravings
of humans, animals and boats some of which can be dated back as far as the
Neolithic.
– Interpretations and authorship still highly contentious.
Head of the deer motif has been dated to
between 5738 and 2050 years by means of
Uranium series from the Jinsha River area of
northwest Yunnan Province (southwest
China).
6. Central Asian rock art
• Hundreds of both petroglyph and pictograph locations from the Upper Indus,
to Uzbekistan and Kazakhstan to Siberia.
• The earliest examples of rock art are thought to be late Palaeolithic or
Mesolithic, although the “real tradition” of image making began around the
start of the second century BC (Rozwadawski 2001:66).
• Long history of shamanistic belief systems and practices may provide a
window into the symbolism of the rock art.
• Anthropomorphic figures with animal or bird-heads.
• Bird-type shamans still known in Siberia in the 1800s, and horned/feathered
masks and head-gear also have a long history in Central Asian shamanistic
practices (Hoppál 1998:134-138; c.f. Devlet 2001:50)
• Animals, mythical or metaphorical figures, human characters, drums.
• The horse is known to have been an important animal to Siberian societies, not
only as a practical beast of burden, but also as an important component of
shamanic rituals and sacrifice, and as a symbolic means of travelling to the
other world.
• Highlights the potential multifaceted roles or wealth of alternative
explanations for animals in rock art: “not everything on the rocks has a
connection with shamanism or religion” (Hoppál 1998:141)
7. Zuojiang river valley, China
Choksti, Zanskar
Tamgaly, Kazakhstan
Palaeolithic bull and human figures,
from table mountain, Azerbaijan
Angara river, Siberia
Amur river Russia
Ladakh,
India
8. Southeast Asian rock art
• Indonesia (Srisuchat 1996; Nash 2003)
– Main theme is anthropomorphs, including body parts.
– Also non-figurative motifs, mammals, reptiles, amphibians, fish, and
hand/footprints.
– Date from between 4000-300BC and therefore originated amongst hunter-
gatherer communities (c.f. Kosasih 1991).
• Malaysia (Srisuchat 1996; Fu 2001)
– Humans, mammals, turtles and non-figurative.
– From Neolithic to early European contact period.
– Paintings of boats thought to be associated with boat-coffin burials.
• Borneo (Nash 2003)
– Most common are hand stencils
– Potential references to totemic belief systems
• Myanmar (Gutman et al. 2007)
– Only one known site, Padah-lin.
– Paintings include elephants, a bird with a long curved beak, and a human
holding a weapon/tool.
– Evidence suggests the paintings are associated with 16th century sculpture
at Mrauk-U.
14. Thai Rock Art of the Korat Region : Salient Features
It is generally assumed and believed that Thai Rock art dates back to 4,000 to 2,000
years B.P., consisting the paintings of late Neolithic to Iron age (Higham & Thosarat
1998:131; Sukkham 2010). Anthropomorphs, cattle and extant animals have been
represented frequently in the rock art of this region.
The rock art sites located in the dry upland of Korat lack intricate designs and colour
combinations (bichrome) in terms of paintings. Intricate Superimpositions of style,
theme and motifs are rare and not common.
Stone tools and pottery are not present in the rock-shelter deposits (when occur) and no
site has been excavated yet. The state of conservation and preservation is poor.
Stencils, line drawings, silhouettes and geometric designs of red and dark pink colour
are prevalent.
The rock paintings of Korat region reveal both figurative , stylized and decorative
elements, depending on the type of the paintings.
The absence of associated archaeological evidences render any tentative chronology
ambiguous; although hunting scenes from other parts of the province might suggest the
existence of hunting gathering economy in the region.
22. What can be done!!
Space science, Chemistry,
geochemistry, physics, robotics
23.
24. The Chronology of the Indus Valley Civilization
Pre Harappan : 5,800-5,200 B.P.
Early Harappan : 5,200-4,500 B.P.
Mature Harappan : 4,500-3,900 B.P.
Late Harappan : 3,900-3,000 B.P.
Painted Grey Ware and Northern Black Polished Ware : 3,000-2,600 B.P.
Late Harappan : 1800 B.C. onwards
Transition between Mature and Late Harappan : 1900-1800 B.C.
Mature Harappan (three phases) : 2600-1900 B.C.
Early Harappan (Kot Dijian Culture) : 2800-2600 B.C.
Earliest occupation (Ravi Culture) : 3300-2800 B.C.
31. Period III1A Cultural
Stratigraphy
Period II Cultural StratigraphyPeriod I Cultural Stratigraphy
Archaeological site
topography from Harappa
Site topography
Female burial with pottery at
Harappa
32. Weights made of chert and banded
agate from the Indus Valley
Terracotta mask amulet from
Harappa
Prof. Richard Meadow
taking photographs at one
of the sites
Painted torso of a figurine
from Harappa
34. Zebu seal from Mohenjodaro
Bullet cores
from Harappa
Gold beads
from the Indus
Valley
Cart with driver from Harappa,
period III
35. Carnelian long bead necklace from
Mohenjodaro
The priest King
Unique
Harappan seals
36. Early agriculture : ca. 6500-5000 B.C.E.
Yangshao period : ca. 5000-3000 B.C.E.
Longshan period : ca. 3000-2000 B.C.E
37. Tomb with burial pottery,
Machang culture
Painted pottery from Majiayao culture
Banshan culture pottery
Daxi culture site, Wushan
Terracotta head of the goddess at the
Niuheliang temple
40. References
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Devlet, Ekaterina (2001) ‘Rock art and the material culture of Siberian and
Central Asian shamanism’ in N. Price (ed.) The Archaeology of Shamanism: 43-55. London: Routledge.
Fu, Chen Zhao (2001) ‘Overview of World Rock Art: Asia’ in David S. Whitley (ed.) Handbook of Rock Art
Research: 760-785. Walnut Creek, CA: Altamira Press.
Giosan et al., (2012) Fluvial Landscape of the Harappan Civilization. PNAS
Gutman, Pamela et al. (2007) Rock art and artisans in the Lemro Valley, Arakan, Myanmar. Antiquity 81:
655-674.
www. Harappa.com
Higham, Charles & Rachanie Thosarat (1998) Prehistoric Thailand: From Early Settlement to Sukhothai.
Bangkok: River Books.
Hoppál, Mihály (1998) ‘On the origin of shamanism and the Siberian rock art’ in Anna-Leena Siikala &
Mihály Hoppál (eds.) Studies on Shamanism: 132-149. Budapest: Akaprint, Ltd.
Kenoyer, M.J. (2004). Ancient Cities of the Indus Valley Civilization. American Institute of Pakistan Studies, Oxford University
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