Recently, archaeology magazine, the world's most authoritative archaeological academic journal, named the "World's Top Ten Archaeological Discoveries" in 2021. Egypt's "Lost City of Gold", Aten, the ruins of the ancient city of Luxor in the Valley of the Kings, topped the list.
In second place are the ancient human hand and foot prints found by Chinese scholars and professor Zhang Dian of Guangzhou University in Qiusang Hot Spring in Tibet, which is also the earliest paleoanthropological art relics found in the world so far.
Zhang Dian has long been engaged in geomorphological and natural environment research and teaching, and his research areas cover earth sciences, geography, environmental science, archaeology and humanities. He was the Director of the Department of Geography at the University of Hong Kong, and is now a professor selected by the National Major Talent Engineering Program, a distinguished professor of the "100 Talents Program" of Guangzhou University, an honorary professor of the University of Hong Kong, a senior editorial board member of progress in physical geography, and an honorary researcher of the Chinese Academy of Sciences.
The Beijing News reporter interviewed Professor Zhang Dian on the discovery process of ancient human hand and foot prints in Qiusang Hot Spring on the Qinghai-Tibet Plateau and the protection problems that need to be solved urgently.
▲The limestone landform where Qiusang Hot Spring is located. Courtesy of respondents
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"Accidental" discoveries spanning 30 years
Beijing News: The hand and foot prints of Qiusang Hot Spring have appeared in various local historical legends for a long time, what kind of circumstances did you find them?
Zhang Dian: The earliest was in 1988, when I was doing a doctoral dissertation at the School of Geography of the University of Manchester in the United Kingdom, the topic was the karst landform of the Qinghai-Tibet Plateau, and I needed to do field research, so I came to Qiusang Hot Spring at an altitude of 4268 meters in Qiusang Village, Dulong Deqing District, Lhasa.
After finishing the water measurement, temperature measurement, chemical sampling, etc., I walked around, and on the large area of calcium carbonate spring sedimentary rock nearby, I saw a row of hand and foot prints, which were already afternoon, and they were very clear in the sunset.
I think it is very interesting, because when the local hot spring gushes out of the surface, the calcium bicarbonate ions that were originally dissolved in the water will precipitate into calcium carbonate soft mud in large quantities, which are very soft when they are new, and can provide a "drawing board" for the creation of hand and foot prints, and will gradually harden into carbonate rocks over time, so these hand and foot prints should be left very early, not made now.
Qiusang means "good water" in Tibetan, and this natural hot spring on the half-slope has always been a place for Tibetan pilgrimages to bathe and treat diseases, when it was a pool and a stone house.
There is a small village on the hillside opposite the spring, which is said to be the birthplace of Yutuo Yundan Kampo, the imperial physician of Tubo Zampu Trisong Detsen, and the origin of Tibetan medicine. But that day I was alone around Qiusang Hot Springs, and a herdsman in the distance saw me taking pictures and came to greet me, saying that those were the footprints of "wild people", and then the matter was put down.
After 10 years, I went to Tibet again in 1998, when I was teaching in the Geography Department of the University of Hong Kong, I began to study the peculiarities of the landforms of the Qinghai-Tibet Plateau again, and one day I returned to Qiusang Hot Spring to see the strange rows of hand and foot prints.
I did not study archaeology, but now archaeology is the largest interdisciplinary discipline, all disciplines have a place in archaeology, that time I went to the row of 18 hand and foot prints to do measurements, sampling, using photoreflection dating, by analyzing and stimulating the radioactive energy stored in the sediments after the minerals are buried to derive the geological age, found that those hands and feet are 20,000 years old.
In 2002, the results were published in professional journals, followed by a review article in Nature, which was a sensation.
20,000 years ago, the earth's climate was still in the "Quaternary ice age", in the understanding of Western academic circles at that time, Tibet should be like Greenland covered by a whole large ice sheet, thin air, barren land, never be a happy land for human life, how can there be human hand and foot prints?
