On March 3, the State Administration of Cultural Heritage held a work meeting on the important progress of the "Archaeology China" major project in Beijing, reporting on the latest progress of paleolithic archaeological discoveries and research in the Nihewan Basin of Hebei Province, and especially informing the "archaeological evidence of the earliest use of pigments and composite tools by early humans in East Asia found in Nihewan". It is understood that the research results were published online in the world's top journal nature magazine on March 2 under the title of "Innovative ochre processing and tool use in China 40,000 years ago". Dr. Wang Fagang of the Institute of Cultural Relics and Archaeology of Hebei Province presided over the archaeological excavation of the Xiama Monument site, carried out relevant comprehensive research, and was the first author of the paper.
The Great Wall New Media reporter exclusively interviewed Wang Fagang, director and associate researcher of the Hebei Provincial Institute of Cultural Relics and Archaeology.
On March 4th, the Hebei Provincial Bureau of Cultural Relics held a major progress in the "Archaeology China" major project at the Hebei Provincial Institute of Cultural Relics and Archaeology - Hebei Nihe Bay Archaeological Discovery and Research Major Achievements Interview Meeting, and Wang Fagang, director and associate researcher of the Hebei Provincial Institute of Cultural Relics and Archaeology, introduced the discovery, excavation, research process and academic value and significance of the site at the meeting.
At the meeting site, the Great Wall New Media reporter exclusively interviewed this elegant scholar. As the first author of the paper and the host of the archaeological discoveries at the Xia Ma Stele site, this shy-looking scholar has endless words about the archaeological achievements of Nihe Bay.
The following is the transcript of the interview between great wall new media reporter and Dr. Wang Fagang:
Reporter: When was the Site of the Xia Ma Monument discovered and systematically excavated?
Wang Fagang: A series of fault basins have developed in northwest Hebei, and the basin is rich in ancient human cultural relics, constructing a cultural sequence of ancient human evolution in East Asia, and is known as the "hometown of oriental human beings". In the past, archaeological discoveries in the Nihewan Basin have focused on the part roughly equivalent of Yangyuan County. Around 2000, the Hebei Provincial Institute of Cultural Relics began to carry out paleolithic surveys and excavations in the surrounding area, and first made an important breakthrough in the northern part of neighboring Wei County.
In 2013, the Sanguan Paleolithic Site Group was excavated.
In 2004, near Sanguan Village in central Wei County, the first Paleolithic site, the Xishahe Site, was first discovered, with typical fine stone nuclei. We are also particularly excited because the area has sanguan Neolithic sites excavated in the 1970s and 1980s, and now that we have found fine stone tool sites from the late Paleolithic period, we are also particularly excited about the prospect of finding materials for the transition from Paleolithic to Neolithic. Subsequently, continuous observation and investigation were carried out, and around 2005, three sites were found in this area: Xisha River, Nantaizi and Xiamabei. In 2013, we applied to the State Administration of Cultural Heritage for approval to carry out systematic excavations at three sites.
Reporter: Can you briefly introduce the research overview of the use of pigments and composite tools excavated from the Xiamabei site?
Wang Fagang: At that time, three sites were excavated, and the remains of each site had its own characteristics.
The site of Xishahe was found to be the remains of stone leaves and fine stone leaves from 27,000 years ago, which is also the earliest such remains in North China, which is of great value for the study of the remains of stone leaves and fine stone leaves in North China.
Excavation area at the Site of the Lower Horse Monument.
Scattered fine stone leaf technical stone products were found in the upper part of the Nantaizi site, and a relatively abundant burnt stone was found at the bottom, dating back 33,000 years. We speculate that it may be related to the "stone boiling method" activities of ancient humans to cook food or boil water before the invention of cookware.
Three cultural layers were found at the site of the Lower Horse Monument, and the remains of the ancient man's use of hematite pigments were found in the lower cultural layer, or more precisely, the remains of the processing pigments, because it can be said that we found a "workshop" where ancient humans processed pigments.
