A Breakthrough has been Made in the Study of the Paleolithic Painted Petroglyphs in the Upper Reaches of the Yangtze River

On February 24, the Journal of Archaeological Science, a top international archaeology journal, published an articleHigh-precision U-series dating of the late Pleistocene–early Holocene rock paintings at Tiger Leaping Gorge, Jinsha River valley, southwestern China, which is the latest scientific research result of collaboration among the School of History of Wuhan University, Archaeological Institute for Yangtze Civilization of Wuhan University, the Yunnan Provincial Institute of Cultural Relics and Archaeology, and Nanjing Normal University etc.

Wu Yun, a doctoral student at the School of History of Wuhan University, is the first author, and his supervisor, Professor Li Yinghua from the School of History of Wuhan University, and researcher Ji Xueping of the Yunnan Institute of Cultural Relics and Archaeology are the co-authors, and Professor Shao Qingfeng of the School of Geographical Sciences of Nanjing Normal University is the corresponding author.

It is reported that the Jinsha River rock painting was first discovered in 1988. With the joint efforts of several generations of cultural relic workers and archaeologists, more than 70 rock painting sites have been discovered, which is one of the areas with the most abundant rock painting remains in the world. The study also opened the prelude to the discovery and research of Chinese Paleolithic painted petroglyphs with scientific dating methods. This research was supported by the National Natural Science Foundation of China (Grant No. 41877430) and the National Cultural Heritage Administration Project (4-13-18-5300-005).

Paper link:https://doi.org/10.1016/j.jas.2021.105535