Earliest parietal art: hominin hand and foot traces from the middle Pleistocene of Tibet

David D. Zhang; Matthew R. Bennett; Hai Cheng; Leibin Wang; Haiwei Zhang; Sally C. Reynolds; Shengda Zhang; Xiaoqing Wang; Teng Li; Tommy Urban; Qing Pei; Zhifeng Wu; Pu Zhang; Chunru Liu; Yafeng Wang; Cong Wang; Dongju Zhang; R. Lawrence Edwards

doi:10.1016/j.scib.2021.09.001

Earliest parietal art: hominin hand and foot traces from the middle Pleistocene of Tibet

David D. Zhang, Matthew R. Bennett, Hai Cheng, Leibin Wang, Haiwei Zhang, Sally C. Reynolds, Shengda Zhang, Xiaoqing Wang, Teng Li, Tommy Urban, Qing Pei, Zhifeng Wu, Pu Zhang, Chunru Liu, Yafeng Wang, Cong Wang, Dongju Zhang, R. Lawrence Edwards

Research output: Contribution to journal › Article › peer-review

31 Scopus citations

Abstract

At Quesang on the Tibetan Plateau we report a series of hand and foot impressions that appear to have been intentionally placed on the surface of a unit of soft travertine. The travertine was deposited by water from a hot spring which is now inactive and as the travertine lithified it preserved the traces. On the basis of the sizes of the hand and foot traces, we suggest that two track-makers were involved and were likely children. We interpret this event as a deliberate artistic act that created a work of parietal art. The travertine unit on which the traces were imprinted dates to between ∼169 and 226 ka BP. This would make the site the earliest currently known example of parietal art in the world and would also provide the earliest evidence discovered to date for hominins on the High Tibetan Plateau (above 4000 m a.s.l.). This remarkable discovery adds to the body of research that identifies children as some of the earliest artists within the genus Homo.

Original language	English (US)
Pages (from-to)	2506-2515
Number of pages	10
Journal	Science Bulletin
Volume	66
Issue number	24
DOIs	https://doi.org/10.1016/j.scib.2021.09.001
State	Published - Dec 30 2021
Externally published	Yes

Bibliographical note

Funding Information:
This work was supported by the National Natural Science Foundation of China (41971110 and 41888101), the Second Tibetan Plateau Scientific Expedition and Research Program (2019QZKK0601), and the Early Career Scheme of Research Grants Council of Hong Kong (28300717). We thank: the laboratories in Xi'an Jiaotong University, University of Hong Kong and Institute of Geology of China Earthquake Administration in measuring and testing samples; logistic help from the Tibetan local governments and the Institute of Tibetan Plateau Research (ITP) of Chinese Academy of Sciences (CAS); and UK Natural Environment Research Council (NERC) who previously supported the work by Matthew R. Bennett and the development of DigTrace used here. Matthew R. Bennett would also like to thank Jeff Pigati of the United States Geological Survey (USGS) for help in customizing OxCal code for use with U/Th dates. Jeff Pigati, Kathleen Springer, and Dan Odess provided insightful reviews of the manuscript. We are also grateful for valuable comments and sample test from Fahu Chen (ITP, CAS), Sheng-Hua Li and Junjie Zhang (the University of Hong Kong), Mandy Zhang (University of the West, USA), Ming Tan (the Institute of Geology and Geophysics, CAS) and Guanghui Dong (Lanzhou University). Both Yundan (the Bureau of Cultural Heritage, Doilungd?q?n District of Lhasa) and Xiaoyan Yang and Caidong (ITP, CAS), helped at the site. David D. Zhang, Matthew R. Bennett, and Hai Cheng conceptualized and designed the study. David D. Zhang, Leibin Wang, Xiaoqing Wang, Yafeng Wang, Shengda Zhang and Dongju Zhang discovered the imprints and collected field data. Matthew R. Bennett, Sally C. Reynolds, Qing Pei, Cong Wang, and David D. Zhang performed the morphological analyses of the imprints. David D. Zhang, Leibin Wang, Xiaoqing Wang, Hai Cheng, Haiwei Zhang, Chunru Liu, Zhifeng Wu, and Teng Li carried out sampling and subsampling. Hai Cheng, Haiwei Zhang, R. Lawrence Edwards and Pu Zhang, conducted U?Th dating and methods. Matthew R. Bennett completed the visualization. Matthew R. Bennett, Tommy Urban, and David D. Zhang wrote the original draft. Matthew R. Bennett, David D. Zhang, Sally C. Reynolds and Dongju Zhang reviewed and revised the manuscript.