The lower ground floor and cultural layers of the Lower Horse Monument site are distributed.
The lower cultural layer mainly reveals a paleoanthropological surface, and a dense layer of stonework and animal bones have been found within an excavation area of about 12 square meters, with concentrated ashes in the middle and the remains of processing hematite pigments in the west. A clear oval fire pit can be found on the bottom of the ash area, indicating the activities of ancient humans here at that time. Hematite pigment processing remains were found in the western part of the excavation area, in a range of about 1-2 square meters found a large and a small two pieces of gravel, hematite fragments and reddish soil, we revealed the entire ruins we felt that we found the ancient people processing hematite pigment "workshop", because hematite powder is the most widely used pigment by ancient humans since the Paleolithic age.
The lower cultural layer of the Xia Ma Monument site reveals the surface of ancient human activities.
We analyzed the large grinding disc and the small grinding ball, which were tools for ancient humans to process pigments, and later electron microscopy scans also found traces of friction and small hematite debris on it, confirming this. There are also hematite blocks of different sizes near the tool, which should be raw materials for adding pigments, one of which is relatively large, one side is polished, and later according to Raman spectroscopy, X-ray fluorescence spectroscopy and electron microscopy scanning and other technical means, it is also confirmed that these red fragments are hematite, and the surface of the large hematite block has friction marks, restoring the direction of friction. The grinding disc is covered with red hematite powder, and the soil in the surrounding area is also stained red by hematite powder, which we speculate should be stained red by the grinding hematite powder, which is part of the product. We extracted the soil in the red area from the surrounding area, and later magnetic analysis also confirmed that the composition ratio of hematite in this area was much higher than that in the surrounding area.
Based on technical means such as Raman spectroscopy, X-ray fluorescence spectroscopy, and electron microscopy scanning, these red fragments were confirmed to be hematite.
At the end of the excavation, according to the layout of the fire pond in the excavation area, the layout of the processing pigment remains and the relics found, we can basically confirm that the ancient humans in this area excavated the fire pond to live, dismembered the hunted prey, barbecued, enjoyed the delicacies, and also processed paint in this area, makeup, coloring or other spiritual activities. Later, after the results of photoremission and carbon fourteen dating, this era is around 40,000 years ago.
This is the excavation process of the life picture of ancient humans "resting around the furnace, taking color from the grinding stone, inserting stones as blades, and sharing prey" 40,000 years ago, which was later comprehensively studied and restored and outlined.
Reporter: What difficulties have you overcome in completing such a research work of great academic value?
Wang Fagang: In the 1990s, the Nihewan Basin carried out the first foreign-related archaeological excavation project since the founding of New China, sino-US cooperative archaeological excavation, and Chinese and foreign scholars exchanged and formed systematic archaeological excavation norms and methods. Therefore, the basic excavation work was completed relatively smoothly, such as field excavation, and the samples were timely, systematic and comprehensively extracted, which also laid a solid foundation for later research.
A grinding disc excavated in Nihe Bay, Hebei Province. Great Wall Network Jiyun client reporter Zheng Haotian photographed
In contrast, the research process is a bit laborious, many things have to be detected by high-tech means, and at present, the technical strength of our research institute does not have the conditions to carry out relevant tests, tests and analysis. The following Mabei site found the processing of hematite pigments as an example, first of all, we have to prove that it is hematite, has the composition of hematite; secondly, we must prove that hematite is ground in this place, we also need to know the time of this activity, in order to achieve the goal of restoring the whole process. It can be said that the detection of later science and technology and even the design of research methods for the entire subject are very important, and they have also experienced a long period of exploration, which is also the reason for international multi-country, multi-disciplinary, and multi-platform cooperative research.
The archaeological work of Nihe Bay is a long-term international collaborative research of multidisciplinary teams.
