Chapter 14 Meet Japanese friends at the origin of Yuanmou Man fossils①

At the end of September 1980, we came to Yuanmou Basin.In previous years, the basin was already sunny at this time of year, but this year it rained a lot. The local villagers said that it rained in the Mid-Autumn Festival in August, and it will be cloudy and rainy for ten days and a half months! ① This article was written on October 12-21, 1980.Originally published in "The Theft That Shocked the World", Henan Science and Technology Publishing House, 1982. Sure enough, the change of rain and sunshine is unpredictable. On a clear day, suddenly a large cloud of dark clouds rushed in with a curtain of rain. There was no place to hide on the mountain, and the torrential rain drenched us thoroughly.Soon after the rain, the sky cleared up, a rainbow hung high in the blue sky, and the scorching sun made people's skin ache again.We are looking for traces of ancient human activities along the gullies in this sunny and rainy weather.

While we were making an intense investigation in the Yuanmou Basin, Li Shiyi, a reporter from the Yunnan Branch of the Xinhua News Agency, telegraphed that a friend from the Science Department of Japan’s Kyodo News Agency came to visit the origin of the Yuanmou Man fossils and hoped to meet us.Since the tooth fossils and cultural relics of Yuanmou Man were found in 1965 and 1973 respectively, the Yuanmou Basin has attracted the attention of academic circles at home and abroad. Han Fei was a thinker at the end of the Warring States Period and a representative of Legalism.In terms of philosophy, many foreign academic institutions and experts have asked to visit here. We are very happy to receive friends from our friendly neighbor Japan in Yuanmou.

Led by Mr. Tanabe Jun, a reporter from the Ministry of Science, the group of three arrived in Yuanmou at around 5:00 p.m. on October 1, accompanied by translator Lao Jiang from Xinhua News Agency, reporter Li Shiyi, and Yunnan Provincial Museum Zhang Xingyong.We had a pleasant meeting with Japanese friends that night. At the dinner, the guests and hosts frequently toasted to celebrate my country's National Day and the friendship between the Chinese and Japanese peoples.When Japanese friends learned that they were the first batch of foreign guests to come to the Yuanmou fossil production area, they were very proud. When talking about the grand occasion of the "Peking People" exhibition held in Japan recently, the academic circles also talked about the "roots" of Japanese people. During the heated discussion, we pointed out that this "root" can be traced not only to the "Peking Man", but also to Yuanmou Man. This is because although the fossils of Yuanmou Man are only two upper middle incisors, its The shovel-shaped structure of the tongue and surface reflects the important characteristics of the modern yellow race including Chinese and Japanese, and the Yuanmou people to the modern yellow race are descended in one continuous line.The Japanese friends were very excited after hearing this. Mr. Jun Tanabe raised his glass to toast excitedly, and said happily: "Unexpectedly, we came to the hometown of the Japanese!"

During the dinner, the guests and hosts talked and laughed happily, and the atmosphere was extremely warm.The Japanese friends also specifically asked about how to realize the four modernizations in Yuanmou County, and put forward many useful suggestions, which fully reflected the Japanese friends' concern for my country's realization of the four modernizations and the profound friendship between the Chinese and Japanese peoples. In the early morning of October 2, the sky was overcast, and there were occasional raindrops; we took two jeeps to the Yuanmou Man fossil production site, and after leaving the city, we traveled southward for 5 kilometers. , turn into the fork and head towards Xiaonawu Village.Since the river swelled after the rain and the road was too muddy, we abandoned the car and walked.After the rain, the air is clean and transparent, and the distant Dongshan Mountain seems to be in front of you, but in fact it is still 3 kilometers away!

We stopped and looked into the distance. Dongshan Mountain was green and green. There was a highland in front of the mountain. Two tall Yanhao trees stood on the slope. A small off-white cement monument, the fossil origin is behind it.The photographer didn't miss the opportunity, turned on the camera and started shooting. We trudged through the mud, passed Xiao Nawu Village, and arrived at Da Nawu Village. The villagers in the village came out to welcome guests from afar.After spending more than an hour, we finally boarded the highland in front of the mountain, which is the "big bag" of red weathering shell.After passing by the two big trees, we came to Dabaobaoding, and the red characters "Yuanmou Man Site" on the cement tablet came into view, and we arrived at the origin of Yuanmou Man fossils.The dark clouds slowly dissipated and the sky became brighter. As soon as the Japanese friends arrived at the production site, they put down their backpacks and began to work nervously.

