Yuanmou Ape Man Site

Yuanmou Ape Man Site

Yuanmou people's site is located on the hillside 500 meters north of danawu village, Yuanmou County, Yunnan Province, 7 kilometers away from the county seat. Yuanmou human fossil is one of the earliest human fossils found in China. It was officially named "Yuanmou new subspecies of Homo erectus", or "Yuanmou human" for short.

In the Yuanmou Man Site, some early Pleistocene animal fossils, such as Yunnan horse, saber toothed tiger, Saber Toothed elephant, were unearthed. The discovery of Yuanmou human site proves that Yunnan Plateau is one of the important areas for human early activities, and it is the earliest site of Chinese ancestors discovered so far.

In 1982, the State Council announced the Yuanmou Man Site as the second batch of national key cultural relics protection units.

geographical position

Yuanmou human site, located in Yuanmou County, Yunnan Province, is the discovery site of early Paleolithic human fossils. The yuanmouren site is about 1.7 million years ago. Excavation date, 1965.

Brief introduction of the site

The Yuanmou site is located at the foot of the mountain 500 meters north of danawu village, Yuanmou County, Yunnan Province, Southwest China. Yuanmou human fossil is one of the earliest human fossils found in China. It was officially named "Yuanmou new subspecies of Homo erectus", or "Yuanmou human" for short. In addition, some early Pleistocene animal fossils, such as Yunnan horse, saber toothed tiger and Saber Toothed elephant, were unearthed from the site.

The discovery of Yuanmou site proves that Yunnan Plateau is one of the important areas of human early activities.

significance

The Yuanmou Man Site is of great significance for the study of the geographical distribution and physical morphology evolution of ape man fossils.

archaeological discovery

According to archaeological findings, as early as 1.7 million years ago, there was an ancient human, Yuanmou ape man in Yunnan.

In early 1965, in order to cooperate with the construction of Southwest China and the survey and design of Chengdu Kunming railway, a major artery of Southwest China, four geologists, Qian Fang, Zhao Guoguang, Pu Qingyu and Wang Deshan, from the Institute of geology of the Ministry of geology of the people's Republic of China, formed the southwest neotectonic research group and arrived in Yuanmou.

It is found that the bottom layer of nanbeng area in the southeast of Yuanmou is well exposed, there are many fossils, and the structural phenomenon is clear, so it is decided to take shangnanbeng area as the focus of exploration and research. At about 17:00 p.m. on May 1, Qian Fang found several half exposed Yunnan horse teeth fossils in the lower part of a 4-meter-high brown soil bag composed of Yuanmou formation in the southwest of niujianbao, 800 meters northwest of shangnabang village.

Fossil remains

When Qian Fang excavated the Yunnan horse tooth fossils, he found that there were still some fossils beside the Yunnan horse tooth fossils, most of which were buried in the soil; some traces were exposed on the surface. At that time, he carefully excavated with the tip of the geological hammer, and was surprised to find two human tooth fossils. The crown of one of the teeth is half exposed, and the root is buried in the soil. The other one is all buried in the soil. The distance between the two teeth is more than 10 cm. At the same time, the lower gums of a rodent and some other fossil fragments have been found.

Other members of the research team were excited when they saw the two teeth, which were light gray and deep in fossils, and thought that they might be a pair of incisors of hominids or apes. The next morning, the research team came to the area where the tooth fossils were found again, carefully searched and excavated on the small soil bag, and found several horse teeth, cattle teeth, antlers and some fossil fragments.

In September of that year, after the tooth fossils were brought back to Beijing, Professor Hu Chengzhi of China Geological Museum studied and identified them. He believed that their basic morphology could be compared with the same kind of teeth of Peking man, more than one million years earlier than the "Peking Man" and "Lantian man" fossils found in China before. They belonged to a new subspecies of ortho race. Then they were named after Yuanmou County where the fossils were found Subspecies hominis. Yuanmou Homo erectus or Yuanmou ape man, for short, is the first early Pleistocene hominid discovered in China.

unearthed relic

With Yuanmou people

There are also 7 stone artifacts unearthed from the teeth, with clear artificial traces. The raw material is vein quartz, and the shape of the utensil is not big. Through research and identification, it belongs to Paleolithic, and its types include pointed utensil, scraper and chopper. Although they don't live on the same level as human teeth, they are roughly the same level and not far away from each other. They should be made and used by Yuanmou people.

Most of the carbon chips are found in clay and silty clay, and a small amount in gravel convex mirror. The carbon chips are roughly divided into three layers, each with a spacing of 30-50 cm. Charcoal is often associated with mammalian fossils. The diameter of the largest carbon chip can reach 15 mm, and that of the small one is about 1 mm. On the plane of 4cm × 3cm, there are 16 carbon chips more than 1mm.

