Documentary of Rock Art Experts’Field Study in Inner Mongolia

Wu Jiacai

I. Three Experts from Different Countries Gathered in Honder College.Due toTheirAdvancedAge,PhysicalCondition andJetLag,WillThey FeelComfortableHere?

In October, Huhhot enjoys a golden season with blue sky, green land and fresh air exuding aroma everywhere. At 10 o’clock in the morning on October 10, 2015, we picked up an old man called Robert from Australia at Baita International Airport. Before seeing him, I was worried that he might be exhausted due to his advanced age and several hours of flight. To my surprise, he walked out of the airport as if on wings and then took a deep breath that I wondered was a reflection of relaxation after safe landing or happiness because of fresh air in Huhhot. I hurried to take his three heavy luggage and after greetings by Shi Lizhen, Director of Foreign Affairs Office of Honder College of Inner Mongolia Normal University and Bai Lei, an English teacher from Department of Foreign Language of Honder College, we sent him to Uiles Hotel.

The second expert was Professor Tang Huisheng, Director of China Rock Art Dating Center.

Another expert, Kumar, would arrived at the airport at nine past ten in the evening from New Delhi, India. We got to the airport at eight past thirty in the evening, several minutes earlier. We thought he would be there after forty minutes, but unexpectedly, he reached the airport earlier than us. Being so excited, we hugged each other. The interpreter, an English teacher from our college, stared at the man, realizing that we were old acquaintance. Without my introduction, they hugged together. Actually, it was true that we were old acquaintance because we saw and knew each other in summer in Yinchuan, Ningxia Hui Autonomous Region.

Mr. Robert is now living in Australia. The word “Australia” stemmed from a Latin word meaning “Southern Land”. Australia is the only country in the world that covers one continent. More than forty thousand years ago, aborigines began to live here. And now, there are four hundred and six thousand aborigines living there. Initially, Australia used to be a place for exile prisoners by Britain. Since British immigrants stepped on this land, over 140 ethnic groups from 120 countries came here for living and development. Robert family was one of them. He was born in Austria in 1944 and became an Australia citizen in 1970. Inheriting legacy from his ancestor, he funded world rock art cause being the executive chairman of International Federation of Rock Art Organization(IFRAO).

Mr. Kumar is a professor in a university in Agra. In the city where he teaches, there is Taj Mahal, one of the Seven Architecture Wonders of the World. The Taj Mahal was a symbol of love of Shah Jahan, the fifth generation of monarch in Mughal Empire, to his wife, Empress Mumtaz. In 1630, 19 years after their marriage, the Empress was dead when giving birth to the fourteenth children. Before her death, the empress asked the emperor to build a beautiful tomb that would be admired by everyone. Thus, with 5 million rubles, 20,000 craftsmen, it took 22 years to finish building this magnificent marble art building where the empress could rest in peace eternally. Kumar is an active scholar in Agra, Dayalbagh Educational Institute and New Delhi. He is also the founding secretary and editor of Rock Art Society of India as well as Indian representative of IFRAO.

At 3 o’clock in the afternoon on October 5 and 8 o’clock on October 6, the experts saw China’s prehistorical cultural relics, especially painted pottery from Hongshan Culture Period and Xiajiadian Xiaceng Culture Period. “This is amazing, I have never seen them” said the one of the experts. Seeing rubbings, they took photos with tags marked by “IFRAO”. It seemed they were delightful and satisfied with the rubbings.

II. Medium toDateRockArtsWasNotFoundbutanOld Daqing MountainTemplewithaHistory of 700YearsWasVisited.

On October 7, together with three experts, we came to Baita, or the White Pagoda, which was built in Jin Dynasty, 1115 to 1234 years ago, and restored for several times. We could not find quartz crystal on steps because they were buried in concrete. Under the guide of Mr. Du Jianzhong, Director of Art Museum, we went to the second floor of the pagoda where there were seven tablet inscriptions. Seeing this, Mr. Tang said, “These are the evidences of building the pagoda. They are treasures!” However, Robert did not pay attention to the content of inscriptions but rather the quartz crystal in the stela. Looking and observing twice in the winding corridor, he shook his head saying “NO, no.” Finding no quartz there, we were heading to Dazhao Temple with construction time, hoping some could be found there. Observing with microscope some ground stones used to built the old building, Robert still found no quartz as he expected. The visitor around thought I was going sightseeing with some foreigners, believing we were so happy just as the sunny weather. Nonetheless, it wasn’t. Seeing my bending brows, Professor Tang Huisheng told me, “It is extremely difficult to find dating specimen. We went to plenty of places and returned without any accomplishment.” Although being disappointed, we still as planned headed to the internal part of Daqing Mountain-Hongshankou.

