A miniature bird sculpted out of burnt bone in China about 13,500 years ago is the oldest known figurine from East Asia, researchers who discovered it in a refuse heap near an archeological site said.
The carefully crafted depiction of a songbird on a pedestal — smaller than an almond kernel — was found among burnt animal remains and fragments of ceramics at Lingjing in north ce ntral Henan Province, an area thought to have been home to some of China’s earliest civilizations.
The figurine is the “oldest known carving from East Asia,” said Francesco D’Errico of the University of Bordeaux, who coauthored the research published in the journal PLOS One on Wednesday.
Photo: AFP / CNRS / University of Bergen / Francesco D‘E’rrico / L. Doyon
“It shows that in this region sculpture starts at least 13,500 years ago and fills in a gap in our knowledge about the origin of art in this vast region,” he said.
The tiny carving was discovered by lead author Li Zhanyang (李占陽) of Shandong University, who has been excavating parts of the Lingjing site since 2005. Digging in the area had already revealed 11 distinct layers, ranging in age from 120,000 years ago to the Bronze Age.
Most of the fifth layer had been removed during a well-digging operation in 1958 and disposed of at a refuse heap nearby.
Photo: AFP / CNRS / University of Bergen / Francesco D‘E’rrico / L. Doyon
That dumping area was still intact years later, and when the authors sifted through the soil they found several artifacts, including pottery shards, burned animal remains and the bird figurine.
The carving is just 19.2mm long, 5.1mm wide and 12.5mm high.
Researchers were unable to use radiocarbon dating on the bird itself because the process would have damaged it, but they dated similar bones found with it, including one gouged using the same technique.
In this way they estimated the age of the bird figurine to be 13,500 years, which they said predates previously known figurines from this region by almost 8,500 years.
D’Errico said the bird was “exceptionally” well preserved, enabling researchers to trace the various carving methods used to create different parts of the figure, including gouging with a stone tool, scraping and polishing.
“Our observations show that the artist knew well which technique was the more adapted to carve the different parts of the animal,” he said.
“What is also remarkable is that the carving is not a fully realistic representation of a bird,” he said.
The figurine has an oversized tail, allowing it to balance on its pedestal.
“Without this trick the bird would fall on its head,” D’Errico said, adding that this shows the carving is not just a “casual experiment.”
The authors said that the craftsmanship suggests the advanced stage of an artistic tradition, which began much earlier.
In recent years, cave paintings in the Indonesian islands of Borneo and Sulawesi have been dated as more than 40,000 years old, suggesting ancient societies with advanced artistic cultures in the region.
While 3D portable art has been documented in Europe dating back about 40,000 years, the researchers said the Lingjing bird was the oldest such example found in East Asia.
Palaeolithic hunter-gatherers in China are known to have manufactured bone tools, such as spear points and needles, as well as personal ornaments made of shells, ostrich eggs and animal teeth, D’Errico said.
“The carving of objects with no apparent functional purpose, requiring a dedicated apprenticeship to be made, opens a new window on these societies,” he added.
‘UNUSUAL EVENT’: The Australian defense minister said that the Chinese navy task group was entitled to be where it was, but Australia would be watching it closely The Australian and New Zealand militaries were monitoring three Chinese warships moving unusually far south along Australia’s east coast on an unknown mission, officials said yesterday. The Australian government a week ago said that the warships had traveled through Southeast Asia and the Coral Sea, and were approaching northeast Australia. Australian Minister for Defence Richard Marles yesterday said that the Chinese ships — the Hengyang naval frigate, the Zunyi cruiser and the Weishanhu replenishment vessel — were “off the east coast of Australia.” Defense officials did not respond to a request for comment on a Financial Times report that the task group from
Asian perspectives of the US have shifted from a country once perceived as a force of “moral legitimacy” to something akin to “a landlord seeking rent,” Singaporean Minister for Defence Ng Eng Hen (黃永宏) said on the sidelines of an international security meeting. Ng said in a round-table discussion at the Munich Security Conference in Germany that assumptions undertaken in the years after the end of World War II have fundamentally changed. One example is that from the time of former US president John F. Kennedy’s inaugural address more than 60 years ago, the image of the US was of a country
BLIND COST CUTTING: A DOGE push to lay off 2,000 energy department workers resulted in hundreds of staff at a nuclear security agency being fired — then ‘unfired’ US President Donald Trump’s administration has halted the firings of hundreds of federal employees who were tasked with working on the nation’s nuclear weapons programs, in an about-face that has left workers confused and experts cautioning that the Department of Government Efficiency’s (DOGE’s) blind cost cutting would put communities at risk. Three US officials who spoke to The Associated Press said up to 350 employees at the National Nuclear Security Administration (NNSA) were abruptly laid off late on Thursday, with some losing access to e-mail before they’d learned they were fired, only to try to enter their offices on Friday morning
CONFIDENT ON DEAL: ‘Ukraine wants a seat at the table, but wouldn’t the people of Ukraine have a say? It’s been a long time since an election, the US president said US President Donald Trump on Tuesday criticized Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskiy and added that he was more confident of a deal to end the war after US-Russia talks. Trump increased pressure on Zelenskiy to hold elections and chided him for complaining about being frozen out of talks in Saudi Arabia. The US president also suggested that he could meet Russian President Vladimir Putin before the end of the month as Washington overhauls its stance toward Russia. “I’m very disappointed, I hear that they’re upset about not having a seat,” Trump told reporters at his Mar-a-Lago resort in Florida when asked about the Ukrainian
RSS