In addition, two black bones were found, which may have been burned. Researchers believe that these are traces of human use of fire at that time. If this discovery, together with the bone burning found in the Xihoudu culture about 1.8 million years ago, is indeed evidence of man-made use of fire, it will greatly advance the history of human use of fire. In addition, some animal bones with obvious artificial traces were found in the site, indicating that they could make bone vessels and simple tools at that time.

It shows that Yuanmou people not only use their own tools to engage in hunting and gathering activities, but also learn to use fire to roast their prey. They began to get rid of the era of drinking blood.

Excavation determination

In 1973, Institute of Vertebrate Paleontology and Paleoanthropology, Chinese Academy of Sciences, Yunnan Provincial Museum and Yuanmou County Cultural Center jointly excavated the Yuanmou Man Site. Six stone tools were unearthed in the strata, and a large amount of carbon chips were distributed in three layers, which indicated that Yuanmou people could not only make tools, but also could not rule out the possibility of using fire. In 1976, Li Pu and others from the Institute of geomechanics, Chinese Academy of Sciences determined that the age of Yuanmou people was 1.7 million years ago. Later, the Institute of Geology and Guiyang Institute of geochemistry collected paleomagnetic samples of Yuanmou formation respectively, and obtained basically the same results.

After 1984, the Institute of geomechanics, Yunnan Institute of Geosciences, Guiyang Institute of Geochemistry and other units took samples and determined them respectively. The era of "Yuanmou people" is still 1.7 million years.

In 1998, Huang Peihua and others from University of science and technology of China determined that the age of "Yuanmou people" was 1.6 million years ago by electronic self string coseismic method, which proved once again the antiquity of the age of "Yuanmou people". Today, although there are still opinions that the era of Yuanmou Man is the Middle Pleistocene, the view that the era of yuanmu man belongs to the early Pleistocene, which is 1.7 million years ago, has been generally accepted by the academic circles.

Fossil studies

The teeth of Yuanmou people

The teeth of "Yuanmou people" are the left and right upper medial incisors of the same young man, with crown lengths of 11.4 mm and 11.5 mm, widths of 8.1 mm and 8.6 mm, respectively, and heights of 11.2 mm and 11.1 mM, though reduced by wear. Yuanmou Man belongs to early Homo erectus. It is characterized by thick teeth with a crown expansion index of 141.9; the labial surface of the crown is flat except for the part close to the neck line, with obvious Tom's line, labial groove and shallow concave surface; the basal tubercle on the lingual surface is developed, accounting for half of the lingual surface; it has a shovel like structure. The researchers believe that "Yuanmou Man" should be a new subspecies of Homo erectus, and suggest that Yuanmou County, where human fossils were found, should be named "Homo erectus Yuanmou ensin, subspecies" sp.nov )。

During the excavation of the Yuanmou Man Site, a large amount of carbon debris was found in the strata, with a length of 4-8 mm. It can be roughly divided into three layers, distributed in the upper and lower 3 meters of the boundary. Some of them are concentrated and in the shape of chicken nests. Carbon debris is often associated with mammalian fossils. There is also burnt bone in the strata (it may be burnt bone identified by Guiyang Institute of Geochemistry). Therefore, we can not rule out the possibility that "Yuanmou people" can already use fire.

In May 1965, it was discovered by the Chinese Academy of Geological Sciences near shangnabang village, Yuanmou County, Yunnan Province. It is located at the edge of Yuanmou Basin, where a set of fluvial and lacustrine deposits with a thickness of 695m are exposed. It is divided into 4 sections and 28 layers from bottom to top. The human teeth of Yuanmou are found in the 22nd layer of the 4th segment. Since then, a small amount of stone products, a large number of carbon chips and mammalian fossils have been excavated in the same horizon at the same place. The geological age of Yuanmou people is early Pleistocene. According to paleomagnetic dating, the age is 1.7 million years ago. The Yuanmou fossil consists of two upper medial incisors, one left and one right, belonging to the same adult. The tooth crown is well preserved, the tooth root tip is incomplete, there are small cracks on the surface, and the cracks are filled with brown clay. These two teeth are very thick, the lip surface is relatively flat, and the pattern of the tongue surface is very complex. They have obvious primitive properties. They are named "Homo erectus yuanmouensis", commonly known as "Yuanmou Man".

Stone products

Seven pieces of stone products have been unearthed, with clear artificial traces. The raw material is vein quartz, the shape is not big, there are stone core and scraper. Although they don't live on the same level as human teeth, they are roughly the same level and not far away from each other. They should be made and used by Yuanmou people. Most of the carbon chips are found in clay and silty clay, and a small amount in gravel convex mirror. The carbon chips are roughly divided into three layers, each with a spacing of 30-50 cm. Charcoal is often associated with mammalian fossils. The biggest carbon chip

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