Miniature bird is the oldest Chinese work of art
Over 13,000 years ago, an artist used a range of techniques to delicately carve this miniature bird out of a piece of burnt bone. Unearthed by archaeologists in Lingjing, China, the carving is the oldest Chinese work of art ever found.
Humans have been creating sculptures since the Upper Palaeolithic (50,000 to 12,000 years ago). The earliest are carved from mammoth tusk and date back 35,00040,000 years. Found in German caves, these record-setting examples include a lionheaded human and a Venus figurine, and provide early evidence of ‘symbolic thought’ – the ability to represent objects and ideas physically through art or ritual.
Now, this bird figurine shows that sculpture was emerging independently in East Asia during the same period.
The bird sculpture was discovered by a team of archaeologists led by Prof Francesco d’Errico at the University of Bordeaux, France. The artefact is just two centimetres long and incredibly well-preserved. It has a short neck and rounded bill, but an oversized tail to keep it balanced when it’s stood up on the pedestal carved into its base. The sculpture is thought to represent a ‘passerine’ – a diverse group of birds that perch with an upright posture on feet with three toes facing forwards and one facing backwards.
The researchers analysed the sculpture using microscopy and X-ray scanning, determining that it was carved from a mammal limb bone that had been blackened by heating. They also painstakingly reconstructed the sculpting process: the bird was created using four different techniques: gouging, abrading, scraping and incising.
“Our analysis reveals that the Lingjing artist has chosen the appropriate techniques and applied them skilfully to faithfully reproduce the distinct anatomical features of a passerine,” the researchers wrote. “The style of this diminutive representation is original and remarkably different from all other known Palaeolithic avian figurines.”
The researchers estimate the figurine to be 13,500 years old – more than 8,500 years older than other animal sculptures that have been found in East Asia.