MANDALAY MOUNTAIN ROCK ART INVESTIGATION IN BADAIN JARAN DESERT OF INNER MONGOLIA OF CHINA

Abstract

Situated at the Menggensumu (village) of Alxa Right Banner, which is the deep in Alxa gobi of Inner Mongolia, Mandalay Mountain is 14 km from southwest Sumu, with the area of 3km from east to west, and 5km from north to south. High and steep in terrain, gobi and desert grassland surrounded the mountain. The massif composed by granite and basalt is highlighted on the top of the wasteland. According to the historical data, early at the Neolithic age, there were people lived and multiplied on Mandalay Mountain. Mongolia, Xianbei, Xiongnu, Tangut and other northern minorities lived and nomadized here one after another. At present, in total 4,234 rock arts are found on this mountain, and they are mostly located at the elevation of about 1,500m–1,750m. Mainly based on animal, Mandalay Mountain rock art involves horse, cow, goat, donkey, mule, camel, hound dog, leopard, wolf, fox, megaloceros, argali, ibex, turtle, birds and so on, meanwhile, it covers hunting, large-scale hunting, riding, beating on battle, fighting, going out, grazing, sexual intercourse, Western Xia letter, religious activities and other scenes. The producing of Mandalay Mountain rock art almost started from the late Old Stone Age, experienced the Neolithic Age, the Bronze Age, and then the early-stage Iron Age (which is equivalent to Shang and Zhou Dynasties in our Central China—Qin and Han Dynasties), until all historical periods in ancient China.