01. Pangu Open Sky Axe
In Chinese myths and legends, the emergence of the first human being, and even the birth of the universe, is mainly due to the use of an axe by the great god Pangu to break new ground.
As the first human being in the universe, Pangu used a giant axe, which is the first association between man and axe in mythology. But we can't help but wonder at this point, why does it have to be an axe?
Fan Chengda said in his poem:
"I don't know how many axes are chiseled,
It's too empty.
The front cloud is a little over,
The back clouds come endlessly. ”
This mentions a key point, namely "axe chiseling".
That is to say, the Pangu God used not only an axe, but also a chisel at that time. So, where does the chisel argument come from?
Let's look back to the pre-Qin period and find the answer in the book "Zhuangzi".
"The Emperor of the South China Sea is Huan, the Emperor of the North Sea is Ku, and the Emperor of the Central Sea is Chaos." When you meet in a chaotic place, you treat it very well. The virtue of chaos and recklessness is reported: "Everyone has seven tricks, to see, hear, eat, and breathe, this is unique, try to chisel it." "One day chiseled, seven days and chaotic death."
It turned out that the original opening of the prototype chaos of the universe was the chisel used.
Compared with the creation myth in Zhuangzi, the Pangu myth is recorded in the ancient book "Three Five-Year Calendar" of the Three Kingdoms period.
Fan Chengda's poetry, on the other hand, reached the Northern Song Dynasty.
Combing through this, it will be found that the Song people undoubtedly integrated the two together, that is, combined Zhuangzi's chisel with the axe in Pangu's hand, so as to complete the so-called pioneering feat.
However, the axe undoubtedly occupies an important position, and even becomes an iconic object of Pangu.
02. Axe of the Pirro Formation
We said earlier that Pangu and the axe are the first connection between the two in mythology. In reality, the emergence of axes is indeed closely related to human origins.
The Pirao site in Daocheng, Sichuan, was selected as one of the top ten archaeological discoveries in China in 2021 this year.
Many people don't understand, isn't it just a big pile of stones, why is it so important?
Imagine that let's go back to the beginning, the emergence of a community of human destiny on this planet is inseparable from the evolution process from ape to man, and in this evolution process from ape to man.
If we admit that labor created mankind, then the earliest tool of labor that can be verified today may be the special product of this pile of stones, that is, the stone hand axe!
From the ape man walking upright on the ground, freeing his hands, and then to the able man and homo sapiens with their hands, creating tools, and then obtaining resources through tools, and gradually conquering nature. It is no exaggeration to say that the stone hand axe held by the ancient ancestors at this time was no less than the earth-breaking artifact in the hands of Pangu.
In the ruins of Daocheng Piluo, there is a hand axe no later than 130,000 years ago.
Not only that, the entire site also unearthed more than 6,000 stone artifacts from 7 cultural layers, showing the Paleolithic cultural development sequence of "gravel stone tools - hand axe combination - stone slate stone tools".
In other words, we can clearly know how long the history of human use of hand axes is.
But this is not the ultimate meaning of the Daocheng Pyrro hand axe. Its appearance not only allowed the Western world to see the exquisite technology of the Eastern Ashel, but also erased a line of cultural discrimination in the middle of the old continent.
03. Ashley's hand axe
Ashley, this word is a very important noun in Paleolithic. The Ascheli technique, named after the site of Saint Acheul, discovered in 1859 on the outskirts of Amiens, France. Combining existing knowledge and new discoveries, Ashel technology originated in East Africa about 1.7 million years ago and continued to about 200,000 years ago.
Since Ashley is a technical means, the hand axe created with this technology can be called the Ashel hand axe. It is generally believed that this technical system is distributed in most parts of Africa and Eurasia, and its common artifact portfolio includes hand axes, pickaxes, and thin-bladed axes. It can be said that the Ashel hand axe is its typical artifact.
This ashley stone axe is mainly elliptical or teardrop-shaped, and the two-sided blade is mainly processed. The left and right sides and the front and back sides are basically symmetrical, one end is thinner than the tip, and the other end is slightly wider and thicker, which is the first standardized heavy tool for two-sided construction and fine processing in prehistoric times.
It can be said that it represents the highest technical realm of ancient human evolution in the homo erectus period of stone tool processing.
Through beating, balanced processing, thinning treatment, and finally forming two-sided hand axes, they are widely used, and ancient humans have relied on them to complete activities such as slaughtering, decomposing animals, digging, and processing wood.
As researcher Gao Xing said:
"The stone tools of the Ashel technical system found at the Pirlo site are unexpectedly exquisite. It should be the late mature technical system of western Ashel. The controversy over whether there is a real Ashel technical system in China and East Asia has been completely resolved. ”
Of course, when it comes to Ashley's hand axe, we have to mention the famous Morvis line.
04. Morvis line theory
In the 1940s, the concept of a hand axe was used by H.L. Movius, an archaeologist at Harvard University in the United States, who boldly proposed the "Morvis line". He believes that in Africa, Europe and West Asia, the Ashel cultural tradition represented by the hand axe prevails, while East Asia lacks this combination, but instead the world of the long-standing smasher tradition.
As a result, the early Paleolithic was derived by the "Morvis Line" into two cultural circles, advanced and backward, distinguished by a line that passes through the northern part of the Indian Peninsula in a northwest-southeastern shape:
In the west, it is a kind of hand axe that masters advanced technology and can beat a hand axe with complex craftsmanship, representing the "hand axe cultural circle" of advanced culture; to the east, it is another kind of "hand axe culture circle" that does not have such ability and can only make crude choppers and uses unprocessed stone chips, representing the backward "chopper culture circle".
Dominated by the European-centric concept of the Western academic context tradition, the axe of the Ashel culture once became the main basis for distinguishing between racial advantages and disadvantages. That is, these Europeans are born smart, and we Asians are born stupid?
This discrimination has even extended to the ancient Homo erectus stage!
But time and time again, the facts have resolutely and decisively countered the American archaeologist's assertions.
From the Hundred Colors hand axe on the cover of Science magazine, to the Ashel stone tool combination concentrated in the Lonan Basin... At present, the tool combination with the technical factor of Ashel has found a number of areas in China, including the Baise Basin, the Luonan Basin, and the Danjiangkou Reservoir Area.
The Asheli hand axe of Daocheng Piluo this time is not only completely comparable to the remains of the late Western Ashel, but can even be said to be a typical mature stage of Ashley technology.
A small hand axe is enough to prove the intelligence of our Chinese 130,000 years ago.
This specially meaningd Morvis line will also draw a rest at the Pilo ruins!