Yuanmou Man

Yuanmou Man was named after the discovery site at a small hill northwest of Shangnabang Village in Yuanmou County, Yunnan Province. The fossilized teeth of Yuanmou Man were discovered on May 1, 1965, in Shangnabang Village, Yuanmou County, which is renowned as the “Hometown of Yuanmou Man.” In 1976, paleomagnetic dating determined the living period of Yuanmou Man to be approximately 1.7 million years ago, with a margin of error of no more than 100,000 years. Some scholars, however, suggest that the period should not exceed 730,000 years, implying a possible range between 600,000 to 500,000 years or even later.

Around 1.7 million years ago, the area around Yuanmou County in Yunnan Province was covered with dense thickets and forests, resembling a subtropical savannah and forest. Initially, animals such as cervids and chalicotheres, which survived from the Tertiary period, thrived in this region. As time progressed, early Pleistocene animals such as Pachycrocuta brevirostris, Equus yunnanensis, and Axis shansius appeared in this habitat, most of which were herbivores. To survive, Yuanmou Man used crude stone tools to hunt these animals. The discovery of two teeth, stone tools, charcoal fragments, and later, a small number of stone artifacts, abundant charcoal, and mammalian fossils from the same site and stratigraphic layer, proves that they were primitive humans capable of making tools and using fire.

Fossilized Teeth

The fossils of Yuanmou Man include two upper central incisors, one from the left and one from the right, belonging to the same adult individual. These teeth are deeply fossilized, grayish-white in color, with several cracks.

Research on the fossilized teeth of Yuanmou Man revealed that the crowns are intact, the root tips are incomplete, and the surface has small cracks filled with brown clay. These teeth are robust, shovel-shaped, with expanded cutting edges, flat labial surfaces, and complex lingual patterns, showing obvious primitive features.

The characteristics of Yuanmou Man’s incisors include: a swollen base of the crown, expanded tip, slightly triangular shape, prominent lingual basal tubercle, well-developed shovel-shaped tooth pit, and a rough concave lingual surface with a long central finger-like projection. The finger-like projections are densely arranged on the half near the outer side.

The left incisor of Yuanmou Man is 11.4 mm long, 8.1 mm wide, and 11.2 mm high. The right incisor is 11.5 mm long, 8.6 mm wide, and 11.1 mm high. The cutting edges show wear from use during life.

Discovery Site

Yuanmou Basin is located among the rugged mountains by the Jinsha River, with a hot and dry climate, earning it the nickname “Hot Basin” of central Yunnan. In early May 1965, geologists Qian Fang and Pu Qingyu and their team discovered one left and one right central incisor in the early Pleistocene strata behind Shangnabang Village in the Yuanmou Basin, Da Na Wu Village. These teeth belonged to a young male and resembled those of Peking Man but are older. Scientific methods using paleomagnetic instruments determined that these teeth belonged to primitive humans from about 1.7 million years ago, classified as a new subspecies of Homo erectus—Homo erectus yuanmouensis. The discovery of Yuanmou Man is of significant importance in revealing the history of human evolution and development.

Seventeen stone artifacts were found alongside the teeth of Yuanmou Man. Research identified these as Oldowan tools, including types such as points, scrapers, and choppers. The same strata also revealed abundant charcoal fragments and some charred bones. Wherever there were charcoal fragments, there were also animal fossils, constituting a fauna of over 40 species, dated to around 1.7 million years ago. These findings indicate that Yuanmou Man not only used self-made tools for hunting and gathering but also knew how to use fire to cook their prey, beginning to move away from a diet of raw meat and blood.

Yuanmou Man predates “Lantian Man,” “Peking Man,” and “Upper Cave Man,” thus pushing the earliest known human fossils in China back by over a million years. The discovery of Yuanmou Man holds great historical significance and scientific value, and it has been included in textbooks in China and some other countries.

Living Conditions

Stone Tool Usage

In 1973, three stone tools were unearthed from the same layer where Yuanmou Man fossils were found. Additionally, three stone tools were collected from the same site, presumed to have been washed to the surface by rain and also attributed to Yuanmou Man.

The three stone tools from the strata were made of quartzite, all scrapers. One is a double-edged scraper made from a flake, possibly repaired by percussion. The second is a multi-edged scraper made from a small stone, roughly rectangular, and shaped through multiple directions of processing. The third is an end scraper, also made from a small stone and processed similarly.

Of the three collected stone tools: one is a stone core, spindle-shaped, 90 mm long, with a single platform. The second is a flake made of red sandstone, slightly longer than wide, with dispersed striking points. The third is a point made from a quartzite flake, with single-sided processing on the left and double-sided processing on the right, forming a point at the intersection of the axes.