There were roads to the mountains, but there were potholes on the roads. Under this circumstances, one car, with no all-wheel drive and a low chassis, broke down. The other car, with experts in it, went for nearly one hour through the col before arriving at the carved cliff as told by the village party secretary. Climbing the mountains for cliff inscription, we found many brick bats as well as plenty of glazed titles and architectural remnants in the secondary platform. Out of years of field study to identify cultural relics, I concluded that there used to be a temple which could be dated back to at middle and late Yuan Dynasty(between 1271 to 1368). Professor Tang Huisheng and I climbed to the destination, finding two-story carved Buddhas. The big one was in the east of the cliff while the small one was in the west. After observing by an magnifier, Professor Tang believed they could be dated back to Ming Dynasty(between 1368 to 1644). The one in the east was older than that in the west. When we were going downhill, Professor Tang and I went back to the Buddha for I found about six ancient caves. It would be a pity if there were rock arts in the caves without observing them. When I went to the fifth carve, I was left with such impression: First, the caves were made by human. Second, there was sign of sandy-mud nearly in every cave. Third, there were living traces of ancient people, especially clear carved shrine outline in No.1, No.2 and No.3 caves. There wasn’t enough time to prove whether the caves were in the same period as the temple or earlier. Hearing our briefing on our discoveries, the local people in charge of this area were excited. The township head said our discoveries dated this palace back to the period much earlier than Qing Dynasty(between 1636 to 1912) that has been quite convincing.

III. ThereWereManyDifferentShapes ofRockArts in Daqing Mountain,Filling theVacancy ofRockArtHistoryHere.

Rock arts were characters and patterns created by ancient people through grinding, carving, scratching and chiseling by stone and metal tools or painting with various dyes.

With this clue, the Cultural Departments at all levels in Inner Mongolia Autonomous Region carried out three cultural relic survey, but returned without accomplishing anything. As a result, people claimed, on the basis of these surveys, there was no rock art. However, this was not convincing to us. It seemed strange that there was no rock art since there were Paleolithic sites. Under the lead of Professor Zhou Yushu, North China Rock Art Research Institute implemented on-the-spot investigation on mountains with the same topography. Professor Zhou Yushu discovered many God-face patterns on the rocks just like those found in Hongshan Cultural Zone. Besides that, I also discovered many cupules in Xiaojinggou. Thus, it was firmly believed that there was rock art. Later, we presented our discovery to three Chinese rock art experts, Ge Shanlin, Chen Zhaofu and Li Xiangshi. Due to health problem, Mr. Ge Shanlin did not go the spot, but the other two experts went to the mountains, alleging there was rock art in Daqing Mountain. To make our finding more persuasive, we sent invitation to Mr. Robert, Executive Chairman of International Federation of Rock Art Organization. To our surprise, he pleasingly embraced it. And under the help of Professor Tang Huisheng, besides Robert and him, Mr. Kumar and one of student of Professor Tang, Jin Anni also agreed to come to Huhhot to the rock art site.

In conversations, there was common views as well as different ones in terms of Chinese and western cultural cognition. First, there were differences in diets. Second, there was discrepancy in pronunciation and vocabulary in such English-speaking countries as India, Australia, Britain and the United States. Third, in terms of human origin, evolution, development and immigration, most western scholars believed that Chinese people originated from Africa, inferring that Chinese ancient culture including rock art was not as early as that of Europe and Africa. Nonetheless, Chinese scholars believed in the theory of polyphylesis and native. There was not that much communication with Mr. Robert about this because the reason why we invited him to be here was mainly to learn his advanced micro-erosion dating technique. It was shamed that they did not have a deep understanding of Chinese ancient culture and study as good as our study and mastery of it because it required a process to know about them.

