Tianyuan Cave (China)

The archaeological site known as Tianyuan Cave (or Tianyuandong) is located in the Tianyuan Tree Farm of Fangshan County, China, and only about six kilometers southwest of the famous site of Zhoukoudian. The site was discovered by workers at the farm in 2001 and subsequently excavated by a team led by Haowong Tong and Hong Shang of the Chinese Academy of Sciences.

The cave includes a total of four layers, only one of which--Layer III--contained human bone. Although the context was somewhat disturbed by the workmen, the excavations discovered additional human bone in context, human bone representing Early Modern Human and dated by radiocarbon dates to between 42,000 and 39,000 calibrated years before the present, making Tianyuan Cave one of the oldest Early Modern Human sites in eastern Eurasia, and in fact, one of the earliest outside of Africa during the second migration.

Human Bone at Tianyuan Cave

Thirty-four human bones were discovered from the cave, probably from a single individual of about 40-50 years of age, including a jaw bone, fingers and toes, both leg bones (femur and tibia), both scapulae, and both arm bones (both humeri, one ulna). No skull was recovered; and neither were any cultural artifacts, such as stone tools. The skeletal material has most physical affiliations with EMH, although there are some features that are similar to Neandertals or midway between EMH and Neandertals.

Other bone in the cave included deer, monkey, civet cat and porcupine; a similar faunal assemblage as that found at the Upper Cave at Zhoukoudian. The importance of Tianyuan Cave is that it is the second well-documented early modern human site in eastern Eurasia (Niah Cave 1 in Sarawak is the first), and its early date is parallel to the earliest EMH sites outside of Africa such as Pestera cu Oase, Romania and older than many such as Mladec. The resemblance of the bones to both EMH and Neandertals will undoubtedly be debated, particularly as they relate to the Multi-Regional vs Out-of-Africa hypotheses debate.

Sources

Shang, Hong, Hawoen Tong, Shuangquan Zhang, Fuyou Chen, and Erik Trinkaus. 2007. An early modern human from Tianyuan Cave, Zhoukoudian, China. Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences in press as of this writing (April 2007).

Rougier Helene et al. 2007. Pestera cu Oase 2 and the cranial morphology of early modern Europeans. Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences 104: 1165-1170.

New discovery at Zhoukoudian Site, report of July 2003 on the Tianyuan Cave discovery, in English-language China Page.