A 13,500-year-old miniature bird statue rewrites the history of Chinese bird art creation

Photographs of various sides of bird statues excavated from the Xuchang site in Lingjing, Henan Province

An international research team composed of Chinese scientists and scientists from France, Canada, Israel and Norway published a paper saying that they conducted carbon fourteen dating of a miniature bird statue and burnt bones and semi-finished products excavated at the Xuchang site in Lingjing, Henan Province, excavated in 2009, and the average age of the 32 samples was 13,500 years ago, which advanced the earliest creation time of Chinese bird art works by more than 8,000 years. The results were recently published in the journal Public Science Library General.

The bird statue excavated from the Xuchang site in Lingjing was carved from charred bone fragments, and the bird is 1.92 cm long, 0.51 cm wide and 1.25 cm high. The bird is dark brown on one side and bronze on the other, with a thick body, a short head, a rounded beak and a long tail, and is likely to belong to the order Finches. Instead of carving the bird's legs, the artist cut a base that would allow it to stand.

Carefully carved using four techniques: grinding, grinding, scraping, and cutting

Thanks to the object's special state of preservation, using advanced analytical techniques such as confocal microscopy and miniature CT scans, the researchers were able to capture the details of the production better than ever before, reconstructing the artistic style of the Paleolithic sculptor.

The analysis showed that the fragment of the backbone used in the carving was derived from the limb bones of medium-sized mammals, inferred from the clear chiseling and grinding marks left on the surface, and the bones were heated before careful carving.

At that time, the artist used four different techniques of grinding, grinding, scraping and cutting, leaving 68 tiny faces on the surface of the object. By carefully selecting the tools for making, they allowed the bird sculptures they created to achieve an astonishing balance and beauty on smaller objects.

Li Zhanyang, the first author of the paper, professor at Shandong University and director of the International Joint Laboratory of the Origin of East Asian Modern Humans in Henan Province, said: "Sculpture is mainly reflected by the surface, head, tail and substrate of the object, and its production process is confirmed by the semi-finished products found, and some semi-finished products have similar blade scratch marks, which may be the fine stone tools called 'carvings' in the past." A carving vessel made of flint was found in the place where the bird statue was unearthed. ”

Why is this statue considered a bird? Co-corresponding author professor Francisco of the French National Center for Scientific Research believes that it is mainly based on the following four considerations: one is that it has a bird-like head, beak, throat, chest and back; second, the two sides have been carefully repaired to close to the anatomical characteristics of most birds; the third is marked in the position of the eyes; and the fourth is that the analysis of engraving techniques believes that it was deliberately made to highlight the anatomical characteristics of birds. The lack of wings on the bird statue may have been a personal idea of the artist at the time; it may also be due to other reasons such as the lack of thickness of the bone fragments produced and the difficulty of making small-size works.

The origin and whereabouts of this type of sculptural art remain a mystery

The statue differs technically and stylistically from other specimens found in Western Europe and Siberia: a large rectangular pedestal in place of the possible short legs makes it stand, an oversized tail prevents the statue from tilting forward, the sides of the body are flat, and the wings are not represented.

"The remains of Chinese bird statues were first found in the middle of the Neolithic age, and the Lingjing Bird statue is the most perfect prehistoric sculpture in the world." Another co-corresponding author of the paper, Professor Fang Hui of Shandong University, said, "This is the only sculptural artwork in East Asia that dates back to the late Pleistocene period." This discovery marks the recognition of a primitive artistic tradition. ”

This view that art creation first flourished in the age of Homo sapiens and reached Europe 42,000 years ago is being challenged. At sites in the Indonesian province of East Kalimantan and Sulawesi, scientists have found cave paintings from the same period. In addition, a survey of calcite deposits dating back 64,000 years found that the walls of three caves in Spain were covered with geometric symbols and mudras, the works of Neanderthals.

The oldest statue, found at the site of ancient Orinacia in SwabiaJura, Germany, dates back 40,000 years and is modeled after humans and animals, including some flying water birds carved from mammoth ivory. However, for most parts of the world, it is unclear when these art forms became an integral part of the human social and cultural whole, and whether this innovation was realized independently or spread from elsewhere.

"In East Asia, no such sculptural art has been found before, nor is its successor seen, which means that the origin and whereabouts of the Lingjing Bird statue remain a mystery." Li Zhanyang said.

Reporter Qiao Di

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