Remains of Neolithic Titan discovered in S. China region
25/4/2005 11:16
Archaeologists in Guangxi Zhuang Autonomous Region, south China, have
unearthed remains of an 180- centimeter-tall man from a tomb dating back more
than 6,000 years.
"Such a tall man was seen rarely in south China in ancient
times," said Huang Xin, head of the Cultural Relics Management Institute of
Youjiang District, Baise City. Huang is one of the archaeologists who took part
in the recent excavation at the Neolithic site in Gongyuan Village, Yangxu Town
of Baise City.
Huang said they were amazed to see the bones of ancient people
scattering at the site are thicker than that of modern people, and they were
even awestruck by a stone totem in the shape of penis unearthed from the
site.
Apart from remains of human beings, archaeologists also found a large
number of stone tools such as stone hammers and chisels, and remains of wildlife
like bears, monkeys and deer.
With an area of 800 sq km, the Baise Basin,
where the Neolithic site is located, lies between South China's Yunnan-Guizhou
Plateau and Southeast Asia, a crucial location in the study of the origins,
evolution and migration of ancient peoples, experts said.
Archaeologists from
the Chinese Academy of Sciences spotted stone implements in a Paleolithic site,
dating back 800,000 years, in Baise in 1973. The finding suggested that ancient
residents in Asia had the same ability to make tools as ancient Africans, thus
doing away with the "Movius line" theory, which labels East Asia as culturally
stagnant whreas western Eurasia and Africa as progressive, according to
experts.
Whether the discovery of these Neolithic graves and the remains of
an ancient very large man can lead to a conclusion that a kind of tall ancient
race that lived in the Youjiang River Valley thousands of years ago requires
further study, said Huang.
Xinhua News
|
