Bangudae Petroglyphs

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Bangudae Petroglyphs

Bangudae replica
Korean name
Hangul 반구대 암각화
Hanja 盤龜臺 岩刻畵
Revised Romanization Bangudae amgakhwa
McCune–Reischauer Pan'gudae amgakhwa

Korea's National Treasure No. 285, the Bangudae Petroglyphs are located mainly on flat vertical rock faces of around 8m in width and around 5m in height of steep cliffs on the riverside of Daegokcheon stream, a branch of Taehwa River, which runs east and joins the Sea of East, in Ulsan. Surrounding ten rock faces have a small number of engravings as well. The rocks are consist shale and hornfels, oriented toward the north. and shine for a while at sunset. They are in the structure of rockshelter as an overhanging cliff.

Description of rock art panels and motifs at Bangudae

Three hundred and four representations, of which 166 figures are animals and 108 motifs unidentifiable, are observable. Representations of cetaceans are the most frequent, being 14.4% of the figures. In terms of theme, the representation on the rock are divided largely into anthropomorphe that describe the whole body or face of a human, Zoomorphe that express sea and land animals, tools that show tools related with hunting and fishing such as floats, and indeterminate that are hard to identify clearly their theme or shape. Anthropomorphe are mostly figures of the whole body expressed sideways, and those engravings of people who are hunting animals with a bow, raising hands, and playing a long rod like a musical instrument remind hunting and religious acts. Most of sideway whole body figures express a somewhat exaggerated penis, and there are front images of people who spread four limbs and mask-like faces. Zoomorphe express their shape and ecological features well enough to discriminate their species, and most of them are whales and concentrated on the left of the main rock face. On the other hand, ungulate mammals like deer and predatory animals like tigers, leopard, and woolf are mainly on the right of the main rock face. Animals of which species can be identified include large cetaceans such as Northern Right Whale, Humpback Whale, Right Whale, Grey Whale, and Sperm Whale, sea animals such as sea turtle, seal, fish like salmon, and sea birds, and land animals such as red deer, musk deer, roe deer, water deer, tiger, leopard, woolf, fox, racoon, and wild pig. Whale engravings are in general as long as 20 to 30㎝, and around 80㎝ to the maximum and around 10㎝ to the minimum. Most of the whale engravings associate whales swimming in a group upward as seen from a bird's-eye view. Sideway engravings of whales are made in a "twisted method" in which the tail is carved sideways to express the horizontal tail of whale different from fish. Besides, some rock art like mother whale with her baby on the back and whale jumping scenes expresses ecological features of whale very vividly. The whale horizontally overturning a boat with its body seems to be dead, and stripes carved on the body are thought to be distribution or breakup lines, very similar to materials of ethnography that describe natives distributing whales. These engravings are assessed to provide important information about hunting and distribution of large-size animals like a whale. Land animals are mainly on the right of the main rock face. Unlike whales, most of them are sideways, which can best express the shape of four-limb land animals. Species of deer that have horns include red deer, pekin sika, and male roe deer, and other species can be classified according to the shape of body, skin patterns, and the length of tail and legs. Land animals can be identified with body patterns, the length of tail and legs, and shoulder line. Species that can be grouped in this manner are red deer, musk deer, roe deer, and water deer. Engravings of whales and deer were made in most cases by pecking out the body, while those of land animals mostly consist of lines such as outlines and patterns. Such difference reflects the difference in time, given the overlapping relationship of carvings. In the site, cetaceans are most important, followed by deer and land animals in order. and there are a small number of turtles, seals, fish, and birds. The three turtles on the upper left of the main rock face appear to be guiding whales swimming in a group. Since sea turtles come to the shore to spawn between early spring and summer, they are often regarded as a symbolic animal crossing the boundary of sea and land according to ethnography or ancient myths. In the case of fish, heads of fish looking like sharks expressed sideways and salmon jumping above the sea are found. Sea birds are always around whales as they are hunting preys. Among animal engravings are large-size cetaceans migrating to and from the remote sea, and some engravings show mating and molt scenes of land animals and suggest seasons through patterns and angle of fall, focusing on ecological features appearing during the change of seasons and breeding season. Tools related to hunting and fishing such as boats, floats, harpoons, fishing net, fishpound, and bow that provide information on the age of the rock art and livelihood of the times. This site also has scenes of capturing whales and tigers with a net. Although there is no prehistoric net excavated yet, fine marks of net on the pottery discovered in the Dongsam-dong midden suggest that nets were widely used not only for fishing but also hunting in those days. As far as engravings seen as a wooden fence or fence are concerned, there are actually no land animals found on the rock face so far, unlike early drawings. Instead, inner outlines are similar to fish and more like a fishpound than a wooden fence. The site has scenes that express whaling activities in great detail. Around 5-17 people are on boats around whales. The bow and stern are semi-circular and connected to a harpoon stuck to the body of whales and floats hanging a rope. The tools are almost identical to those used by natives for whaling today. Indeterminate refer to engravings of which theme and content are uncertain. They are classified into those of unknown theme which are in good condition but unclear in theme and those of unknown shape which are worn and damaged over time and therefore hard to decode. Some can be seen as a sign having a certain pattern, but it is still hard to classify the images on the basis of engravings on the rock alone. Signs are conceptual expressions that are impossible to find in real life and should have a certain pattern by means of repeated expressions at least. According to the results from an analysis of animals bones discovered in shell midden in Ulsan and widespread in southeast coasts and research on Ulsan Bay's archaeological environment, the age of the sites dates back to 7,000 to 3,500 years ago. In addition, many relics related to the themes of the rock art are found in the Neolithic Age sites such as deer pattern pottery, net pattern pottery and shell mask discovered in the Dongsam-dong shell midden in Busan, figure of human face in Osan-ri in Yangyang, clay doll of wild pig excavated from the shell midden in Yokjido island of Tongyeong, clay figure of a woman in Sinam-ri in Ulsan and clay doll of seal excavated from the shell midden in Sejuk-ri, Ulsan. Furthermore, a boat was excavated from the shell midden in Bibong-ri, Changnyeong, and Hwangseong-dong site excavation research project conducted by the Korea Archaeology and Art History Research Institute, a whale bone stuck with a harpoon that proves whaling empirically was found. The age of layers which contain bones of captured whales dates back to 5500 to 4700 BP. Consequently, considering livelihoods in that period, hunting and fishing tools, related relics, and contemporary contents, the rock art seems to have been made between the early and mid Neolithic Age. Before the site was discovered, the first whaling was thought to be between the 10th and 11th century.

