Ke'erjian petroglyph panel (Turpan, Xinjiang province, China) - 3D documentation - final products

Debating the rock art panel of Ke’erjian (Xinjiang province, China): An early representation of an agropastoral landscape or the world’s oldest interregional map? - FINAL PRODUCTS

Humans develop a spatial understanding of the region they dwell. Anthropology and psychology teach us that illiterate groups across encode this ‘spatial cognition’ into maps. However, prehistoric examples of maps remain hotly debated, largely because of the few examples of interregional maps known to date. Consequently, the history of cartography continues to be traced back to antiquity. This paper argues that mapmaking goes back to prehistory (i.e. late Bronze to early Iron Age) and that illiterate groups already developed a complex spatial cognition. Central in this paper stands the Ke’erjian map. This map was discovered when a heavily weathered rock art panel was redocumented with 3D techniques. Located in the eastern Tian Shan and dated to the first half of the first millennium BCE, this rock art map presents itself as a prehistoric map that is based on a detailed topological understanding of the physical landscape. Two interpretations are discussed. First, the panel is explored as an idealized landscape depiction indicating an intricate knowledge of the local environment. Second, based on detailed topographic and geomorphographic comparison the panel is positioned as a plan map of the Tian Shan. Strong correlations indicate that societies along the prehistoric Silk Road developed a spatial cognition extending 1,3 million sq. kilometres.