North China Rock Art Research Institute of Inner Mongolia Normal University discovered rock arts from different periods and with different shapes. Their site was less than 10 kilometers away that of late Paleolithic Dayao Culture and it was in mountains with an altitude ranging from 1400 meters to 1660 meters. The shapes of the rock arts were cupules, human faces and symbols, etc.

IV. TheFieldSeminarWasInnovative. WhereThereWasDispute,ThereWasAcademicStudy.

A prehistorical cultural seminar between Chinese and western scholars was conducted in the process of Daqing Mountain field survey with no official start and end in a free way. When the rock art experts came to Xiaojingou, less than 10 kilometers away the site of late Paleolithic Dayao Culture, they tested the cupules, human face and symbols discovered by North China Rock Art Research Institute of Inner Mongolia Normal University. It was initially asserted that they could be dated back to 500 years and 2000 years. In accordance with grooves, they could be dated back to 5000 to 6000 years , 10,000 years and 21,000 years respectively. In light of reading of the data in the rocks, some could be read out at the first sight; some were doubtful; some were with grooves. To read the data, one needed to have essentials of basic training of judgment, knowledge of geography and topography as well as human culture and history.

V. WeWent to the Baimiaozi Rock ArtSite afterManyYears, butWeWereFooled by theDesert becauseOurCar wasTrapped in theDesert forTwoHours.

On October 8, the rock art dating experts went to Hongshan Culture Zone, a place that was named after the discovery of late Hongshan site in the 1940s and the discovery of Niuheliang Hongshan Cultural site in the 1980s. In particular, a national treasure was discovered in Sanxingtala(a village in Wengniute county) in Hongshan Culture heartland-the first Chinese c-shaped jade dragon(it is now saved in National Museum of China and ranked as one the top 20 cultural relics for non-exhibition), which was called as “The Dawn of Chinese Civilization”. Four c-shaped jade dragons were well-known here: Dark green jade dragon in Sanxingtala, yellow jade dragon in Dongguaibanggou, green jade dragon that was broken into four sections and yellow jade dragon in Luyi. The Project of Exploring the Origin of Chinese Culture started in 2008 through multiple sections and disciplines under the hard work of many experts. This project was to illustrate that Chinese nation was descendants of the dragon. If not, where was our culture root? At present, there was a basic result and confirmation. On November 13, 2013, the “Discovery” section of China Central Television broadcast Exploring the Origin of Jade Dragon, an interpretation of our work

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InternationalRockArtDatingExpertsGathered in theHome ofJadeDragon,Respecting andAnalyzing theAgingWheel ofAncientRockArts.

This was the first time for the experts to be in northern desert. And it was 130 kilometers from Chifeng, home of jade dragon, to Baimiaozi, a rock art site. On the road, Robert acted like a child looking out of the car window and Kumar fell asleep the time he went on the car, which maybe was a result of continuous work these days. After an hour, we arrived in Zicheng-Wudan. I gave my suggestion that we have a rest in the hotel to relieve fatigue of long flight internationally, but Mr. Robert insisted not. Therefore, after eating a little western fruit noodles, we headed for the rock art site. Finally, Robert saw the expected rock art which seemed a little strange to him. First, he trotted to gain a panoramic picture of all the rock arts here. Then, he took out his dating equipment in a hasty but calm way. However, after a while, he found no crystal sample, so he called on everyone to look for them. Eventually, Mr. Robert, Professor Tang Huisheng and I all found one crystal, which made everyone so excited. But experts had their final judgment, determining that there were no man-made traces and although the third point did have the trace but its angle was not appropriate to make a specimen. Robert climbed the two-meter rock cliff and worked on the cold rock for one hour, finding no proper point to make specimen. Just as we were leaving, he found another crystal point on the other side of the rock. He observed it with his microscope for a long time and asked everybody to have a look. When he watched it again, he smiled knowingly, indicating that he had a judgment about the age of the rock, but as a rigorous rock art dating expert, he would not announce it immediately.

It was not easy to have these experts here, so I just wanted them to take more samples for future comprehensive and comparative study to provide with accurate data. Without putting their willing into consideration, I recommended that 3 to 5 specimens should be taken in each rock point one by one in a quick way.

