Now, the distance between us and animals is not so close, and in the era of civilization obscurantism, the wildlife on the land of China is far richer than it is today.
At that time, the Chinese ancestors "interacted" intimately with animals, and they even made red-crowned cranes and crocodiles into musical instruments, ate snails, ate monkeys, and kept sika deer in captivity... This is really hard to imagine today.
These phenomena can be seen from the ancient cultural sites across the country, and I will take you to take a look at them one by one.
Crane bones make flutes
Time: About 9000~7800 years ago
Location: Jiahu Lake Ruins, Henan Province
The flute is an ancient musical instrument found all over the world, but when did humans invent it? The Jia Lake site in Wuyang County, Henan Province, is not only the earliest known place to raise pigs, but also unearthed the world's earliest flute.
Bone flute excavated from the JiaHu site
Image source network
At the site, archaeologists found more than 30 bone flutes, all made from the ulna (wing bones) of a red-crowned crane. The most complete one is 23.6 cm long, and the flute body is evenly drilled with 7 circular sound holes. After measuring the sound, it was found that it can produce a complete six-tone scale and an incomplete seven-tone scale, and the timbre is also good.
Using crane bones as a flute seems a bit cruel today, but it is also a rare romance in prehistory. After all, who doesn't need to relax themselves, or fall in love and create an atmosphere.
Golden Snub-nosed Monkey as a delicacy
Time: About 7000~5000 years ago
Location: Guantaoyuan Ruins, Shaanxi Province
Today, the golden snub-nosed monkey is a protected animal with the same name as the giant panda. But thousands of years ago, at the Guan Taoyuan ruins, it turned out to be a common thing for people...
Monkey monkeys are so cute, why eat monkeys? If you cross, I would like to ask, is it delicious? (Ask, but we still can't eat, otherwise we will sit in jail and wear)
Golden Monkey: Look into my poor eyes
The Guantaoyuan ruins are located in Baoji City, Shaanxi Province, where the ancestors already farmed, raised pigs and loved to hunt as early as the Neolithic Age. The site unearthed the remains of Sumen rhinoceros, elk, sika deer, small chamois, black bears and other wild beasts, of which golden monkey bones accounted for 6% to 8%!
Monkey bones are buried in ash pits along with other animal bones, and it seems that they are not the pets of the ancestors, but the prey that was eaten, and the proportion is not low.
The Guanzhong region where Baoji is located is located north of the Qinling Mountains, which is considered "north" today. But the climate was warm and humid at the time, so there were many subtropical animals. The golden snub-nosed monkey in the Guantaoyuan site is the most common Sichuan golden snub-nosed monkey.
With the development of agriculture and animal husbandry, the ancestors hunted fewer and fewer wild animals, and the distribution area of the golden snub-nosed monkey also moved south with climate change, and there was no longer any north of the Qinling Mountains.
Although the Sichuan golden snub-nosed monkey is hardy, it is difficult to forage for food in the long winter, so it cannot live north of the Qinling Mountains today. Image source: Documentary "We Were Born in China"
The ancients were also obsessed with snails
Time: About 5300~4300 years ago
Location: Liangzhu Ruins, Zhejiang Province
After a tiring day, a bowl of fresh and fat fried snails at the night market is very refreshing! In Liangzhu, the holy land of Chinese civilization five thousand years ago, the ancestors also had this mouthful!
Liangzhu Ancient City was built in the river network wetlands around Taihu Lake, and naturally relies on water to draft water. In the ancient garbage heaps around the site, archaeologists found a large number of snail shells, the shells are still very intact, probably with tools such as bone needles to pick and eat. It seems that we have been paying attention to people since ancient times
Hungry
The Liangzhu people's fascination with river fresh is not only snails, but also rich in carp, crucian carp, carp, bluefish, turtles, turtles, crabs, clams and other remains in the ruins.
Although the Liangzhu ancestors also raised pigs and hunted (there are even Bones of South China Tigers in ash pits), the zinc content in their bones is high, indicating that they mainly rely on aquatic products to supplement protein.