Tanabe Jun and reporter Matsumoto Shou asked us to understand the situation one by one, while the photographer was busy taking all the interesting things into the shot.Lao Zhang from the museum introduced in detail to Japanese friends the discovery of Yuanmou Man fossils and the investigation and excavation over the years, and also introduced the formation process of the mountains and rivers in the Yuanmou Basin.He also mentioned that not only the fossils of Yuanmou Man were found here, but also the remains of the earliest ice age in China - the "Longchuan Ice Age" more than 3 million years ago.The Japanese friends listened with relish and took notes. In the winter of 1977, theism recognized the existence of supernatural gods, advocating that God is the creator of the world, and had pushed down the hills where the Yuanmou man’s tooth fossils were produced. Where was the human tooth fossil that caused a sensation in the world at that time?

"Hey! Everyone, come and see the fossils!" Lao Li found many fragments of animal fossils high on the nearby hilltops. They were exposed by the rain, which aroused great interest from Japanese friends, so I tried it once. Small excavations".Judging from the broken teeth, it turned out to be rhinoceros bone fossils.As long as you look carefully on the ground, you can find fragments of animal fossils at any time, which left a deep impression on Japanese friends. We stood at the foot of Dongshan Mountain, overlooking the entire basin, and introduced the situation to our Japanese friends.The remains of ancient human activities in the Yuanmou Basin are very rich. In addition to Yuanmou people, cultural relics from the late Paleolithic age, fine stone implements from the Mesolithic age (this is also the first discovery in Yunnan), and more than 3,000 years ago The Neolithic site - Dadunzi site, here is indeed a microcosm of the development of primitive society!Japanese friends are very concerned about our investigation activities in the Yuanmou Basin, and asked us what is the purpose of our frequent visits to Yuanmou Basin. We said, to find more fossils of Yuanmou people and their cultural relics, and to find those earlier and older than their time. The human fossils and cultural relics of their later ages are for the purpose of enriching and enriching the miniature of the history of ancient human development in the Yuanmou Basin—this is the goal we are striving for in the Yuanmou Basin.Japanese friends sincerely wish us success.

When we finished the on-site visit and returned to the cement monument to take a group photo, it was cloudy and cloudy, and the sky turned gloomy again. After a while, it started to rain.We braved the drizzle to return happily, and the members of the community next to the village waved us farewell one after another. In the afternoon, I was going to visit the Neolithic Site of Dadunzi, but Mr. Jun Tanabe and others were still unsatisfied with the source of Yuanmou Man fossils visited in the morning - which is also the "hometown of the Japanese". Further discussion.We are also very happy about this.

At 2:30, we gathered in the reception room and first invited them to view the cultural relics collected by the Yuanmou County Cultural Center, mammal fossils and stone tools made and used by Yuanmou people that we discovered in the Yuanmou Basin in the past two days.They picked up an oval-shaped specimen and asked us in bewilderment what it was?When they learned that it was the coprolites of carnivorous animals, they couldn't help laughing. They were particularly interested in the stone tools of Yuanmou people, especially the charcoal excavated from the strata. From charcoal scraps to the use of artificial fire, do people in Yuanmou know how to use fire?Japanese friends are very concerned, so we have made a detailed introduction to the debates about Yuanmou people.