Therefore, the thesis at that time rejected the theory of the large ice sheet of the last glacial period on the Qinghai-Tibet Plateau, and advanced the earliest time of the long-term or seasonal occupation of the cold and hypoxic plateau by ancient humans by 15,000 years, because the most important archaeological site in Tibet at that time, the Karo site of the late Neolithic period in Tibet, in Qamdo, was 4,000-5,000 years old, that is, tibet had no human history before that.
At that time, it was surprising to reveal that ancient humans had been active on the Qinghai-Tibet Plateau for 20,000 years, but they did not expect that the 10 ancient human hand and foot prints found later provided earlier evidence for the earliest time when ancient humans occupied the plateau for a long time or seasonally.
▲ In the summer of 2018, Zhang Dian led the guangzhou university team to find the scene of 5 handprints and 5 footprints found in Qiusang Hot Spring. Courtesy of respondents
Beijing News: What are the new discoveries later?
Zhang Dian: At the end of 2017, I resigned as the head of the Department of Geography of the University of Hong Kong to teach at the School of Geography and Remote Sensing of Guangzhou University, and in 2018, as a visiting researcher of the Institute of Tibetan Plateau of the Chinese Academy of Sciences, I participated in the second comprehensive scientific expedition to the Qinghai-Tibet Plateau, and in the spring of that year, I and the team of academician Chen Fahu, a partner of the Chinese Academy of Sciences, went to Qiusang Hot Spring and found several new hand and foot prints on the stone more than ten meters from the initial discovery point.
That summer, when Wang Leibin and Wang Xiaoqing, a member of the Guangzhou University team, went to the plateau to continue their investigation, the villagers' committee said that there were other hand and foot prints, and asked a villager who knew the location to take us there.
The newly discovered hand and foot prints are 1.2 kilometers away from the original site in a straight line, adjacent to the Xiongqu River, at an altitude of 4062 meters, and consist of 5 handprints and 5 footprints that are intentionally pressed, and the hand and foot prints are arranged in an orderly manner to form an image. At that time, I was excited that the rock formation at the bottom of the hillside where these 10 hand and foot prints were located was even older, and it was definitely more than 20,000 years old on the upper level.
Measurements, sampling, photography were done on the spot, and the next most important thing was to set the year, and to prove that the hand and foot prints were pressed out when the carbonate rock was soft mud, not carved.
In 2021, we published a paper in Science Bulletin (English Edition), and we did not expect to be selected by Archaeology magazine as the second place in the "World's Top Ten Archaeological Discoveries" in 2021.
The world's earliest known rock face art
Beijing News: How to determine whether these hand and foot prints are pressed by the ancients or carved later? How to prove that ancient humans used hand and foot prints to create consciously?
Zhangdian: The identification of hand and foot prints on soft clay by ancient humans is the key to research. The second author of the paper is a well-known British walker, who through 3D scanning, modeling and quantitative analysis of the anatomical statistics of human hands and feet, can see that the hand and foot prints found are basically consistent with the reference anatomical characteristics of modern human hand and foot prints; There are "ridges" formed by the squeezing of soft mud between the edges of the hand and foot prints and between the fingers and toes, which are significantly higher than the adjacent spring surfaces, a phenomenon that is impossible on the surface of hard rock; Moreover, the hand and foot prints have a clear pressing order, which is determined according to the extrusion deformation of adjacent imprints, and can only appear on soft mud.
In addition, the smooth surface formed by the palm (foot) press contrasts sharply with the rough surface of the spring around the rock slab; the hand and foot prints and the surrounding rock surface are free of any knocking, artificial abrasion, and other traces left by stone carving tools, which negate the possibility of carving with tools. There is also an interesting phenomenon that the fingers of these mudras are relatively long, we call them "spider hands", which occurs in sparsely populated areas.
