Prehistoric oriental "Venus"

It's worth noting that figures of naked women, known as prehistoric oriental "Venus", the goddess of love, were found carved into a rock. Archeologists and artists named the figures of naked women carved on rocks, bones, or woods in the Stone Age "Venus". Every "Venus" in Damaidi has a plump figure, full breasts, and a bulbous belly. These images were typical reproduction of figures of naked women carved on stone by ancients in the late Paleolithic period. It was the first time that these figures of "Venus" have ever been found in China.

 Why are there rock carvings?

The making of the Damaidi rock carvings was the result of a combination of factors: perfect natural conditions and the life experiences and artistic wisdom of ancient people that had lived there.

Damaidi is a hilly area surrounded by high mountains on all four sides with only a few ways to access the area. Running through Damaidi is a transmeridional mountain ridge, whose surface rocks are more or less flat and orderly, thus constituting a natural painting board. Besides, iron ore is plentiful there, providing another essential element of painting-natural color. What was most important was the ancient human activity there. Damaidi was once a place of bountiful rain. Generations of people had hunted and raised animals there. This rich human experience made up the diversified painting materials on those rocks.

The original motive of the ancient rock painters remains a big question mark. Several hypotheses have come up in an attempt for explanation, among which two are most well-known: the time-killing and sorcery hypothesis.

The time-killing hypothesis goes like this: The days for ancient herdsmen were long and boring. Some of them, just to make the time more enjoyable, would pick up a stone and randomly strike and carve the images of their herds on the rocks. Plausible as it sounds, this assumption has been challenged by many researchers. The production of so many carvings, especially those of grand scenes, is demanding in both time and artistic creativity. They could not have come out of the mere purpose to kill time. By contrast, the second hypothesis of sorcery has gained general acceptance. These rock carvings were result of sorcery rituals, an attempt to reach out to the gods.

 How old are they?

The key to deciphering these rock carvings lies in the identification of their age. However, there has been no agreement on the age of these rock carvings. Some came to a tentative calculation that the ages of Damaidi rock carvings range from 7,000 to 800 years. Some determined the early cliff paintings were 16,000 to 10,000 years old, or even much older.

This wealth of rock carvings is said to be the origin of Chinese characters . Some concluded that these ancient pictures conveying certain meanings are the oldest hieroglyphs in China, thousands of years older than oracle-bone inscriptions.

Author: Lency

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