Since the discovery of two human tooth fossils in 1965, and the discovery of stone tools and charcoal in 1973, three issues surrounding Yuanmou Man and its culture have been controversial in the academic circles.One is who is the owner of the fossilized teeth?Is it really the tooth of Homo erectus?Or a brown ape?Australopithecus?Or late human?Secondly, is it too early for Yuanmou people to live?Did they really live in the Early Pleistocene 1 million years ago, or was it just the Middle Pleistocene, which was the same age as Peking Man?Another problem is the use of fire.After years of in-depth research and analysis, it has been proved that Yuanmou Man is the representative of the early type of Homo erectus living 1.7 million years ago, and is the most primitive human known in China. The Peking Man period 500,000 years ago was advanced by 1.2 million years.As for the question of whether the Yuanmou people knew how to use fire, when excavating the fossil origin of Yuanmou people, a large amount of charcoal was found in the stratum, and sporadic burnt bones were found later. This is an objective fact, and there are only two possible explanations: fire, or remains of man-made fire.We tend to be more likely to use artificial fire.

"Why?" Japanese friends really want to know what happened, because this is also a concern of the Japanese archaeological community. This is because charcoal chips and burnt bones are associated with human fossils and stone tools.Judging from other ancient sites, charcoal chips or burnt bones almost all appear in sites with human fossils or cultural relics, and almost no charcoal chips or burnt bones have been found in sites with only animal fossils.The charcoal in the fossil layer of Yuanmou Man is dense, but the distribution area is very limited. If it is a natural fire, it should be widely distributed.Some people think that the "Peking Man" is the most conclusive use of fire. We have no objection to this, but the Peking Man is not the earliest fire user, because in the Peking Man ruins, the thickest layer of ashes found can reach more than 6 meters. It shows that the people of Beijing already know how to manage fire, and the technology of using fire is quite sophisticated, and there must be earlier people using fire before him.The Xihoudu site in Shanxi is roughly similar to the age of the Yuanmou people. In addition to stone tools, many burnt bones were also found. The famous archaeologist Professor Jia Lanpo strongly advocated that the Xihoudu people knew how to use fire.It is very likely that the use of fire at this stage is quite common, especially modern research has shown that the history of human beings can last for more than 3 million years. After the birth of human beings, after more than 1 million years of exploration and exploration, it is not impossible to reach the stage of using fire. .Someone suggested that several conditions must be met for the use of artificial fire, which is also reasonable, but it must be noted that due to the different burial conditions, it is difficult to use several conditions to fit the frame.The Yuanmou Man Site, Xihoudu Site, and Lantian Man Site are all soil-like accumulations, lacking the good burial conditions for cave accumulation like the Peking Man.In addition, the nature of the ruins is different. Some are residential ruins, and some are just buried with relics by accident, so it is difficult to measure it with several artificial conditions.In short, analyzing the specific situation, at present, we feel that using artificial fire can better explain the problem of charcoal and burnt bones in the fossil layer of Yuanmou Man than using natural fire. After listening to our explanation, Mr. Jun Tanabe felt that it was not unreasonable, and thought that an international conference could be held on this issue.However, we consider that the current conditions are not yet mature, because, no matter how you say it, the evidence of fire use by the Yuanmou people and the Xihoudu site is still too weak, and in-depth work needs to be done.Finding more evidence of fire use is one aspect. In addition, some experiments and field observations must be done, such as going to modern forest fire sites to investigate the distribution of burned animal remains, charcoal and ashes, etc., so that it is "possible" The assumptions that have been made have become facts with solid scientific evidence, and it will be more meaningful to hold an international conference at that time.Japanese friends agreed after hearing this. When Japanese friends learned that we are editing a special issue of "Yuanmou People", which is a comprehensive graphic special issue focusing on Yuanmou people, introducing ancient humans, ancient culture, paleontology, geology and stratigraphy in the Yuanmou Basin, they were very happy , hoping to send them samples as soon as possible after publication.Mr. Tanabe Jun said that they will introduce this special issue to readers in Japan, because Yuanmou is also "the hometown of Japanese people", for which we express our heartfelt thanks. How time flies!The lively discussion has been going on for more than 4 hours without knowing it, and it is already time for dinner.At the dinner table, we were still discussing, discussing... There is an ancient Chinese saying: "A thousand cups of wine is less than a bosom friend." We are academic bosom friends, and a thousand words can't say enough. I wish the friendship between the Chinese and Japanese people will last forever!