200,000 years ago, unknown ancient human art or subversive cognition

　　■ Although 2021 is not over yet, the world's most authoritative archaeological academic journal "Archaeology" magazine has confidently named this year's "Top Ten Archaeological Discoveries in the World".

　　■ The highly anticipated "Lost Golden City" of Egypt-Aten, an ancient city site located in Luxor, Valley of the Kings, ranks first on the list.

Followed by the hand and foot prints of ancient humans discovered by Chinese scholars and professor Zhang Dian of Guangzhou University in Qiusang Hot Spring, Tibet, are also the earliest ancient human artistic relics discovered in the world so far.

　　■ At the same time, this is also the only Chinese archaeological achievement selected among the top ten archaeological discoveries in the world in 2021.

　　■ On the evening of December 6, Zhang Dian told the Chengdu Commercial Daily-Red Star News reporter that he did not know that the result was selected as one of the world's top ten archaeological discoveries until the day before.

"There is a little surprise. I sent a red envelope in the WeChat group." He said with a smile, "As for the discovery itself, in fact, it has been a sensation in the world for a long time."

　　Discovery process

　　33 years ago /

　　Stumbled upon many hand and foot prints on the hot spring spring

　　Zhang Dian’s academic background is not archeology, but geography. He has been engaged in geomorphology and natural environment research for a long time, and has taught in the Department of Geography of the University of Hong Kong for many years.

He told reporters that when he was investigating the Qinghai-Tibet Plateau in 1988, he discovered a set of ancient human hand and foot prints that were about 10,000 to 20,000 years ago near the modern hot spring in Qiusang Village.

　　“The initial discovery of the set of hand and foot prints was purely accidental.” Zhang Dian said, “There are many hot springs in Qiusang Village (located in Duilung Deqing District, Lhasa) due to geothermal reasons. I was there for a geological survey at the hot spring. Many hand and foot prints were found on it."

　　Spring is a loose, porous, hard texture formed by long-term precipitation of minerals (such as calcium carbonate, etc.) contained in hot spring water on the surface.

　　How are the hand and foot prints printed on such a hard spring?

　　"The calcium carbonate precipitated around the spring in the form of soft mud at the beginning, and it accumulated thicker with the gushing of the spring water." Zhang Dian said, "The ancient humans on the plateau pressed their own money on the soft mud. Hand and foot prints. When the ooze has gradually consolidated into rock, these marks will be preserved forever."

　　2018 /

　　Re-examination

　　Found hand and foot prints 200,000 years ago

　　After Zhang Dian came to Guangzhou University to teach in 2018, he still remembers these ancient marks.

In October 2018, he and Dr. Wang Leibin and graduate student Wang Xiaoqing made a new discovery during the second Qinghai-Tibet scientific expedition: on the ancient Quanhua deposit near the Xiongqu River in Qiusang Village, a set of 5 handprints and The "rock face art" of 5 footprints is exposed on the surface.

Quanhua deposits have long been dehydrated and consolidated into rock, but the hand and foot prints of ancient humans have experienced the baptism of years and have been preserved almost intact.

　　The researchers conducted a series of simulation analysis and quantitative morphological analysis on these hand and foot prints, confirming that they were not portrayed later, but were extruded in shape by ancient humans before the diagenesis in Quanhua, and it should be far more than one or two before this year. Ten thousand years.

　　In order to obtain an accurate dating of this ancient work of art, Professor Cheng Hai from the Isotope Laboratory of Xi’an Jiaotong University, his research team and the Guangzhou University team led by Zhang Dian, through multiple sampling and repeated tests, finally determined: this “art rock” The surface age of the "version" is between 169,000 and 226,000 years ago, which includes the direct dating age of a fingerprint (187,000-207,000 years).

　　Through this set of hand and foot prints,

　　Researchers can roughly restore

　　The scene about 200,000 years ago

　　The two children were playing in the soft mud by the hot spring. They found their imprints in the soft mud very interesting, so they took the materials on the spot and actively "created": After pressing the soft mud hard, then carefully move the palms and soles of their hands...

　　The first "artist"

　　The figures of these two naughty children have long disappeared in the long river of history, but their works were concealed by the later spring deposits and preserved until they were discovered by scientists, making them the earliest "artists" of mankind.

　　This is art

　　Left by two children

　　Or an ancient human with a very short stature

　　"These rock face art with the budding artistic creation shows that this ancient race has the ability to think in images. It can be expressed in the form of pressing on the soft mud. This is one of the important signs that distinguish humans from other animals." Zhang Dian Said, "In addition, modeling on soft clay is also a newly discovered form of ancient human artistic creation."

　　In addition, based on the size of the palm prints, they speculated that this group of hand prints were left by two children. "They are all very small hand prints. Of course, the possibility that they are very small ancient humans is not ruled out."

　　Two children may have printed a few handprints on the hot spring mud out of curiosity or playfulness. Can it be called art?

　　"Most of the ancient art draws local materials, and the subject matter is mostly familiar to the creators, such as the animals or prey they domesticated, and of course humans themselves." Zhang Dian said, "In addition to human sculptures, handprints are also very common in cave art. A symbol. In fact, handprints are not only an ancient art form, this form has continued to this day—isn’t the handprints of celebrities on the Hollywood Walk of Fame a kind of artistic traces?"

　　Zhang Dian told reporters that art came into being very early, "From the perspective of art history, art is almost as old as human history."

　　Most of these ancient arts are kept in secret caves or corresponding formations.

Some are presented in the form of paintings. For example, on the conglomerate in the Blombos Cave in South Africa, there is an abstract anticated petroglyph art 73,000 years ago; some are realized by means of carving, such as the caves in South Africa, about 60,000 years ago. Ostrich eggshell carving, etc.

　　“Of course, there are also very creative ways, such as placing the palm of your hand on the rock wall, blowing the paint up, and getting the outlines of each handprint.” Zhang Dian believes that these hand and foot prints can be regarded as art because they are human rights. The impressions of his limbs are imitated, and there are intentional pattern combinations.

　　"The emergence of art is a milestone in human evolution. Even if it is just a few deliberate handprints, it also means that such behavior has surpassed the actions that have to be completed just for survival."

　　Significant

　　May subvert the view that "Homo sapiens is the smartest"

　　The first batch of hand and foot prints discovered by Zhang Dian was about 50, and when he revisited his old place in 2002, he regretted to find that there were only less than 20 hand and foot prints left in that batch-the locals learned that they were ancient humans. After pressing the handprints, I regarded them as imprints left by my ancestors. I often went to worship and caress them. Some imprints gradually disappeared (the 10 hand and footprints found in 2018 are another batch).

　　However, these "artists" are not our true ancestors.

　　"The hand and foot prints near Qiusang Hot Spring were created much earlier than the age when Homo sapiens came out of Africa. Therefore, the rock face art was created by an unknown ancient race." Zhang Dian explained, "This discovery may subvert the present. The view that Homo sapiens is the smartest, because contemporary Homo sapiens in Africa did not find this kind of artistic creativity."

　　Chengdu Commercial Daily-Red Star News Reporter Qiao Xueyang