<< Our Photo Pages >> Cheung Chau Rock Carvings - Carving in China
Submitted by C_Michael_Hogan on Monday, 26 November 2007 Page Views: 21562
Multi-periodSite Name: Cheung Chau Rock Carvings Alternative Name: Cheung ChauCountry: China
NOTE: This site is 44.949 km away from the location you searched for.
Type: Carving
Nearest Town: Hong Kong Nearest Village: Cheung Chau
Latitude: 22.207885N Longitude: 114.032751E
Condition:
| 5 | Perfect |
| 4 | Almost Perfect |
| 3 | Reasonable but with some damage |
| 2 | Ruined but still recognisable as an ancient site |
| 1 | Pretty much destroyed, possibly visible as crop marks |
| 0 | No data. |
| -1 | Completely destroyed |
| 5 | Superb |
| 4 | Good |
| 3 | Ordinary |
| 2 | Not Good |
| 1 | Awful |
| 0 | No data. |
| 5 | Can be driven to, probably with disabled access |
| 4 | Short walk on a footpath |
| 3 | Requiring a bit more of a walk |
| 2 | A long walk |
| 1 | In the middle of nowhere, a nightmare to find |
| 0 | No data. |
| 5 | co-ordinates taken by GPS or official recorded co-ordinates |
| 4 | co-ordinates scaled from a detailed map |
| 3 | co-ordinates scaled from a bad map |
| 2 | co-ordinates of the nearest village |
| 1 | co-ordinates of the nearest town |
| 0 | no data |
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ScottHK visited on 22nd Dec 2015 - their rating: Cond: 3 Amb: 3 Access: 4
C_Michael_Hogan have visited here
The Cheung Chau Rock Carvings are a Bronze Age creation on the island of Cheung Chau near Hong Kong, China. These carvings consist of two groups of proto-historic artworks incised on large stones situated atop rock outcrops at the eastern side of the island. The stone carvings, dated to approximately 1000 BCE, have both geometric and zoomorphic design elements. The work herein is based upon my visit to the Cheung Chau rock carvings in April, 2007 and review of extant literature.
SETTING. Located on a minor rocky headland at the eastern end of the sandy Tung Wan Beach (where swimmers are protected from sharks by a netted enclosure), the Chueng Chau carvings are protected by a transparent glass enclosure, making photography challenging on bright days. The position of these monuments is about 120 metres east of the historic Warwick Hotel. The site is located approximately 11.4 kilometres distant from Hong Kong Island. This archaeological site is protected by the Chinese government and lies within the Island District of the Hong Kong Special Administrative Region.
ARCHAEOLOGICAL SIGNIFICANCE. The discovery site on the southeast of Cheung Chau Island is a tombolo landform (e.g. a deposition spit of land connecting two higher landform elements). In the case of Cheung Chau Island, the tombolo is the central spit which connects the two harder rock ends of the island. Regional archaeological reseach has shown that such tombolo locations were a preferred sites for Bronze Age man in the South China Sea perimeter. The earliest Bronze Age peoples in this general locale have been dated to 4000 BCE. (Meacham, 1975) The Cheung Chau carvings are classified as proto-historic, since the more advanced mainland Chinese took written note of this island culture, although the Bronze Age Cheung Chau people were not known to have employed written records. (Hong Kong, 1968) The two stones have similar motifs in their design.
The square spirals found on the Cheung Chau rocks are similar to geometric designs occurring on Tung Lung Island; the zoomorphic designs of Cheung Chau bear resemblance to the carving on the Big Rock Wave Disc at Big Wave Bay. The square spiral designs at Cheung Chau are evocative of the pottery designs from the 3rd and 4th century BCE found in the Hong Kong culture, leading one to believe the Cheung Chau culture may have had an influence on early Hong Kong artists.
DISCOVERY. The rock carvings were found in the year 1970 by a geologist. When found, the stones were partially submerged in soil, so that that a minor excavation was required to reveal the totality of the designs. In the same year that the not distant Big Rock Wave Disc was also first recorded.
REFERENCES.
* Hong Kong Archaeological Society (1968) Journal of the Hong Kong Aarchaeological Society, v. 6
* William Meacham (1975) "Rock carvings in Hong Kong'‘, Christian Study Centre on Chinese Religion and Culture, 63p
(The above content is original work of C. Michael Hogan prepared for the Megalithic Portal.)
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