Portal de Periódicos da CAPES

Rock art and artisans in the Lemro Valley, Arakan, Myanmar

2007; Cambridge University Press; Volume: 81; Issue: 313 Linguagem: Inglês

10.1017/s0003598x00095648

1745-1744

Pamela Gutman, Bob Hudson, Kyaw Minn Htin, Kyaw Tun Aung,

Global Maritime and Colonial Histories

This is a story that will appeal to all scholars involved with the interpretation of rock art. Figures depicted on rock surfaces in jungle terrain patrolled by soldier ants were thought in the nineteenth century to record an otherwise unknown early episode of invasion and resistance – and were widely published as such. A recent survey by a Myanmar-Australian team has made more correct records of the earlier forms and now offers fresh interpretations: the carvings are due to fifteenth-nineteenth century artisans working at quarries producing objects for the town of Mrauk-U, and they evoke local creatures and architectural echoes of the town and temples on which they worked.