Hostname: page-component-cd9895bd7-fscjk Total loading time: 0 Render date: 2024-12-25T07:55:18.721Z Has data issue: false hasContentIssue false
  • English
  • Français

Travel and landscape: the Zuo River Valley rock art of Guangxi Zhuang Autonomous Region, China

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  05 June 2015

Paola Demattè
Paola Demattè*
Affiliation:
Rhode Island School of Design, Two College Street, Providence, RI 02903–2784, USA (Email: [email protected])
Get access Rights & Permissions [Opens in a new window]

Abstract

Rock art, especially in China, has often been associated with the non-literate, non-Chinese periphery. It is often thought of very broadly as a universal phenomenon rooted in religion and sharing a widely recognised iconography. This paper challenges both of these assumptions. Its focus is the rock art of the Zuo River in the Guangxi Province of China and in particular its landscape location and visibility. Broadening the parameters of what we categorise as rock art, such art is shown to have multi-layered meanings that spoke to different groups in different ways. The content, location and visibility of images along this arterial waterway reveal how rock art played a significant role in life and death in Late Bronze Age and Iron Age Guangxi.

Keywords

ChinaGuangxiLate Bronze AgeIron Agerock artlandscaperiver routes
Type
Research
Information
Antiquity , Volume 89 , Issue 345 , June 2015 , pp. 613 - 628
Copyright
Copyright © Antiquity Publications Ltd, 2015 

Access options

Get access to the full version of this content by using one of the access options below. (Log in options will check for institutional or personal access. Content may require purchase if you do not have access.)

