One Article published in the magazine Nature describes the discovery of a unique 40,000-year-old culture at the Xiamabei site in the Nihewan Basin, northeast china.
At the site, the first known signs of ocher processing in East Asia, as well as a set of stone tools blade-shaped objects that provide data on tool-making industries during a key transitional period in the history of our species.
Made by a team from Hebei Provincial Institute of Cultural Relics and Archeology (Chinese) and the Max Plank Institute for the Science of Human History (Germany) and other institutions, the Xiamabei excavations provide new information about the cultural development that took place during the expansion of modern humans across the Asian continent, in a period of history in which there was cultural and genetic hybridization between populations.
An unprecedented set of cultural expressions
Previous research had established that the Homo sapiens It arrived in northern Asia about 40,000 years ago, but much was still unknown about the way of life of these early peoples, as well as their possible interactions with other prehistoric groups.
In this sense, the river basin Nigeriain northern China, offers one of the best opportunities to understand the evolution of human social groups in Northeast Asia, as it has a large number of archaeological sites with antiquities ranging between 1.7 million and 10,000 years. antiquity.
The Nihewan Basin in North China offers one of the best opportunities to understand the evolution of human social groups in Northeast Asia.
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“Xiamabei is distinguished from any other known archaeological site in China, since there are signs of novel cultural characteristics developed by the Homo sapiens at a very early time,” he says. Fa-Gang Wang, Your team was the first to excavate the site.
For its part, Shixia Yangfrom Chinese Academy of Sciences and co-author of the work, points out that “the ability of hominids to live in northern latitudes, with cold and highly seasonal environments, was probably facilitated by a cultural evolution that brought adaptations economic, social and symbolic. The Xiamabei findings help us understand these adaptations, and their possible role in human migration,” he says.
Extensive use of ocher
One of the most significant cultural traits found at the site is the use of ocheras shown by the discovery of tools to process large amounts of this material.
The analyzes carried out under the direction of Francesco d’Erricoresearcher at University of Bordeaux and the CNRS (France), indicate that the different types of ocher found in Xiamabei were processed to produce powders of different color and consistency, whose use impregnated the soil of the place.
One of the most significant cultural traits found at the site is the use of ocher
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The artifacts found include two pieces of ocher with different mineral compositions, and an elongated slab of limestone with smoothed areas stained with pigment, representing the earliest known example of this practice in East Asia.
“The locals selected the ocher and processed it to extract red pigments. We are not sure of the use they gave it, but in other parts of the world, ocher powder was used for symbolic purposes, such as body adornment”, he explains to SINC Michael Petragliaresearcher at the Max Plack Institute.
Ocher pieces and tools for their processing found at the site. / Fa-Gang Wang / Francesco d’Errico .
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Indications of an early lithic industry
Stone tools with an antiquity fixed at 40,000 years have also been found at the site, a discovery that implies a cultural evolution very early, which had not been observed before in northern China.
“We have found very small blade-shaped tools, which shows that miniaturized stone tools were used long before the use of this type of element became systematic, 29,000 years ago. It is a unique find”, comments Petraglia.
The manufacture of multipurpose tools with handles demonstrates a complex technical system for the transformation of raw materials that is not observed in other, even more recent, sites.
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“The conservation of these blades is so good that we can still see remains of the mango of bone adhered to the surface of one of them. We think they would use some kind of adhesive to attach the cutting element to a handle, which could then be effectively used as a cutting tool or weapon.”
Analysis suggests that seven of the tools found were used to punch out, scrape skinscut down vegetal material and cut meat. The manufacture of multipurpose tools with handles demonstrates a complex technical system for the transformation of raw materials that is not observed in older deposits —or even some of lesser antiquity— existing in the region.
A challenge to current models
Although no hominid remains have been found at Xiamabei, the presence of fossils of modern humans at the contemporary site of Tianyuandongand in the most recent deposits of Salkhit and the Upper Cave of Zhoukoudianindicate that the inhabitants of Xiamabei were Homo sapiens.
“We know that there was miscegenation between Homo sapiensNeanderthals and Denisovans thanks to other sites”, emphasizes Petraglia.
The researcher adds that “the work suggests that there was a first wave of modern humans in Xiamabei -probably unique both biologically and culturally-, who did not survive, being replaced by other human groups in later migrations”, he adds.
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Our study suggests that human evolution in Asia was a complex mixture of waves of advance, with interbreeding events, local extinction of populations and demographic increases, where there were also innovations, losses and cultural transfers between groups.
Michael Petraglia, Studio Director
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The Xiamabei findings imply that the biological and cultural evolution of our species in the Asian continent was much more complex than previously believed, challenging the current model of colonization, which maintains that human beings dispersed through the region rapidly in a single migratory event.
“Our study suggests that human evolution in Asia was a complex mix of waves of advance, with miscegenation eventslocal extinction of populations, and demographic increases, where there were also innovations, losses and cultural transfers between groups”, concludes the researcher.
Reference:
Shi-Xia Yang et al.“Innovative ochre processing and tool use in China 40,000 years ago”. Nature2022
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