Investigation And Research On Rock Paintings In Xianju County,Zhejiang Province

Xianju rock paintings were discovered in December 2002 in Xiaofangyang Mountain,Zhuxi Town,Xianju County,Zhejiang Province for the first time,and a number of rock painting points were successively discovered in several towns of Xianju County in the following two decades.Now there are 12 sites including 20 places in total.It is the largest rock painting community in quantity and total area(scale)that has ever been found in the southeast coast of China,the total area of which is about 3000 square meters.It provides new and valuable material for further interpreting the rock paintings of the southeast coast and studying the culture of ancient Yue.Its discovery not only fills the gap in the field of rock painting archaeology in Zhejiang Province,but also is an important link connecting the rock painting system of the southeast coast.From July 2019 to November 2020,I obtained a large number of detailed and reliable information about images and data by conducting special investigation and systematic review on 10 rock painting sites in Xianju with the aid of archaeological method at five stages,on this basis of which I carries out a comprehensive study.I make detailed records of the geographical coordinates,surrounding environment,preservation status,picture content and image modelling of rock paintings by dividing the distribution area of Xianju rock paintings through field investigation.I sort out and make statistics on the themes of Xianju rock paintings to study their environment,types and ages by combining literature and rubbings.In particular,I uses the method of archaeological typology to divide Xianju rock paintings into four types including life tools,animals,characters and symbols.Among them,the typical images frequently appear in Xianju rock paintings,like raking-hoe figure,chopper figure and intersected figure,which suggests that most of Xianju rock paintings show farming patterns,representing a new type of rock paintings,which is different from other rock paintings in southeast coastal areas;And then I explore the cultural implication of Xianju rock paintings including the ethnic origin,life style,worship,carving purpose and function of the engravers,etc;Finally,I call for strengthening the protection measures of rock paintings and speeding up the construction of digital archives of rock paintings.