Archeologists, who have been working in the area since March, said they spotted ten rock paintings dating back at least 2,000 years ago at Jinsha River in southwest China's Yunnan Province.

Near Baoshan township in Naxi Autonomous County of Yulong in Yunnan Province, the paintings are believed to have been completed by Diqiang tribe people, who lived in the northwest and migrated to the south about 2,000 to 3,000 years ago, said He Jinlong, head of the field work team and associate researcher with Yunnan Provincial Institute of Archeology.

Materials used in the paintings were a mixture of animal blood and mineral paints such as hematite and ferric oxide.

There were no human figures in the paintings, just wildlife such as deer, roe, wild ox, monkey and sheep. The animals were outlined in red, as well as black, yellow and blue.

Experts say the ancient people may have painted what they prayed to catch before hunting or what they caught after hunting.

Most rock paintings were located at cliffs within close reach of the water and have not been worn out by human activities.

"Though the paintings have been weathered, they could still be called intact and most figures are still identifiable. However, the paintings show no lofty painting art, just some simple outlining," He said.

In China, the ancient works have been mostly found in the Inner Mongolia, Ningxia Hui and Xinjiang Uygur autonomous regions, and Gansu province in northern China as well as in the southwestern Yunnan province.
 
(Xinhua News Agency August 9, 2004)