Analysis of morphology and composition can observe a number of "conscious" phenomena in which the images formed by the imprints are spatially arranged in an orderly manner; the pointing of the fingers and toes is consistent; the force is uniform to keep all the palm shapes of the hands and feet intact; the footprint number ZWF23 also clearly indicates that the footprints overlap deliberately and precisely; the rotation of the ZWH3 fingers and the intentional force of the ZWF24 heel; the adjustment of the degree of opening of the fingers according to the size of the space, ZWH1 and ZWH14 intentionally increase the degree of opening Keeping the footprints at a distance and avoiding crossovers as much as possible, you can imagine the ancient humans from choosing their right hands and feet, to positioning their creative prototypes in usable space, and making a deliberate design of the overall composition of the imprints in advance.
▲Qiusang Hot Spring hand and foot print color rendering 3D scan model. Courtesy of respondents
Beijing News: Which dating method was used this time to ensure accuracy?
Zhang Dian: We considered a variety of dating methods, and the Isotope Laboratory of Xi'an Jiaotong University determined that the surface age of this "art slab" was between 226,000 and 169,000 years old through the current advanced uranium measurement method, which belongs to the third stage of spring deposition. Among them, the direct age of the ridge formed by the squeeze between the two finger prints, number ZWH15, is 207,000-188,000 years, and the ridge is only 1 cm thick, and I prefer to recognize 207,000-188,000 years as a more accurate age for rock surface art, because the time of formation of the hand and foot prints is equal to the time of spring deposition.
The creation of ancient human handprints was completed when the calcium carbonate spring was in a plastic form, and in 2019 I did an experiment on the mud deposition of the modern hot spring, that is, I pressed three handprints vertically in the active seepage under the current hot spring or the soft travertine of the stream, and when I went to see it again in 2020, I found that a lithified handprint was formed, and the other two washed away. The process of calcium carbonate diagenesis is unidirectional and rapid, as soon as it is dehydrated like cement, it condenses quickly, and once the diagenesis is no longer possible to soften.
Beijing News: Why is the image composed of 5 handprints and 5 footprints said to be an artistic expression of ancient humans?
Zhangdian: Due to the lack of prehistoric writing, rock face art is often considered an expression of ancient human thought. Handprints and intentional footprints are one of the early forms of artistic expression of ancient humans, and are called works of art in academic works of archaeology, cognitive science, psychology and art history, such as the 73,000-year-old abstract reticulated petroglyph art on the conglomerate in the Brombos Cave in South Africa; some are realized by means of carving, such as the ostrich eggshell carving about 60,000 years old in the cave in South Africa. 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 a silhouette of the handprint.
The art rock plate formed by the combination of these 5 mudras and 5 footprints of Qiusang in Tibet can be regarded as art because it is an imitation of the impression of its limbs by ancient humans, and there is a deliberate combination of acts and patterns of pressing and making.
The emergence of art is a milestone in human evolution, even if it is only a few deliberate handprints, it means that such an act has surpassed the action that had to be completed just to survive, and it is older than all the rock art known in the world.
▲An analog diagram created by ancient humans pressing hand and foot prints on calcium carbonate soft mud.
The level of ancient human cognition 200,000 years ago
Beijing News: In the evolution of ancient humans, paleolithic manufacturing and the use of fire are milestones in the unique cognitive evolution of ancient humans, so what about rock face art?
Chapter: Rock face art is a materialized image that intuitively shows what ancient humans imagined and wanted to express. In terms of image perception and thought patterns, it may be more complex than creating Paleolithic. 5 handprints and 5 footprints, inferred from the size, may have been left by two children. Imagine the scene at that time, it is likely that there were adults soaking in the hot spring nearby, while two children played in the soft mud, leaving these handprints and footprints.
If the thinking mode and visual perception ability displayed by the creators of Qiusang's hand and foot prints in the creative process are compared with the cognitive development process of modern humans, the stage of symbols and images related to the operation of specific objects is the cognitive development stage between the 7-12 years old of modern human children, that is to say, if the age of the creators of the fingerprints estimated by anatomy is accurate, their cognitive ability in images is the same as that of modern peers. It records in the form of traces what perceptual psychology calls the "ecological self."
