Page:American Anthropologist NS vol. 1.djvu/817

 PETROGLYPHS ON THE AMOOR ■ By BERTHOLD LAUFER

At the confluence of the Orda and the Amoor, near the Gold village of Sakacha-Olen, the right banks of the Orda and the Amoor form a sandy beach, which is covered with innumerable bowlders, partly scattered, partly piled up in a long wall, which, seen from the water, conveys the impression that a fortification or a dike had been erected there. A number of these stones bear curious petroglyphs, evidently of great antiquity. Unfor- tunately, most of these are so much obliterated that it seemed impossible to obtain satisfactory photographs; for this reason tracings of the petroglyphs were made on paper placed over the bowlders. The place was visited in the spring, when the river was high, and consequently a number of the petroglyphs were under water. Others were discovered high up on precipitous rocks. Some bowlders which were partly buried in sand were excavated, and proved also to be covered with petroglyphs.

The figures represented are partly human faces, partly ani- mals. The general characteristics of the petroglyphs are quite uniform. Figure 29 shows a face of oval form, the nose repre- sented by a triangle, the mouth and lips represented by a single spiral. The eyes also are represented by a spiral ornament, which might be considered as suggesting Chinese affinity. Five lines shown on the forehead probably represent wrinkles or facial painting. Figure 30 represents a figure found on the surface of the same stone from which figure 29 was copied. The similarity of character of these two faces is striking. Figures 31 and 32

1 Extracted from a report of investigations made under the auspices of the Jesup North Pacific Expedition, and published herein by authority of the Trustees of the American Museum of Natural History.

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