Rescuing early humans’ legacy
Paleolithic findings inside a cave complex in coastal China are shedding light in the understanding of how our species lived back then, report Wang Kaihao in Beijing and Hu Meidong in Fuzhou.
Wanshouyan, or “the rock of longevity”, has lived up to its name over the ages. And it today provides insights into the lives of early humans in coastal China.
Discoveries of tools and animal bones in the caves that pock the Wanshouyan Hills site in Sanming, Fujian province, suggest human activity dating back to about 185,000 years ago.
The remarkable find has filled in a blank among excavations of Paleolithic life (2 million years to 10,000 years ago) in the province.
The site is regarded as a momentous discovery.
But it would have been wiped out if not for guidance issued 20 years ago. And at that time, it was just in time.
In early 2000, President Xi Jinping, who was then Fujian’s acting governor, issued specific instructions for the site, saying the Wanshouyan caves’ Paleolithic relics are a precious cultural-heritage resource.
“It belongs to not only us but also our future generations,” he emphasized.
He also said that no individual or organization can destroy that which benefits society for the sake of immediate interest.
Still, it wasn’t an easy decision. From 1989 to 1999, archaeological research indicated the site might host Paleolithic objects.
“Animal bones found there were at least 10,000 years old,” Sanming Conservation Center for Cultural Heritage director Yu Shengfu recalls.
“They might show human settlement,” he thought then.
But its protection was fiercely debated by locals and Sanming Steel Group, a major State-owned steelwork that’d used the area for its quarries.
And the boom of explosives seemed imminent.
The company wasn’t hoping to mine iron ore but, rather, the area’s top-quality limestone, which is also used in steel production.
But residents of Yanqian village, where Wanshouyan is located, strongly supported keeping the caves as they were — and still are, today.
That’s not only because they were aware of its potential significance for Paleolithic discoveries. The hills also hosted the villagers’ veneration toward nature and their homeland. And the ruins of a Song Dynasty (960-1279) temple was also believed to safeguard their peace.
“Once it’s gone, it’s gone,” villager Wang Yuanlin says.
“We all wanted to protect the caves, but we didn’t know how. We made appeals from one department to another.”
Villagers handed a petition to the local government and searched the caves to find ceramic pieces from the Song Dynasty to demonstrate the site’s importance.
But these didn’t decisively persuade local decision-makers to stop expanding the quarries.
Sanming’s gross annual regional production in 1999 was 21.7 billion yuan (equal to $2.6 billion then).
Sanming Steel Group’s board chairman Li Lizhang estimated halting the quarries’ expansion in the area would reduce limestone extraction by 40 to 50 million metric tons, causing losses grossing over 2 billion yuan.
The local government maintained a responsible attitude toward the site, and a “rescue” excavation began in September 1999.
“If there were critical relics, they had to be protected,” says Yan Fengying, who was then Sanming’s deputy mayor and was in charge of cultural-heritage protection.
“But if there weren’t any, legal exploitation couldn’t be forbidden.”
An archaeological team led by Chen Ziwen, who was then a researcher at Fujian Museum, had to race against time.
The steelworks sponsored the excavation. But the agreement was valid for a month.
Whether or not the hills and caverns would be destroyed by detonations depended on whether or not a crucial discovery could be found in time. If any were there at all, that is.
Chen worked frantically, in vain — until he encountered a man-made floor.
“It must be from the Paleolithic period,” he thought.
Yan invited the country’s top anthropologists and archaeologists from Beijing to the dig. The 120square-meter limestone-block floor, dating back 40,000 years, is believed to be an early example of human “interior design”.
Over 70 stone tools were also unearthed.
“We must evaluate the significance of Paleolithic discoveries from a global perspective in terms of origins, migrations and mutual influences among humans,” says Zheng Guozhen, who was then head of Fujian’s cultural heritage administration.
“Wanshouyan is … a crucial page in the global context … And a 40,000-year-old floor had never been seen in China and is still rare worldwide.”
But the standoff continued after the monthlong agreement.
The question was whether to protect the entire area or just caves with landmark findings.
Wanshouyan faced a gloomy horizon until Xi’s guidance.
All surrounding quarries were shut down.
“It would cost more for transportation, and we were unsure whether we could get equally good limestone elsewhere,” Li says.
“But after evaluating the longterm and short-term benefits, we followed the guidance … Stones have a price, but cultural relics are invaluable. It’s a duty that should be undertaken by a State-owned enterprise.”
Zhang Senshui, a late researcher with the Chinese Academy of Sciences, once said that Wanshouyan is a prime example of the balance between cultural-heritage protection and economic production.
Wanshouyan was listed among the country’s top 10 archaeological discoveries in 2000. Within a year, the site was rated as a national-level heritage site under key protection.
In 2002, a special administration for Wanshouyan was established, and a city-level regulation was promulgated to oversee the site.
Yanqian’s villagers are benefiting from tourism, especially since over 80,000 people last year visited the archaeological park that opened in June 2019.
“It’ll become a hub for academic study and travel,” Sanming’s cultural and tourism administration director Liao Ronghua says.
“And leisure tourism in the nearby countryside and forest areas can also benefit.”
Villager Wang Yuanhe says the local environment has improved.
“More people come here,” he says. “So, our wallets are fuller.”
Wanshouyan is … a crucial page in the global context … And a 40,000-year-old floor had never been seen in China and is still rare worldwide.” Zheng Guozhen, former head of Fujian province’s cultural heritage administration