Bird Figurine from Lingjing Among World's Top 10 Archaeological Discoveries of 2020

Bird Figurine from Lingjing Among World's Top 10 Archaeological Discoveries of 2020

河南灵井鸟雕入选“2020年度世界十大考古发现”

On December 6, it was learned from Henan Provincial Institute of Cultural Relics and Archaeology that the vivid miniature bird sculpture unearthed at the Paleolithic site in Lingjing was chosen to be one of the world's top 10 archaeological finds of 2020 by Archaeology magazine, a publication of the Archaeological Institute of America. Considered to be the oldest caving artwork found in China, the bird figurine is concise in outline, perfect in posture, and dynamic in staticness. Once again, Henan attracts the attention of the archaeological world.

鸟身线条简洁流畅，形态完美，静中富有动感……12月6日，记者从省文物考古研究院获悉，这个出土于河南灵井“许昌人”遗址的栩栩如生的微型鸟雕入选“2020年度世界十大考古发现”。据悉，这个评选结果由美国考古学会主办的《Archaeology》杂志公布，称灵井鸟雕是“中国最早的雕刻艺术”，河南考古再次以昂扬自信的姿态吸引着全球的目光。

File photo shows the bird figurine from Lingjing site. [Photo/Henan Daily]

On June 11, an international team of archaeologists from China, France, etc., unveiled their significant discovery -- a 13,500-year-old miniature bird statue -- on an American journal The Public Library of Science, which sets back the origin of sculpture in East Asia by more than 8000 years. The miniature bird statue is about 10 mm high and 5 mm wide, with a stout body, short head, round beak and long tail. Judging from these features, it probably is in the Passeriformes order. Instead of carving the bird's legs, the artist cut a base for the figurine to stand on.

今年6月11日，一个来自中国、法国等的国际研究小组，在美国《公共科学图书馆·综合》杂志上公布了灵井鸟雕这项重大考古成果。这个鸟雕具有1.35万年历史。研究者认为，它的发现将东亚雕塑艺术的起源提前了8000多年。从外形来看，灵井鸟雕像个头非常小，高1厘米多，宽仅0.5厘米。鸟的形体粗壮，短头，有圆形的喙及长尾，很可能属于雀形目。艺术家没有雕刻这只鸟的腿，而是削了一个可以让它站立的底座。

"The design of placing the bird flat on a base indicates that humans have mastered the principle of balance more than 10,000 years ago," said archaeologist Li Zhanyang. Made of a mammalian limb bone, which had been heated and charred before carving, the bird figurine was completed by hand using 4 different techniques, namely grinding, polishing, scraping and cutting, to represent marvelous beauty by tiny objects.

“将鸟放置于平整的面上，这表明1万多年前，人类已熟练掌握了重心平衡的原理。”发掘者、考古学家李占扬说，灵井鸟雕像是经过精心制作的，它用一块中等大小的哺乳动物肢骨残片雕刻而成，雕刻前骨头经过加热处理。艺术家使用了研磨、琢削、刮削、切割等4种技术，在较小的物体上实现惊人的平衡和美丽。

The Lingjing "Xuchang Man (the hominids)" site was discovered to the west of Lingjing town, Jian’an district, Xuchang city, Henan province. As China's first paleolithic site excavated from the spring lacustrine deposits, it has been well-known for the discovery of human cranial fossils dating back 105,000 to 125,000 years ago in 2007.

灵井“许昌人”遗址位于许昌市建安区灵井镇西部，是我国首次发掘的以泉水为中心的旧石器时代晚期遗址。2007年，该遗址出土了距今约12.5万年至10.5万年的“许昌人”头骨化石，令世界瞩目。（中文来源/河南日报 翻译/赵汉青 审校/丁岚）