China News Service, Beijing, June 3 (Reporter Sun Zifa) The traditional concept is that a complex society is the product of the rise of agriculture, and the social structure of the fishing and hunting population is simple, and there is no obvious hierarchy between social individuals. However, a new research result of Chinese scientists has subverted this traditional concept from the beginning.
The research team of Ni Xijun from the Institute of Paleontology and Paleontology of the Chinese Academy of Sciences recently discovered through a study of an ancient human head fossil collected from the Songhua River that the hereditary level of fishery and hunting populations in Northeast China had appeared 11,000 years ago. One of the human populations in society.
This important research achievement in the field of ancient human evolution has recently been published in Springer's international professional academic journal "Archaeology and Human Sciences". The study shows that Northeast Asia is also an important region for human cultural development. Recent research based on ancient DNA shows that this early population in Northeast Asia has a close genetic relationship with the ancestors of Indians who spread to the Americas. The development of a complex human society more than 11,000 years ago in Northeast Asia was not only a cultural line of origin of Chinese civilization, but also a cultural "meme" for the development of American Indian civilization.
In the process of human spread to the Americas, it is possible to bring the cultural behavior of skull remodeling there. Photo courtesy of Ni Xijun's research team
Researcher Ni Xijun said in an interview on the Internet on the 3rd that among the thousands of bones that had been petrified into the bottom of the Songhua River, the research team found an ancient human brain fossil whose peculiar shape became revealed to have been fishing and hunting 11 thousand years ago. Critical evidence of hereditary grades appears among people living.
This ancient human skull fossil belongs to a middle-aged man called "Songhuajiang Renyi One", about 35 years old. The carbon 14 isotope dating results show that "Songhuajiang Renren One" lives about 11 thousand years ago. Between 11,000 and 114,000 years, he had a weak brow ridge, a rounded upper lateral edge of the orbit, a wide and flat Yintang, a low root of the bridge of the nose, and a large and straight temporal bone mastoid, indicating that this man may be different from modern The East Asian people have a close relationship, and may even be an ancestor of the modern East Asian people. He is unique in that the top of the skull is conical and high, and there is a round flat surface on the forehead and the occiput.
In response to claims that this peculiar skull type was evidence of aliens falling to the earth, Ni Xijun pointed out that a raised conical skull like "Songhuajiang Renyi" is not uncommon in anthropology, and is usually very artificial As a result of the remodeling of the baby skull during the period of great plasticity, this cultural custom of artificially changing the shape of the skull has appeared on all continents in the world. In China, the reshaping of the skull was once a symbol of some Huns who had galloped for centuries in the north. Sexual characteristics, Tang Xuanzhuang has relevant records in "The Tang Dynasty". In addition to intentionally entanglement, wrapping, and impulse in accordance with a certain cultural custom, which causes the baby to change its head shape, there are some infantile activities or habits that may inadvertently change the shape of the skull.
The modified skull fossil of "Songhuajiang Renyi No. 1", the round flat surface of the forehead and occiput is very flat, showing that it is the result of being tightly clamped on a hard surface for a long time. Through a high-precision CT scan, the research team reconstructed the brain's internal model, and a series of obvious features revealed that he carried out complex and long-term artificial remodeling activities during infancy.
Ni Xijun said that conscious skull remodeling is a ritual cultural behavior that enhances faith cohesion, consolidates unity and cooperation within the group, and has ethnic characteristics, but is essentially different from other ritualized cultural behaviors: skull remodeling is the previous generation It is deliberately left to the cultural imprint of the next generation, and future generations have no choice when inheriting this cultural imprint, and once it is obtained, it cannot be changed for life. Therefore, the skull remodeling has become a cultural gene passed on from generation to generation, which is commonly known as "Memes".
The cultural connotation reflected in the "meme" of conscious skull remodeling is different in different places, different times, and different groups of people, including representing social hierarchy, reflecting social division of labor, and serving as a mark of ethnic groups. "Although a considerable number of skull specimens have been found in the human ethnic group living in the Songhua River Basin, the number of individuals undergoing artificial skull remodeling is very small. This just means that social differentiation has occurred in these early populations, and only a few individuals Practicing skull reshaping activities and passing them on from generation to generation." Ni Xijun said. (Finish)