VI. WeTouchedRockArts in Xiaofeng Mountain,AccompaniedwithnotDrizzleor Breeze butGale andSnow.

On October 9, we reached the second rock art site that I haven’t visited for a long time, but due to darkness, we went back to the hotel. But we returned in the next early morning. This place was called Xiaofeng Mountain which was the site where prehistorical people used to live and gave birth. Across it was Tiger Mountain where a neolithic “Jade Astronaut”(saved in Aurora Museum) was discovered. The site was only 10 kilometers away from Shangyao Paleolithic Ancient People Site detected by Jia Lanpo, a Chinese paleoanthropologist. The site was 80 kilometers away from the north bank of southeast Laohahe where “Stone Age Apollo” was unearthed.

When we were on the road to the site, there was breeze just like that in Spring. However, when we arrived at the site, suddenly, the weather changed. There arose strong wind under dark clouds, followed by rain, snow and hail. This time used to be with mild wind and bright sun. Thus, it seemed we were fooled by the weather. Under this severe weather, everyone shivered standing next to the rocks, let alone work carrying metal equipment. Fearing of the health of Mr. Robert under such weather, Professor Tang Huisheng told him, “ It’s too cold, let’s stop here and go back.” To our surprise, Mr. Robert said, “No, thanks. Let’s continue.” Thus, we went on with our work putting the microscope on the rock. Because of the heavy wind, Robert had to constantly position in an anxious way. Nonetheless, the more anxious we were, the more unstable the microscope was. Because of the cold weather and heavy wind, we had to switch our hand to support the equipment. In an hour, Mr. Robert finally found a point to read. He observed the point in a meticulous way holding his breath. In a quarter, all of a sudden, he shouted, “One. Two. Three. Four. Five…” He shouted out ten numbers while Kumar and Jin Anni took notes carefully.

Later, we went to my house. After drinking ginger decoction made by me, everyone began to recovery form the coldness. Professor Tang made a joke with Jin Anni asking her whether she wanted to be married here. She said that she did not because it was too cold here. In reality, archaeologist and geologist explored and analyzed prehistorical climate here, drawing the conclusion that there were some wet and warm periods between 5000 to 12000 year ago, which was not like the severe climate now. After eating local food in my house, we left for the third rock art site.

The weather was just like that in winter, so everyone put on more clothes and hat. When we reached the site, Dahei Mountain, we barely to stand due to strong wind with grains of sand. A decade ago, I led some TV reporters to be here to make a record, but because of the severe weather, the camera got struck. As a result, we returned without accomplishing anything. This was the first time that Mr. Robert and Mr. Kumar were confronted with such weather, but as scientists, they never retreated but marched on. Fearing that Mr. Robert fell down, I tried to support him with my hands, but he insisted to climbed the mountain himself just like a young man. His temperament and character was pertinent to his four decades of rock art field study, which drew everyone’s applause for his strong physique. When the experts eventually saw the fish pattern with human face on the cliff, they observed it for a long time. To our disappointment, the dark cloud were rolling in the west, indicating that it was going to rain and snow at once, so I reminded everybody to pack their equipment to go downhill. Not surprisingly, the moment we went into the car, it began to rain and snow. At that time, Professor Tang told me that my prediction was right, otherwise we would be in much trouble due to the darkness and slippery road.

The foreign experts who came from countries whose climate was warn had rarely met such changeable weather in a day. They claimed that it was difficult to collect specimen for dating, unable to date rock arts in every site. Stone quality and crystalloid are the prerequisite for dating and finding crystalloid is as tough as dredging for a needle in the sea.

VII. WeWereDeeplyImpressed by HongshanRockArts. Besides,FourAchievementsHaveBeenMade after theExperts’Visit.

Under concerted efforts, four accomplishments were made after visit and investigation of international rock art dating experts: First, there reached an agreement of the translation and publishing ofWorld Rock Art Series, which was initiated by Professor Zhou Yushu, Mr. Robert, Mr. Kumar and Professor Tang Huisheng. It was planed that every year two books be translated and published and an agreement pertinent to it was signed. Second, it was confirmed that there were rock arts in Daqing Mountain from different time with varied shapes and structures. Third, three rock art areas in the birth place of China’s first jade dragon were dated and the dating results would be published in 2006. Four, 60 teachers and students including those from Inner Mongolia Normal University listened to lectures delivered by the three rock art masters. Interactions were developed between speakers and audience, which left a deep impression on the lecturers and helped the listeners learned a lot.