A Study On The Stages Of Ao - Oo - Bao - Bao

Aolun Aobao rock art locates in the 20 kilometers in the northeast of Mandula town, Daemaomingan union flag, Baotou city, Inner Mongolia Autonomous Region, which belongs to the Wulanchabu grassland rock art system. This rock art spot has the features of large size of pictures, a great many of individuals’number, diverse types, clear image, big span of creation times, which is a typical representative of northern grassland petroglyphs and founded and recorded in the third national archaeological survey in 2007. Due to the discovery time is late and the information has not been published totally, the information for researching is weak, and the time research on Aolun Aobao petroglyph is even more lacking.In this paper, the author tries to conduct a comprehensive consideration of the factors of petroglypshes’reality and object, including image style, type, color, assorted relation, production method, overlying break relationship, historical and cultural background and etc. The author applies the principles of stratigraphy and typology methodology in archaeology, conducts a chronology study on Aolun Aobao rock art, and attempts to understand the Aolun Aobao rock art’s interaction relationships among image types, ages and cultural connotation.The article is mainly divided into three parts:the first part illustrates the background and significance of the research, introduces the research overview about Wulanchabu rock art and progress about dating method of northern rock art, The second part is the introduction about the basic situation of Aolun Aobao rock art including the natural environment and historical humane environment and image materials of the rock art at this point The third part is the emphasis of the article, it uses the theories and methods of archaeology, iconology, historiography and other majors to attempt to divide the Aolun Aobao rock art into three periods, analyzes the creation age and cultural connotation of rock art in every period, confirms the relative relations between ages of rock art creation. On this basis, the article further discusses the status and significance of Aolun Aobao rock art in Inner Mongolia region. The innovation points of this article is the attempt to divide periods about Aolun Aobao rock art and staging method based on the comprehensive factors judgment. By this attempt, the author hopes to overcome the subjectivity of single factor analytical method used in previous researches and provide a new way for the chronology study on northern prairie rock art.