References

Bahn, P. 1998. Cambridge illustrated history of prehistoric art. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press.Google Scholar
Barlow, J.G. 1997. Culture, identity and early weapons systems on the Sino-Vietnamese frontier, in Tötösy de Zepetnek, S. & Jay, J.W. (ed.) East Asian cultural and historical perspectives: 1–15. Edmonton: University of Alberta.Google Scholar
Chen, T.M. & Zhu, F.B.. 1988. Ningming Huashan yanhua tanshisi niandai ceting [14C dating of Huashan rock art in Ningming], in Wang, K.R., Qiu, Z.L. & Chen, Y.Z. (ed.) Guangxi Zuojiang yanhua [Guangxi's Zuo River rock art]: 244–47. Beijing: Wenwu.Google Scholar
Chinese Association for the Study of Ancient Drums. 1988. Zhongguo gudai tonggu [Ancient Chinese Bronze drums]. Beijing: Wenwu.Google Scholar
Chinese National Museum & Guangxi Zhuang Museum. 2006. Ou Luo yicui. Beijing: Zhongguo Shehui Kexue.Google Scholar
Demattè, P. 2004. Beyond shamanism: landscape and self-expression in the petroglyphs of Inner Mongolia and Ningxia (China). Cambridge Archaeological Journal 14: 1–20.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Demattè, P. 2012. After the flood. Cultural heritage and cultural politics in the Chongqing municipality and the Three Gorges areas, China. Future Anterior 9 (1): 49–64.Google Scholar
Demattè, P. 2014. Itinerant creeds: the Chinese northern frontier, in Moser, C. & Feldman, C. (ed.) Locality of sacrality: theoretical approaches to the emplacement of religion: 57–73. Oxford: Oxbow.Google Scholar
Gai, S.L. 1995. Zhongguo yanhua xue [Study of Chinese rock art]. Beijing: Shumu Wenxian.Google Scholar
Gao, Q. 2013. The Huashan rock art site (China): the sacred meeting place for sky, water and earth. Rock Art Research 30: 22–32.Google Scholar
Guangxi Institute of Archaeology and Cultural Heritage. 2007. Guangxi kaogu wenji [Collected essays on Guangxi archaeology: volume 3]. Beijing: Wenwu.Google Scholar
Guangxi Zhuang Autonomous Area Cultural Relics Team. 1993. Guangxi yandong zang diaocha baogao [Report on the investigation of cliff burials in Guangxi]. Wenwu 1993 (1): 51–61.Google Scholar
Harrist, R.E. 2008. Landscape of words. Seattle: University of Washington.Google Scholar
Higham, C. 1996. The Bronze age of Southeast Asia. Cambridge & New York: Cambridge University Press.Google Scholar
Hou, Y.M., Potts, R., Yuan, B.Y., Guo, Z.T., Deino, A., Wang, W., Clark, J., Xie, G.M. & Huang, W.W.. 2000. Mid-Pleistocene Acheulean-like stone technology of the Bose basin, south China. Science 287: 1622–26. http://dx.doi.org/10.1126/science.287.5458.1622 Google Scholar
Jiang, T.Y. 1999. Gudai tonggu tonglun [General survey of ancient bronze drums]. Beijing: Forbidden City Publishing House.Google Scholar
Kim, N.C., Toi, L.V. & Hiep, T.H.. 2010. Co Loa: an investigation of Vietnam's ancient capital. Antiquity 84: 1011–27. http://dx.doi.org/10.1017/S0003598X00067041 Google Scholar
Li, F. 2006. Shilun Guizhou Longli Wushan yanhua [On the rock art at Wushan, Longli, Guizhou]. Sichuan Wenwu 3: 54–58.Google Scholar
Pearson, R. 2005. The social context of early pottery in the Lingnan region of south China. Antiquity 79: 819–28. http://dx.doi.org/10.1017/S0003598X00114954 Google Scholar
Prendergast, M.E., Yuan, J. & Bar-Yosef, O.. 2009. Resource intensification in the Late Upper Palaeolithic: a view from southern China. Journal of Archaeological Science 36: 1027–37. http://dx.doi.org/10.1016/j.jas.2008.12.002 Google Scholar
Qin, S.M., Qin, C.L., Hu, M.F. & Yu, R.Y.. 1987. Guangxi Zuojiang liuyu yanbihua kaocha yu yanjiu [Investigation and study of the rock art of the Zuojiang River Valley, Guangxi]. Nanning: Guangxi Minzu.Google Scholar
Shen, G.J., Wang, W., Wang, Q., Zhao, J.X., Collerson, K., Zhou, C.L. & Tobias, P.V.. 2002. U-series dating of Liujiang hominid site in Guangxi, southern China. Journal of Human Evolution 43: 817–29. http://dx.doi.org/10.1006/jhev.2002.0601 Google Scholar
Shen, G.J., Wang, W., Cheng, H. & Edwards, R.L.. 2007. Mass spectrometric U-series dating of Laibin hominid site in Guangxi, southern China. Journal of Archaeological Science 34: 2109–14. http://dx.doi.org/10.1016/j.jas.2007.02.008 CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Sichuan Provincial Museum & Gongxian Culture Office. 1978. Sichuan Gongxian “Boren” xuanguan ji yanhua diaocha ji [Investigation of the Bo hanging coffins and rock art]. Wenwu ziliao congkan 2: 187–95.Google Scholar
Song, Y.L. 1998. Zhongguo yanhua kaocha [Investigation of Chinese rock art]. Taibei: Lianjing.Google Scholar
Taçon, P.S.C., Li, G., Yang, D.C., May, S.K., Liu, H., Ji, X.P., Aubert, M., Curnoe, D. & Herries, A.I.R.. 2010. Naturalism, nature and questions of style in Jinsha River rock art, north-west Yunnan, China. Cambridge Archaeological Journal 20: 67–86. http://dx.doi.org/10.1017/S0959774310000053 CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Taçon, P.S.C., Aubert, M., Li, G., Yang, D.C., Liu, H., May, S.K., Fallon, S., Ji, X.P., Curnoe, D. & Herries, A.I.R.. 2012. Uranium-series age estimates for rock art in south-west China. Journal of Archaeological Science 39: 492–99. http://dx.doi.org/10.1016/j.jas.2011.10.004 Google Scholar
Tang, H.S. 2012. New discovery of rock art and megalithic sites in the central plain of China. Rock Art Research 29: 150–70.Google Scholar
Tuan, Y.F. 1977. Space and place. Minneapolis: University of Minnesota Press.Google Scholar
Wang, K.R., Qiu, Z.L. & Chen, Y.Z.. 1988. Guangxi Zuojiang yanhua [Guangxi's Zuo River rock art]. Beijing: Wenwu.Google Scholar
Wang, N.S. 1985a. Rock art paintings of Yunnan, China. Expedition 27 (1): 25–33.Google Scholar
Wang, N.S. 1985b. Yunnan Cangyuan yanhua de faxian yu yanjiu [The rock paintings of Cangyuan, Yunnan: discovery and research]. Beijing: Wenwu.Google Scholar
Zeng, Z.M. 1990. Gongxian ‘Boren’ xuanguan yanhua yanliao de jianding [Identified pigments in rock art and hanging coffin of ‘Bo People’ nation, Gong County]. Kaogu yu wenwu 2: 107–10. http://dx.doi.org/10.1017/S0003598X00099737 Google Scholar
Zhang, C. & Hung, H.-C.. 2010. The emergence of agriculture in southern China. Antiquity 84: 11–25.Google Scholar
Zheng, C.X. & Tan, F.. 2006. Zhuangzu lishi wenhua de kaoguxue yanjiu [Archaeological research of Zhuang history and culture]. Beijing: Minzu.Google Scholar