Yangtze crocodile Pi Meng Shen drum
Time: About 4300~3900 years ago
Location: Tao Temple Ruins in Shanxi Province
The ancient city of Taosi, located in the Fenhe River valley of Shanxi, is believed by archaeologists to be probably the capital of the ancient emperor Yao. The ruins of the temple are large in scale, with a large number of pottery, jade, and 8 drums unearthed.
The drum body of these drums is a hollowed-out tree trunk, and the drum surface is covered with a special material - Yangzi crocodile skin.
Alligator
The Yangtze crocodile, known as the "tuó" in ancient times, is small in size but makes a loud chirp when courting. The "shrew drum" with the back or abdomen of the Yangtze crocodile is said to be loud and thunderous, and it is an indispensable ceremonial instrument for combat and sacrifice in ancient times.
Picture: Zheng Qiuyang
The drum is well documented in the history books, but it was first discovered in the 1930s in The Yin Ruins of Anyang, and the Tao Temple Drum predates it by nearly 1,000 years.
Today, the Yangtze crocodile only has a small wild population in the lower Reaches of the Yangtze River. However, in many pre-Qin sites in the Yellow River Basin, its skeleton has been excavated, and there are also records of shrew production in the Central Plains before the Spring and Autumn Period. This indicates that the Yangtze crocodile once inhabited the north at that time.
Today, the Yangtze crocodile is only distributed in southern Anhui, Anhui in the Yangtze River Basin, and it is necessary to dig a hole and hibernate for 4 to 6 months in winter.
The Sichuan Basin is like an infestation
Time: About 4800~2600 years ago
Location: Sanxingdui Ruins, Jinsha Ruins, Sichuan Province
In March 2021, archaeologists excavated more than 100 pieces of ivory, as well as exquisite ivory carvings, at the famous Sanxingdui site in Sichuan.
At the jinsha site later in the year, thousands of tusks have been excavated, and the longest is 1.5 meters. They are important sacrifices of the ancient Shu ancestors, all from Asian elephants.
Ivory excavated from the Jinsha site in the Sichuan Basin
There are no wild elephants in the Sichuan Basin today, but the ancient times were different. During the Shang and Zhou Dynasties, the climate was warm, with elephants in the Yellow River Basin, and the warmer Sichuan Basin was also an elephant-producing area.
Due to climate change and long-term hunting, the elephant herds in Sichuan gradually retreated from the plains to the mountains of eastern Sichuan and southern Sichuan, and disappeared completely after the Tang and Song dynasties.
Asian elephant
Even captive sika deer?
Time: About 4000~3800 years ago
Location: Xinzhan Ruins, Henan Province
The common sika deer in ancient times was not domesticated like pigs, cattle and sheep. However, our ancestors may have tried to domesticate them, and the site of Xinmi (zhài) in Xinmi, Henan, reveals a little clue.
Here the first democracy is to make a living from farming, and there are fewer bones of wild animals in the ruins. Curiously, only the skeleton of the sika deer is more than that of cattle and sheep, and the number is second only to the bones of domestic pigs.
sika deer
Radioisotope analysis of deer bones showed that deer here usually ingested more "c4 plants" and protein than other sites of similar region and age, and the proportion was close to that of local domestic pigs. (According to the different photosynthetic methods, plants can be divided into c3 and c4 categories.) Sika deer mainly eat c3 plants in the wild, and millet (millet), millet (yellow rice) and other common grains in ancient northern china are c4 plants.
Therefore, some scholars speculate that the deer here, like pigs, cattle and sheep, were first used as captive livestock and fed grain feed. Unfortunately, the domestication of the sika deer seems to have failed, and the large-scale breeding of this animal did not mature until the 20th century.
Good fellow, if the domestication was really successful at that time, maybe we would be able to raise sika deer as pets by now.
You can also see this interesting content in the October issue of Naturalist Magazine, which is based on the theme of the ancient wild China. In the Western Han Dynasty more than 2,000 years ago, there were many rare birds and animals in china that are now endangered (or extinct) in China. These animals haunt our ancestors and integrate into the history of the Chinese nation.
This issue of the magazine tells the story of animals in ancient ruins, ancient climate change events, and various ancient mythical beasts. In addition, in this issue, you can also see spotted seals, large crabs, and various eggplant eating methods
Written by | Xu Qihang
Some of the pictures | Figureworm creative
WeChat Editor | What a cool