CRI NEWS

Ancient Rock Paintings Discovered in Yunnan

2004-8-9 20:20:25 CRIENGLISH.com

Archaeologists say they've found ten, 2,000 year old rock paintings at Jinsha River in southwest China's Yunnan province. There are no human figures in the paintings, just wildlife.

Archaeologists say they've found ten, 2,000 year old rock paintings at Jinsha River in southwest China's Yunnan province.

He Jinlong, head of the field work team and associate researcher with Yunnan Provincial Institute of Archaeology says the paintings are believed to be by Diqiang tribe people, who lived in the northwest and migrated to the south about 2,000 to 3,000 years ago.

Materials used in the paintings are a mixture of animal blood and mineral paints.

There are no human figures in the paintings, just wildlife.

Experts say the ancient people may have painted what they prayed to catch before hunting or what they caught after hunting.

In China, ancient works have been mostly found in the Inner Mongolia, Ningxia Hui and Xinjiang Uygur autonomous regions; Gansu Province in northern China and in the southwestern Yunnan province.