From the abundant representations of marine animals, the site seems to be in close relation with hunter-fishers, attributed to the Neolithic era (between 8000 BP and 3500 BP). Consequently means as an ours result, the Bangudae site is the most ancient whaling of the world that are considered highly important not only as a first whaling representation, but also for understanding the prehistoric maritime culture in the Northern Pacific area.

Source : Korean Rock Art III, Ulsan Petroglyph Museum, 2013

Preservation concerns

Built from 1962 to 1965 and expanded between 1999 and 2002, the creation of the Sayeon Dam helps supply Ulsan with drinking water but the rocks on which the petroglyphs are carved are now periodically flooded for about eight months every year. The rock-art motifs are considered to be masterpieces of prehistoric art and an invaluable resource of prehistoric information. Historic and ongoing periodic flooding raises concerns of erosion and water damage. The government of Korea would build a polycarbonate “dam” inside Sayeon Dam in Ulsan to protect the rock faces of Bangudae, located on Daegokcheon Stream Cliff, from erosion.

Bangudae source : Ulsan Petroglyph Museum
Bangudae images source : Ulsan Petroglyph Museum

See also

References

External links

  • Official website
  • Facebook page

Coordinates: 35°35′57″N 129°11′06″E / 35.5991°N 129.185°E / 35.5991; 129.185

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