Late Pleistocene and Early Holocene Rock Art from the Mongolian Altai: The Material and its Cultural Implications

Arts

关键词: Pleistocene;    Holocene;    Paleolithic;    Mesolithic;    mammoth;    rhinoceros;    ostrich;    aurochs;    Altai Mountains;    Mongolia;   

DOI  :  10.3390/arts2030151

来源: mdpi

【 摘 要 】

Rock-pecked images from the northern Mongolian Altai attest to the presence of human communities within the high valleys of that region during the Late Pleistocene and Early Holocene. The material provides evidence that is hitherto largely missing from the archaeological record of that region. This paper reviews the rock art, its find sites and larger physical contexts and uses evidence from paleoenvironmental studies to propose dating and cultural significance. The material is compared with other sites said to have Paleolithic imagery from Mongolia and the adjoining Russian Altai. The body of presented material offers a major resource for the study of early hunter-gatherer communities at the interface of Central and North Asia.

【 授权许可】

CC BY   
© 2013 by the authors; licensee MDPI, Basel, Switzerland.