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Rock art and artisans in the Lemro Valley, Arakan, Myanmar

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  02 January 2015

Pamela Gutman ,
Bob Hudson ,
Kyaw Minn Htin  and
Kyaw Tun Aung
Pamela Gutman
Affiliation:
Department of Art History and Theory, University of Sydney, Australia
Bob Hudson
Affiliation:
Archaeology Department, University of Sydney, Australia & Field School of Archaeology, Pyay, Myanmar
Kyaw Minn Htin
Affiliation:
Yangon University, Myanmar
Kyaw Tun Aung
Affiliation:
Archaeology Department, Mrauk-U, Myanmar (retired)
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Extract

This is a story that will appeal to all scholars involved with the interpretation of rock art. Figures depicted on rock surfaces in jungle terrain patrolled by soldier ants were thought in the nineteenth century to record an otherwise unknown early episode of invasion and resistance – and were widely published as such. A recent survey by a Myanmar-Australian team has made more correct records of the earlier forms and now offers fresh interpretations: the carvings are due to fifteenth-nineteenth century artisans working at quarries producing objects for the town of Mrauk-U, and they evoke local creatures and architectural echoes of the town and temples on which they worked.

Keywords

MyanmarBurmaArakanpolitical imagespost-medievalrock art
Type
Research
Information
Antiquity , Volume 81 , Issue 313 , 1 September 2007 , pp. 655 - 674
Copyright
Copyright © Antiquity Publications Ltd. 2007

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