울산 천전리 암각화 동물문 연구

Abstract

Point-engraved animal motifs of Cheonjeon-ri Petroglyphs seem to be the product of hunting rituals based on worship of rocks. Their creators seem to have engraved the images of animals praying to the gods, the masters of animals, that they be allowed to hunt the game as easily as if the animals were stuck on the rocks.BR The large number of female and male animal couples and large bucks with exaggerated antlers reflected the creators’ hope that the animals hunted will reproduce and recover the lost numbers. The fertility of animals mattered greatly to both the animals themselves and to humans. The people who attempted point-engravings on Cheonjeon-ri Petroglyphs also hoped to catch whales and sharks on the sea.BR Compared to Bangudae Petroglyphs, the people who point-engraved and those who line-engraved and ground geometric patterns were not linked either in time period or lifestyle. While those who left images on Bangudae Petroglyphs sought to avoid overlapping with previous petroglyphs, the people who left geometric patterns on Cheonjeon-ri disregarded the works of previous period, damaging them in the process. They did not know people who left point-engraved animals nor their meanings.BR If the people who left geometric patterns on Cheonjeon-ri relied on agriculture, those of animal motifs were of a different group that relied on hunting as the main way of life. Considering the composition and the layout of the geometric patterns, their creators may be from the Bronze Age. The creators of point-engraved animal images likely belonged to the hunter-gatherer groups of Neolithic Period.