Funding Information:
This work was supported by the National Natural Science Foundation of China ( 41971110 and 41888101 ), the Second Tibetan Plateau Scientific Expedition and Research Program ( 2019QZKK0601 ), and the Early Career Scheme of Research Grants Council of Hong Kong ( 28300717 ). We thank: the laboratories in Xi’an Jiaotong University, University of Hong Kong and Institute of Geology of China Earthquake Administration in measuring and testing samples; logistic help from the Tibetan local governments and the Institute of Tibetan Plateau Research (ITP) of Chinese Academy of Sciences (CAS); and UK Natural Environment Research Council (NERC) who previously supported the work by Matthew R. Bennett and the development of DigTrace used here. Matthew R. Bennett would also like to thank Jeff Pigati of the United States Geological Survey (USGS) for help in customizing OxCal code for use with U/Th dates. Jeff Pigati, Kathleen Springer, and Dan Odess provided insightful reviews of the manuscript. We are also grateful for valuable comments and sample test from Fahu Chen (ITP, CAS), Sheng-Hua Li and Junjie Zhang (the University of Hong Kong), Mandy Zhang (University of the West, USA), Ming Tan (the Institute of Geology and Geophysics, CAS) and Guanghui Dong (Lanzhou University). Both Yundan (the Bureau of Cultural Heritage, Doilungdêqên District of Lhasa) and Xiaoyan Yang and Caidong (ITP, CAS), helped at the site.

Publisher Copyright:
© 2021 Science China Press

Keywords

Hominin
Ichnology
Parietal art
Tibet

Publisher link

10.1016/j.scib.2021.09.001

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Cite this

Zhang, D. D., Bennett, M. R., Cheng, H., Wang, L., Zhang, H., Reynolds, S. C., Zhang, S., Wang, X., Li, T., Urban, T., Pei, Q., Wu, Z., Zhang, P., Liu, C., Wang, Y., Wang, C., Zhang, D., & Lawrence Edwards, R. (2021). Earliest parietal art: hominin hand and foot traces from the middle Pleistocene of Tibet. Science Bulletin, 66(24), 2506-2515. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.scib.2021.09.001

Zhang, DD, Bennett, MR, Cheng, H, Wang, L, Zhang, H, Reynolds, SC, Zhang, S, Wang, X, Li, T, Urban, T, Pei, Q, Wu, Z, Zhang, P, Liu, C, Wang, Y, Wang, C, Zhang, D & Lawrence Edwards, R 2021, 'Earliest parietal art: hominin hand and foot traces from the middle Pleistocene of Tibet', Science Bulletin, vol. 66, no. 24, pp. 2506-2515. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.scib.2021.09.001

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title = "Earliest parietal art: hominin hand and foot traces from the middle Pleistocene of Tibet",

abstract = "At Quesang on the Tibetan Plateau we report a series of hand and foot impressions that appear to have been intentionally placed on the surface of a unit of soft travertine. The travertine was deposited by water from a hot spring which is now inactive and as the travertine lithified it preserved the traces. On the basis of the sizes of the hand and foot traces, we suggest that two track-makers were involved and were likely children. We interpret this event as a deliberate artistic act that created a work of parietal art. The travertine unit on which the traces were imprinted dates to between ∼169 and 226 ka BP. This would make the site the earliest currently known example of parietal art in the world and would also provide the earliest evidence discovered to date for hominins on the High Tibetan Plateau (above 4000 m a.s.l.). This remarkable discovery adds to the body of research that identifies children as some of the earliest artists within the genus Homo.",

keywords = "Hominin, Ichnology, Parietal art, Tibet",

author = "Zhang, {David D.} and Bennett, {Matthew R.} and Hai Cheng and Leibin Wang and Haiwei Zhang and Reynolds, {Sally C.} and Shengda Zhang and Xiaoqing Wang and Teng Li and Tommy Urban and Qing Pei and Zhifeng Wu and Pu Zhang and Chunru Liu and Yafeng Wang and Cong Wang and Dongju Zhang and {Lawrence Edwards}, R.",