This research work is international, interdisciplinary, multi-platform collaboration, although this work model can give full play to the strength of various scientific research institutions, but there will be many unexpected problems. For example, in the prevention and control of the epidemic, many scholars are closed at home and cannot go to the laboratory to do testing, which not only delays the process of research, but also brings a lot of inconvenience to everyone's on-site communication, and we can only communicate through online means such as email.
Overall, it was ideal and we expect to complete this research task.
Reporter: What is the latest archaeological discovery of the Mud River Bay Archaeological Project of value?
Wang Fagang: Mainly focused on these aspects, one is to discover and prove the activities of ancient humans in processing hematite pigments. Hematite is the most widely used pigment by ancient humans in the world since the Paleolithic Age, and pigments are often related to the activities of ancient humans in the field of thought, spirit and consciousness. They are no longer satisfied with the basic needs of life, but instead pursue a higher spiritual life, using pigments to make some rock paintings, ornaments, cosmetics or funerary goods. It shows that human beings have already possessed the obvious behavioral characteristics of modern humans, and the time of our behavior is advanced to 40,000 years ago, which is also the earliest in East Asia, which greatly advances the history of ancient human artistic creation, aesthetics and cognitive expression in East Asia, and rewrites the understanding of the academic community.
Bone tools, one of the earliest tools of this type in the East Asian era.
Second, we found some evidence of making composite tools, such as the remnants of ancient human installation of bone handles and binding ropes on a small stone tool, indicating that ancient humans were able to install handles to make conforming tools at that time, indicating that the technical methods of human beings at that time also had a complication, and once again showing that the performance of modern human technology and behavior complexity is not single, and cannot be used as a unified standard for the technical factors (such as stone leaves, etc.) popular in the west of Eurasia. The technical idea of making tools used in the small stone tool inlay handle was also more widely developed later.
Stone tools excavated in Nihe Bay, Hebei Province. Great Wall Network Jiyun client reporter Zheng Haotian photographed
Third, we found that pigment processing and composite tool manufacturing coexist with small stone tool technology, that is to say, people who used these small stone tools 40,000 years ago implemented these activities, rather than coexisting with people who used stone leaf tools in the past, which also pointed out the direction for studying the long-term development of small stone tools in our East Asia region. The Small Stone Tool Technology also achieved activities with typical modern behavior characteristics in parallel with Europe and Africa 40,000 years ago, which provides new and important materials and evidence for us to understand the complexity of modern human evolution worldwide.
The latest archaeological discoveries and research results of the Underground Horse Monument Site in the Nihewan Basin provide the earliest known key evidence for paleolithic archaeological research in mainland China and even East Asia, and reveal the complex cultural evolution and exchange process of early East Asian modern humans, which is of great value for interpreting the development process of human culture in the Paleolithic era in East Asia and the world.
Reporter: How is the follow-up research work on the Mud River Bay Archaeological Project arranged?
Wang Fagang: Although this study has made important progress after nearly 10 years of long-term research, there are still many problems that need to be followed up and solved. The excavation of this site only 12 square meters revealed so much information, and there is a large area of distribution around it, whether it will contain more unknown information. There are two other sites in the nearby area, there is a 27,000-year-old stone leaf technology, the Nantaizi site has 33,000 years of burning stone, and whether there is a possibility that ancient humans about 30,000 years ago have mastered the technology of cooking food or boiling water by burning stone to conduct heat, all of which point to the goal of our later research.
The Nihewan Basin is a classic area of Quaternary low-quality, environmental, paleoanthropological and Paleolithic archaeological research in North China.
In the next step, we must formulate a detailed plan, carry out more systematic and purposeful excavations of these sites, conduct a comprehensive systematic study of the entire archaeological material, and strive to solve the technical level and spiritual ideology of the ancients in this area from 40,000 to 20,000 years, and even the structure of population or social organization, and strive to explain all aspects of the life of the ancients in this area and this period, so that everyone can have a comprehensive understanding.