Ancient rock paintings discovered in Hainan for the first time

By Chen Shumin / HICN / Updated: 20:54,28-February-2022

Recently, some ancient rock paintings were found by a Chinese archaeological team doing research at Qiantie Cave, located in Wangxia Township, Changjiang Li Autonomous County, in south China’s Hainan Province.

Ancient rock paintings discovered for the first time in Changjiang, Hainan. (CCTV)

The rock paintings found by the researchers from the Institute of Vertebrate Paleontology and Paleoanthropology of the Chinese Academy of Sciences are significant for the study of the distribution and features of Chinese rock paintings as well as the history of Hainan, as this is the first time that ancient rock paintings have been discovered in the island province.

After performing comparative analysis on the geological landscape and the colors and patterns of the paintings, the preliminary assessment of the researchers is that the rock paintings resemble the patterns of those left by the Baiyue tribe, who inhabited Southeast China during the 1st millennium BC and 1st millennium AD. The paintings are similar to those found in Zuojianghua Mountain in Guangxi, with main motifs depicting humans collecting, hunting, worshiping totems, and crouching.

Located halfway up Qiantie Mountain in Wangxia Township, Qiantie Cave is about 12 meters high, 20 meters wide, and 60 meters deep. The cave was a site for ancient human life in the late Paleolithic period, and was formed 55,000 to 65,000 years ago, during the geological era of the Late Pleistocene.

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