Deciphering the "colorful life" of ancient humans
"We can completely imagine it as a weekend camping for modern people in East Asia 40,000 years ago." Yang Shixia, an associate researcher at the Institute of Vertebrate Paleontology and Paleoanthropology, Chinese Academy of Sciences, passed the illustrator's just completed restoration painting of the dismounting monument site to us.
The center of the picture is a fire pit, surrounded by fire pit, some people are making stone tools, and some may be processing fur.
The two people in the northwest corner closest to the picture are particularly prominent. They are processing ochre into paint and smearing them on the face... Every detail in the picture is presented with scientific research, behind which a team has worked together for many years to solve key problems.
"Imagine that this may not be their permanent camp. An accidental act left these cultural relics. After 40,000 years, we accidentally encountered these materials and deciphered their 'colorful lives' from clues."
This "colorful" is obviously more meaningful.
Modern humans have some special marks in the process of evolution.
For example, the use of paint for artistic creation and the production of composite tools, etc.
Archaeologists have previously discovered a piece of artificially carved striped ochre around 40,000 years ago in a cave in South Africa. When did this behavior first appear in East Asia?
Yang Shixia's team gave an answer.
On March 3, the international academic journal "Nature" published online "China's Innovative Ochre Pigment Processing and Tool Making Technology 40,000 years ago".
Immediately afterwards, the State Administration of Cultural Heritage held a work meeting on the important progress of the "Archaeological China" major project in Beijing, and announced the breakthrough results of the dismounting monument site to the world.
Bringing forward the history of pigment use by early humans in East Asia
The archaeological work of the dismounting monument site was completed in 2013 by Wang Fagang and others of the Hebei Provincial Institute of Cultural Relics and Archaeology.
Yang Shixia introduced: "Only a small 12 square meters, the main cultural layer of the site is a rare in-situ burial, preserving the remains of pigment production, relics, and scattered stone tools, bone tools and animal fossil fragments around the fire pond."
How to see people through things?
Different teams work together.
First of all, it is necessary to determine the age. Through high-precision accelerator, mass spectrometry carbon 14 and optical luminescence dating and its Bayesian model calculation, the results show that the site was formed between 41,000 and 39,000 years ago.
"This is a coincidence, it happened at such a critical point 40,000 years ago." Yang Shixia said.
Research shows that the Xiama Stele site was formed in a floodplain environment, a grassland environment in a cool and dry climate at that time, with a high proportion of horses, deer and zokor.
Based on this, it can be speculated that the ancient humans of the dismounting monument lived on the terrace of the Huliu River, and the vegetation was dominated by grassland landscapes, and there were flaky coniferous forests in the surrounding mountains.
A complete fire pit was found in the ash area.
What everyone is most concerned about is a relic of hematite processing.
"Two pieces of hematite, also known as ochre, of different sizes and mineral compositions. The larger piece has obvious traces of repeated friction on the surface. From the microscope, we can see that the friction is directional, leaving behind The marks are also obviously regular." Yang Shixia explained.
The surface of another long strip of limestone was obviously stained red by ochre, "through observation, it was found that there were hematite microchips remaining on its surface, like hair."
In different regions, cultures show similarities.
For example, the use of pigments is not only in China, but in South Africa, East Africa, and Central Asia, it is about the same era or earlier.
The coexistence of 22,000-year-old fire ponds, stone mill plates and hematite was previously discovered at the Xiachuan Paleolithic site in Qinshui County, Jincheng City, Shanxi Province.
Evidence of the use of pigments around 20,000 years ago was also found at Zhoukoudian in Beijing.
The processing remains of hematite found at the Xima Stele site this time have brought the history of pigment use by early humans in East Asia forward to 40,000 years ago, and also greatly advanced the history of ancient human art creation, aesthetics, and cognitive expression in the East.
The evolution story of ancient humans is hidden in the stone
These small fragments of debris at the Dismounting Monument site have not attracted much attention before.
"The technique of making stone tools is relatively simple, mainly smashing. But more than half of the stone tools are less than 20 mm in diameter. I am curious about the use of these small pieces of gravel that can hardly be held by hand? How to use them?" Yang Shixia Contacted a professor from the Institute of Paleoecology and Human Evolution in Catalonia, Spain, and applied the method of combining multiple microscopic equipment, not only found that there are cutting marks on the stone chips, but also found that some small stone chips have bone stem residues attached, especially there are still The linear arrangement of plant fibers remains, which proves that it was known to bind and reinforce bone stems to stone chips at that time.
This is similar to the paper cutter we use today, the small blade can be replaced at any time.
Based on the analysis results of stone tool making technology, types, residues and micro-marks, Yang Shixia's team concluded that some of the small stone tools unearthed from the Xiamabei site are composite tools formed by ancient humans through handling, which can be used to process fur and cut plants. and animal soft tissue.
Yang Shixia said: "Stone leaf technology and fine stone leaf technology represent a peak of human stone tool technology. The materials at the Xiama Monument site prove that in order to survive, human beings may choose more convenient and durable tools instead of more complex and delicate tools. tool."
This research result is the crystallization of the international cooperation of many scientific research units at home and abroad.
International, interdisciplinary, and multi-platform collaboration highlights the trends and requirements of scientific research development in the field of human evolution.
The communication between the research team is basically through e-mail and online video.
"More than 1,000 communication emails have been sent. Our multidisciplinary cooperation has 12 directions this time, and at least 8 directions were completed in China." Yang Shixia said.
"In the past, ancient human research in East Asia mainly focused on the exploration of the origin of eastern populations, but this study highlights another important direction, which is to study the process of human activity development." Professor Wang Youping, School of Archaeology and Museology, Peking University commented: " It's not just human fossils that are the most important discoveries, the cultural relics of humans also have unique significance."
40,000 years ago is a key node in the formation, proliferation and behavioral modernization of the late Paleolithic revolution and early modern population.
Fu Qiaomei's team from the Institute of Vertebrate Paleontology and Paleoanthropology, Chinese Academy of Sciences confirmed based on human fossils and molecular biology evidence from Tianyuan Cave in Beijing that modern humans were already active in North China around 40,000 years ago, but they knew nothing about their behavior. very little.
The Paleolithic cultural relics excavated in the field can provide more abundant and diverse basic materials for exploring the origin, evolution and development of early modern humans.
Our reporter Yang Xuemei