Morphometric analysis of the front-view human figures in the Ningming Huashan Rock Art, Southern China

The Zuojiang rock art group is a World Cultural Heritage area, of which the Ningming Huashan Rock Art site (NHRA), in Ningming County, Chongzuo City, Guangxi Zhuang Autonomous Region, is considered to be a representative locality. However, the NHRA is located on the steep cliffs facing the Zuojiang River making accessibility to analyze the rock art images extremely difficult. Most of the previous studies have focused on understanding the age, content, function and techniques used to create the rock art. However, given its inaccessibility, any previous attempts to analyze the rock art based on metric dimensions have failed. Here we present for the first time a metric analysis of 179 intact human figures from the NHRA that have been measured (height, image height (including head ornaments), arm width, leg width, arm span, leg span, torso height, chest width, area) using close range photogrammetry technology to obtain detailed data of the size, distribution range and compositional proportion of the human figures. The results show that the height, image height, arm span and leg span of the human figures are mostly distributed between 100–150 cm. Overall, it represents a Gaussian distribution. The torso height, arm and leg width are between 50–100 cm, chest width is between 20–30 cm, and area is between 0.3–0.4 m². Detailed features of the head, hands, feet, and torso were also classified and numeric data were recorded which allowed for statistical analyses. Pearson’s correlation test results show that there is a significant correlation between the height and eight measurements indicating that the images follows the rules of proportionality and coordination, which in turn suggests that the painters are skilled at the creation of rock art. The results of this study are important for exploring the forms of organization within the social groups of the painters regarding the production, learning and diffusion of rock art. This study will shed further light on the variability of human figure rock art across southwest China and Southeast Asia.