DOI Seite / Zitierlink:
https://doi.org/10.11588/diglit.36954#0019
sequence of relevant written sources in many languages: Chinese
and Sanskrit, later on Persian, Arabic, Tibetan, and the Saka
language of Khotan. Neither Aurel STEIN nor TUCCI (1977)
exhausted these sources, which at least limit our speculative free-
dom (see JETTMAR 1977).
For the same period, observations and classifications proposed
by art historians, in most cases specialists for Buddhist iconog-
raphy, should not be neglected.
However, in the field dominated by classical disciplines, the
archaeologist is not deprived of an independent approach by
comparing techniques of production (by stone or metal imple-
ments), motifs, style, and degrees of repatination. A few words
should be said about the problems involved. When we compare
attempts to bring the rock art observed in other parts of the
world into a meaningful chronological order, we are forced to
realize that there is no generally accepted dominant methodology
at the exclusion of others. Apparently the natural environment
and the cultural context open highly individual strategic chances
for the explorers. Data acquired by elaborate systems of record-
ing (ANATI 1977) are scarcely available when a small team has
to work in a large territory without suitable living conditions —
among a not always compliant population.
So it is necessary that I explain the criteria I used for dating
petroglyphs which could not be classified with the help of per-
tinent inscriptions, or by comparing them with well-known
works of Buddhist art. (It turned out that my approach has much
in common with that of RANOV when working in the Pamirs
(1982)).
In this "problematic" material I mainly differentiated according
to degrees of repatination. I discerned:
f.
It should be said at the outset that this approach can only be
used in areas where the bare rocks are found under special
conditions: rainfall must be minimal and the temperature very
high, at least in summer. In such places, the rocks are covered by
a sort of patina well-known from other arid and hot areas, and
therefore called desert varnish ("Wiistenlack"). It was intensely
investigated in many continents, but the most promising article
XV
and Sanskrit, later on Persian, Arabic, Tibetan, and the Saka
language of Khotan. Neither Aurel STEIN nor TUCCI (1977)
exhausted these sources, which at least limit our speculative free-
dom (see JETTMAR 1977).
For the same period, observations and classifications proposed
by art historians, in most cases specialists for Buddhist iconog-
raphy, should not be neglected.
However, in the field dominated by classical disciplines, the
archaeologist is not deprived of an independent approach by
comparing techniques of production (by stone or metal imple-
ments), motifs, style, and degrees of repatination. A few words
should be said about the problems involved. When we compare
attempts to bring the rock art observed in other parts of the
world into a meaningful chronological order, we are forced to
realize that there is no generally accepted dominant methodology
at the exclusion of others. Apparently the natural environment
and the cultural context open highly individual strategic chances
for the explorers. Data acquired by elaborate systems of record-
ing (ANATI 1977) are scarcely available when a small team has
to work in a large territory without suitable living conditions —
among a not always compliant population.
So it is necessary that I explain the criteria I used for dating
petroglyphs which could not be classified with the help of per-
tinent inscriptions, or by comparing them with well-known
works of Buddhist art. (It turned out that my approach has much
in common with that of RANOV when working in the Pamirs
(1982)).
In this "problematic" material I mainly differentiated according
to degrees of repatination. I discerned:
f.
It should be said at the outset that this approach can only be
used in areas where the bare rocks are found under special
conditions: rainfall must be minimal and the temperature very
high, at least in summer. In such places, the rocks are covered by
a sort of patina well-known from other arid and hot areas, and
therefore called desert varnish ("Wiistenlack"). It was intensely
investigated in many continents, but the most promising article
XV