note = "Funding Information: This work was supported by the National Natural Science Foundation of China (41971110 and 41888101), the Second Tibetan Plateau Scientific Expedition and Research Program (2019QZKK0601), and the Early Career Scheme of Research Grants Council of Hong Kong (28300717). We thank: the laboratories in Xi'an Jiaotong University, University of Hong Kong and Institute of Geology of China Earthquake Administration in measuring and testing samples; logistic help from the Tibetan local governments and the Institute of Tibetan Plateau Research (ITP) of Chinese Academy of Sciences (CAS); and UK Natural Environment Research Council (NERC) who previously supported the work by Matthew R. Bennett and the development of DigTrace used here. Matthew R. Bennett would also like to thank Jeff Pigati of the United States Geological Survey (USGS) for help in customizing OxCal code for use with U/Th dates. Jeff Pigati, Kathleen Springer, and Dan Odess provided insightful reviews of the manuscript. We are also grateful for valuable comments and sample test from Fahu Chen (ITP, CAS), Sheng-Hua Li and Junjie Zhang (the University of Hong Kong), Mandy Zhang (University of the West, USA), Ming Tan (the Institute of Geology and Geophysics, CAS) and Guanghui Dong (Lanzhou University). Both Yundan (the Bureau of Cultural Heritage, Doilungd?q?n District of Lhasa) and Xiaoyan Yang and Caidong (ITP, CAS), helped at the site. David D. Zhang, Matthew R. Bennett, and Hai Cheng conceptualized and designed the study. David D. Zhang, Leibin Wang, Xiaoqing Wang, Yafeng Wang, Shengda Zhang and Dongju Zhang discovered the imprints and collected field data. Matthew R. Bennett, Sally C. Reynolds, Qing Pei, Cong Wang, and David D. Zhang performed the morphological analyses of the imprints. David D. Zhang, Leibin Wang, Xiaoqing Wang, Hai Cheng, Haiwei Zhang, Chunru Liu, Zhifeng Wu, and Teng Li carried out sampling and subsampling. Hai Cheng, Haiwei Zhang, R. Lawrence Edwards and Pu Zhang, conducted U?Th dating and methods. Matthew R. Bennett completed the visualization. Matthew R. Bennett, Tommy Urban, and David D. Zhang wrote the original draft. Matthew R. Bennett, David D. Zhang, Sally C. Reynolds and Dongju Zhang reviewed and revised the manuscript. Funding Information: This work was supported by the National Natural Science Foundation of China ( 41971110 and 41888101 ), the Second Tibetan Plateau Scientific Expedition and Research Program ( 2019QZKK0601 ), and the Early Career Scheme of Research Grants Council of Hong Kong ( 28300717 ). We thank: the laboratories in Xi{\textquoteright}an Jiaotong University, University of Hong Kong and Institute of Geology of China Earthquake Administration in measuring and testing samples; logistic help from the Tibetan local governments and the Institute of Tibetan Plateau Research (ITP) of Chinese Academy of Sciences (CAS); and UK Natural Environment Research Council (NERC) who previously supported the work by Matthew R. Bennett and the development of DigTrace used here. Matthew R. Bennett would also like to thank Jeff Pigati of the United States Geological Survey (USGS) for help in customizing OxCal code for use with U/Th dates. Jeff Pigati, Kathleen Springer, and Dan Odess provided insightful reviews of the manuscript. We are also grateful for valuable comments and sample test from Fahu Chen (ITP, CAS), Sheng-Hua Li and Junjie Zhang (the University of Hong Kong), Mandy Zhang (University of the West, USA), Ming Tan (the Institute of Geology and Geophysics, CAS) and Guanghui Dong (Lanzhou University). Both Yundan (the Bureau of Cultural Heritage, Doilungd{\^e}q{\^e}n District of Lhasa) and Xiaoyan Yang and Caidong (ITP, CAS), helped at the site. Publisher Copyright: {\textcopyright} 2021 Science China Press",

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doi = "10.1016/j.scib.2021.09.001",

language = "English (US)",

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T1 - Earliest parietal art

T2 - hominin hand and foot traces from the middle Pleistocene of Tibet

AU - Zhang, David D.

AU - Bennett, Matthew R.

AU - Cheng, Hai

AU - Wang, Leibin

AU - Zhang, Haiwei

AU - Reynolds, Sally C.

AU - Zhang, Shengda

AU - Wang, Xiaoqing

AU - Li, Teng

AU - Urban, Tommy

AU - Pei, Qing

AU - Wu, Zhifeng

AU - Zhang, Pu

AU - Liu, Chunru

AU - Wang, Yafeng

AU - Wang, Cong

AU - Zhang, Dongju

AU - Lawrence Edwards, R.

