A tiny 13,300-year-old bone carving of bird unearthed at a rubbish tip has been hailed as ‘China‘s oldest work of art’ by an international team of scientists.
The small bird carving, recovered from Lingjing, in Henan, China, is the oldest instance of East Asian three-dimensional art ever discovered.
The ‘exceptionally preserved’ statuette, made of bone blackened by heating, is also the only known Palaeolithic sculpture representing an animal standing on a pedestal.
Researchers believe it dates to around 13,000 years ago, which pushes back the origins of animal sculpture in East Asia by more than 8,500 years.
The small standing bird carving from the Paleolithic site sheds further light on humanity’s earliest 3D art, they claim.
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The stylistic and technical particularities of the figurine – it is the only known Palaeolithic sculpture representing an animal standing on a pedestal – point to an original artistic tradition. Top set of images are photographs of the sculpture from different angles, while bottom shows 3D renderings of the carving obtained through a computed tomography (CT) scan
‘This discovery identifies an original artistic tradition and pushes back by more than 8,500 years the representation of birds in Chinese art,’ said Professor Zhanyang Li from Shandong University in China, who led the study.
‘The figurine differs technologically and stylistically from other specimens found in Western Europe and Siberia, and it could be the missing link tracing the origin of Chinese statuary back to the Palaeolithic period.’
European animal and human mammoth ivory carvings dated to 40,000 to 38,000 years ago are our earliest examples of prehistoric humans creating art in 3D form.
However, due to a lack of evidence, it’s unclear when this type of three-dimensional representation became part of the ‘cultural repertoire’ globally.
This particular sculpture was found in a refuse heap from a 1958 well-digging operation that was left untouched for decades.
When researchers were investigating the site around half a century later in 2005, they noticed one layer of soil had been dug up to create a well, but the nearby pile of dirt had not been disturbed.
After sifting through it, they uncovered several artefacts, including pottery sherds, burned animal remains and the bird figurine.
Tracings of the six angles of the bird with the technique used to manufacture each area – Ab: abrading; Go: gouging, Ib: Incising with a burin, a handheld steel tool; In: incising; Po: polishing; Sc: scraping
Using radiocarbon dating on the uncovered burned animal remains – including one bone with human-made gouging marks – the authors were able to estimate the age of the figurine and bone material to be around 13,000 to 13,400 years old.
Based on evidence from other Northern Chinese sites of similar age, the carving suggests hunter-gatherers with primitive stone tools occupied Lingjing during this time.
Researchers also mapped the entire surface of the bird with the various methods used in its manufacture – including abrading, gouging, polishing and incising with a burin, a handheld steel tool.
The sculpture – which is 0.5 inches in height and 0.2 inches in width – is 8,500 years older than the previous record-holder – a jade songbird dated to approximately 5,000 years ago.
It also has several stylistic elements that distinguish it from representations of birdlike creatures from Western Europe and Siberia during the same period – such as the pedestal on which the Lingjing bird is perched.
Manufacturing techniques applied to the bird. A) Traces of gouging followed by scraping on the bird back. B) Traces of gouging on the bird. C) Large notch produced by multiple vigorous gouging motions to shape the pedestal. Scale is 1mm or 0.039 inches. D) Gentle gouging applied to carve the head. Scale 2mm or 0.07 inches. E) Superficial gouging applied to the left side of the figurine. Scale is 1mm or 0.039 inches. A and B are 3D renderings obtained with a confocal microscope while the rest are black and white micrographs
Researchers are certain that the carving is that of a bird, despite its apparent lack of wings.
‘The fact that the wings are not carved does not represent an obstacle to identifying the carving as a representation of a bird,’ they said.
They suggest that the absence of wings may be due to limitations from the thickness of the bone and limited tools available to the artist.
The Lingjing bird suggests the presence of a longstanding artistic tradition specific to East Asia, with origins much earlier in the Paleolithic, although more examples of Paleolithic carving art are needed to confirm this theory, the research team said.
The Aurignacian archaeological tradition, native to the Swabian Jura mountain range in Germany, are home to the earliest known statuettes, made of mammoth ivory and including a flying waterfoul.
The Lingjing bird has been detailed further in the team’s research paper, published in PLOS ONE.