Research On Rock Paintings Of Human Faces In The Yenisei River Basin, Russia

Human Face rock arts are refered to the special type of rock arts which have a form of human face,and they are widely distributed in the Pacific Rim region.In the eastern part of Russian Siberia,this type of rock arts are mainly distributed in the Heilong River and the Ussuri River,and in the central part,they are mainly distributed in the Yenisei River.In comparison,the Human Face rock arts in the Yenisei River have a greater number,a richer type,and a more diverse way to produce.Of particular note is that there are a large number of human face images in the archaeological cultures in this region,the time of which is from the Neolithic Age to the Iron Age,especially belongs the Okunev Culture of the Bronze Age,and the faces of which are also most similar to that of the rock arts.Some of them are pecked on the Stelas or slabs,which are used as a part of the burial surfice buildings,and some of them are pecked on the cover slabs of the coffin;in addition,there are aslo some stone and bone statues with human faces from the tombs,which are very similar to that of the rock arts,and they should belong to the same culture concept.These findings provide uncommon physical evidences for the dating work of the human face rock arts in this region.Viewed from the aspect of producing environment,the Human Face rock arts of the Yenisei River are mostly distributed along the rivers and mountain valleys,only a few of them are located in the caves.These Human Face rock arts are widespread distribution,in various forms,rich in contents,and exhibit regional characteristics with the change of the space-time environment.However,it must be noted that there are some constant internal structures in these varied forms,they are reflected in the chosing of rock art sites,the use of producing methods,the detailed structure of the rock arts and so on.Compared to the rock arts in the neighboring regions of China,such as Inner Mongolia,Ningxia and some other places,part of them are very similar to that of China in type and style,but others are very different.These similarities and differences are just the reflection of the ethnic migration and the complexity of the ethnic composition.Human Face rock arts are widely distributed in the northern part of the Asian continent,and there are close cultural relations between different parts of this area even from the distant ancient times.So far,the academic discussion on the cultural exchange between china and foreign countries in this area just focuses on the Altai region.But the spread route of Human Face rock arts showed that,compared with the cultural route via the Altai mountain,at the same time or even earlier,there is also a rock art route which spread from Northern China,through Baikal and the Angara River to the Yenisei River.These Human Face rock arts first appeared in the mid-stage of Chinese Neolithic times,and in the late stage,some types of this kind of rock arts began to spread outward to the Yenisei River region,and formed a new peak creative period of human face rock arts here.This paper attempts to comprehensively summarize the data of Human Face rock arts in this area,to investigate its origin,structure,function and development law from the perspective of cultural anthropology,analyze their cultural connotation,and to reconstruct partial fragments of early East-West cultural exchange,on the basis of the dynamic evolution of the archaeological cultures.