N1 - Funding Information: This work was supported by the National Natural Science Foundation of China (41971110 and 41888101), the Second Tibetan Plateau Scientific Expedition and Research Program (2019QZKK0601), and the Early Career Scheme of Research Grants Council of Hong Kong (28300717). We thank: the laboratories in Xi'an Jiaotong University, University of Hong Kong and Institute of Geology of China Earthquake Administration in measuring and testing samples; logistic help from the Tibetan local governments and the Institute of Tibetan Plateau Research (ITP) of Chinese Academy of Sciences (CAS); and UK Natural Environment Research Council (NERC) who previously supported the work by Matthew R. Bennett and the development of DigTrace used here. Matthew R. Bennett would also like to thank Jeff Pigati of the United States Geological Survey (USGS) for help in customizing OxCal code for use with U/Th dates. Jeff Pigati, Kathleen Springer, and Dan Odess provided insightful reviews of the manuscript. We are also grateful for valuable comments and sample test from Fahu Chen (ITP, CAS), Sheng-Hua Li and Junjie Zhang (the University of Hong Kong), Mandy Zhang (University of the West, USA), Ming Tan (the Institute of Geology and Geophysics, CAS) and Guanghui Dong (Lanzhou University). Both Yundan (the Bureau of Cultural Heritage, Doilungd?q?n District of Lhasa) and Xiaoyan Yang and Caidong (ITP, CAS), helped at the site. David D. Zhang, Matthew R. Bennett, and Hai Cheng conceptualized and designed the study. David D. Zhang, Leibin Wang, Xiaoqing Wang, Yafeng Wang, Shengda Zhang and Dongju Zhang discovered the imprints and collected field data. Matthew R. Bennett, Sally C. Reynolds, Qing Pei, Cong Wang, and David D. Zhang performed the morphological analyses of the imprints. David D. Zhang, Leibin Wang, Xiaoqing Wang, Hai Cheng, Haiwei Zhang, Chunru Liu, Zhifeng Wu, and Teng Li carried out sampling and subsampling. Hai Cheng, Haiwei Zhang, R. Lawrence Edwards and Pu Zhang, conducted U?Th dating and methods. Matthew R. Bennett completed the visualization. Matthew R. Bennett, Tommy Urban, and David D. Zhang wrote the original draft. Matthew R. Bennett, David D. Zhang, Sally C. Reynolds and Dongju Zhang reviewed and revised the manuscript. Funding Information: This work was supported by the National Natural Science Foundation of China ( 41971110 and 41888101 ), the Second Tibetan Plateau Scientific Expedition and Research Program ( 2019QZKK0601 ), and the Early Career Scheme of Research Grants Council of Hong Kong ( 28300717 ). We thank: the laboratories in Xi’an Jiaotong University, University of Hong Kong and Institute of Geology of China Earthquake Administration in measuring and testing samples; logistic help from the Tibetan local governments and the Institute of Tibetan Plateau Research (ITP) of Chinese Academy of Sciences (CAS); and UK Natural Environment Research Council (NERC) who previously supported the work by Matthew R. Bennett and the development of DigTrace used here. Matthew R. Bennett would also like to thank Jeff Pigati of the United States Geological Survey (USGS) for help in customizing OxCal code for use with U/Th dates. Jeff Pigati, Kathleen Springer, and Dan Odess provided insightful reviews of the manuscript. We are also grateful for valuable comments and sample test from Fahu Chen (ITP, CAS), Sheng-Hua Li and Junjie Zhang (the University of Hong Kong), Mandy Zhang (University of the West, USA), Ming Tan (the Institute of Geology and Geophysics, CAS) and Guanghui Dong (Lanzhou University). Both Yundan (the Bureau of Cultural Heritage, Doilungdêqên District of Lhasa) and Xiaoyan Yang and Caidong (ITP, CAS), helped at the site. Publisher Copyright: © 2021 Science China Press

PY - 2021/12/30

Y1 - 2021/12/30

N2 - At Quesang on the Tibetan Plateau we report a series of hand and foot impressions that appear to have been intentionally placed on the surface of a unit of soft travertine. The travertine was deposited by water from a hot spring which is now inactive and as the travertine lithified it preserved the traces. On the basis of the sizes of the hand and foot traces, we suggest that two track-makers were involved and were likely children. We interpret this event as a deliberate artistic act that created a work of parietal art. The travertine unit on which the traces were imprinted dates to between ∼169 and 226 ka BP. This would make the site the earliest currently known example of parietal art in the world and would also provide the earliest evidence discovered to date for hominins on the High Tibetan Plateau (above 4000 m a.s.l.). This remarkable discovery adds to the body of research that identifies children as some of the earliest artists within the genus Homo.

AB - At Quesang on the Tibetan Plateau we report a series of hand and foot impressions that appear to have been intentionally placed on the surface of a unit of soft travertine. The travertine was deposited by water from a hot spring which is now inactive and as the travertine lithified it preserved the traces. On the basis of the sizes of the hand and foot traces, we suggest that two track-makers were involved and were likely children. We interpret this event as a deliberate artistic act that created a work of parietal art. The travertine unit on which the traces were imprinted dates to between ∼169 and 226 ka BP. This would make the site the earliest currently known example of parietal art in the world and would also provide the earliest evidence discovered to date for hominins on the High Tibetan Plateau (above 4000 m a.s.l.). This remarkable discovery adds to the body of research that identifies children as some of the earliest artists within the genus Homo.

KW - Hominin

KW - Ichnology

KW - Parietal art

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ER -

Earliest parietal art: hominin hand and foot traces from the middle Pleistocene of Tibet

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