But despite the anatomy of ancient humans and our modern humans, their thinking, what exactly these combinations of hand and foot prints are meant to express, and whether they are on the same track as modern humans are to be supported by other evidence.
Beijing News: Can we speculate, who left these handprints?
Ancient humans who appeared on the Tibetan Plateau 207,000-188,000 years ago show that they are not anatomically modern human Homo sapiens, not our ancestors, because modern humans only came out of Africa 70,000 years ago. The 5 mudras and 5 footprints are older than all Homo sapiens found in Eurasia to date, but they are very close to the age of the Denisovan fossils recently found at slightly lower elevations on the Tibetan Plateau (160,000 years ago). Therefore, the possibility of the emergence of Denisovans or other ancient human races at high altitudes on the Tibetan Plateau is not excluded.
The mainstream view has always been that the key to the disappearance of other ancient races such as Neanderthals and Denisovans lies in the difference between their cognitive ability and that of modern people, and art is the "patent" of Homo sapiens, but the creators of the 10 hand and foot prints in Tibet are no different from modern people of the same age in artistic creation.
Beijing News: What kind of enlightenment will be brought about by learning about the cognitive ability of these ancient humans?
Cognitive science is a landmark emerging research category of world science in the 20th century, and as a cutting-edge cutting-edge discipline that explores the working mechanism of the human brain or mind, it has attracted widespread attention from scientists around the world. Hand models and handprints are ubiquitous in rock art around the world, reflecting the necessary role of the hand in human evolution.
I am writing a paper from the perspective of cognitive science, through the study of the evolution of human cognitive ability at that time and the creation of prehistoric art, to illustrate the importance of studying the art of hand and foot prints.
▲ In January this year, Zhang Dian (pictured right) and the village secretary of Qiusang Village discussed the protection of ancient human hand and foot prints. Courtesy of respondents
The protection of Qiu Sang's hand and foot prints was imminent
Beijing News: It is said that Qiusang Hot Spring is now a tourist resort integrating bathing, pilgrimage, tourism and leisure, what changes have the geographical environment and hand and foot prints of Qiusang changed in the past 30 years?
Zhangdian: Qiusang Hot Spring is located on the slope of the mountain, the earliest time to climb up the vertical distance of more than 200 meters to reach, the entire limestone landform area of about 0.7 square kilometers, there are many ancient springs, modern springs, as well as hundreds of years ago ancient architecture remains. Now, the amount of water in Qiusang Hot Spring is very small, only flowing down the ditch, and the coverage of the spring is much smaller.
Because Qiusang's hot springs are said to have miraculous curative effects, in recent years, the village has built a new mountain road and hot spring bath hotels, all of which are locally sourced materials, and quanhua is the precipitation crystal of calcium carbonate, forming rocks that are limestone, and the layers are easy to dig. Near the bath, the locals learned that there were hand and foot prints pressed by ancient humans, and regarded them as the imprints left by their ancestors, often worshipping and touching, the first 18 hand and foot prints found, due to the misuse of the locals as building materials, many of them were destroyed, they should have been protected.
On January 7 this year, I went to Qiusang Hot Spring again, this time to continue to do research work such as geological profile maps and spring water sampling, and at the same time called on all sectors of society to protect the footprints of these ancient humans. Before leaving, I communicated with the State Administration of Cultural Heritage, hoping that Qiusang's archaeological findings would be actively and effectively protected. In the past few days after arriving, after communication, a unified understanding has been reached with the cultural relics bureaus at all levels in the autonomous region and the local area of Qiusang Village, and Secretary Li of Qiusang Village attaches great importance to it and suggests that the development of tourism be accompanied by protective measures, such as covering the ancient handprints with a glass cover first.