From these tools, it is difficult to infer Yuanmou Man’s stone tool technology comprehensively. However, it can be determined that they knew how to manufacture and repair tools using percussion, make scrapers and points, and their tools were not large.

In the layer where Yuanmou Man fossils were found, numerous charcoal fragments were discovered, often associated with mammalian fossils. The largest charcoal pieces had a diameter of 15 mm, while the smallest were about 1 mm. Additionally, two black bones were identified as possibly burnt, along with a large number of charcoal fragments. Some researchers believe these are traces of human use of fire at that time.

After years of excavation, a total of 17 stone tools have been unearthed, including seven from the strata and ten collected from the surface.

Living Environment

The living environment of Yuanmou Man is inferred from coexisting plant and animal fossils. The animal fossils from the third and fourth layers of Yuanmou strata are referred to as the Yuanmou Fauna, believed to have coexisted with Yuanmou Man.

Mammalian fossils coexisting with Yuanmou Man include Homotherium, Pachycrocuta brevirostris, Equus yunnanensis, chalicotheres, Chinese rhinos, and Axis shansius, among 29 species. All these species are extinct, with 38.8% belonging to remnants from the Pliocene and early Pleistocene, and most being common local species of the early Pleistocene. If examining their living environment, Equus yunnanensis lived in grasslands, while Elaphodus and Hydropotes lived in tropical rainforests, Rhizomyidae and Ochotonidae in shrublands, and Homotherium in forests.

Analysis of plant spores indicates that the predominant trees were pines and elms, while herbaceous plants were more abundant. Based on the analysis of animal fossils and plant spores, some researchers believe the natural environment at that time was a forest-savannah landscape with a cool climate.

International Impact

On February 22, 1972, during the visit of U.S. President Nixon to China, Xinhua News Agency announced the significant discovery of “Yuanmou Man” to the world. People’s Daily reported: “This is another important discovery following the Peking Man and Lantian Man in northern China, with significant scientific value for further research on ancient humans and Quaternary geology in southwest China.” This major discovery attracted wide attention from the academic community both domestically and internationally.

As early as 1903, Japanese scholar Yokoyama Yusaburo recorded the discovery of mammalian fossils in Yuanmou in his book. From the winter of 1926 to early 1927, the American Museum of Natural History’s Central Asian Expedition conducted investigations in Yunnan. Mr. Granger discovered horse, elephant, and rhinoceros fossils on the east side of Yuanmou Basin, ten miles south of Majie. These fossils were dated to the early Pleistocene, and there was a sense that early human fossils might also be present.

From 1926 to 1940, many renowned geologists and paleontologists, both domestic and foreign, such as Nelson, Granger, Cretan, Bien Meinian, Colbert, Hu Chengzhi, Pei Wenzhong, Qiu Zhanxiang, and Zhou Mingzhen, conducted multiple investigations and studies on the Quaternary strata of Yuanmou Basin and Yuanmou Formation. During these investigations, glacial remains were found in Yuanmou and identified as the only representative early Pleistocene geology in South China. Numerous fossil sites were discovered, referred to as the “Majie Horse Fossil Layer.”

In the spring of 1976, at the “Report Meeting on the 100th Anniversary of Engels’ ‘The Part Played by Labour in the Transition from Ape to Man’,” Qian Fang and Ma Xinghua, representing the Institute of Geomechanics of the Chinese Academy of Geological Sciences, announced that paleomagnetic dating determined Yuanmou Man to be 1.7 million years old. Cheng Guoliang, representing the Institute of Geology, announced that the same method determined Yuanmou Man’s age to be 1.63 to 1.64 million years. Liu Dongsheng, representing the Guiyang Institute of Geochemistry, stated that their results were consistent with those of the above units. In late July of the same year, Xinhua News Agency and People’s Daily reported the significant news that Yuanmou Man lived about 1.7 million years ago. This discovery pushed the history of humans in China forward by over a million years, indicating that the Yangtze River Basin in Yunnan was a key area for human origin and development. It strongly challenged the African-centered theory of human origin, providing robust scientific support for the multiregional theory of human origin and development. Yuanmou Man, as the beginning of Chinese human history, was included in the first page of Chinese history textbooks.

Site Protection

In February 1982, the State Council designated the Yuanmou Man site as one of the second batch of national key cultural relics protection units.

The Yuanmou Man Exhibition Hall is located on Longchuan Street in Yuanmou County, 7 kilometers from Yuanmou County town. Covering an area of 4,000 square meters, construction began in 1985 and was completed in 1987. The exhibition hall displays Yuanmou Man’s fossilized teeth, among other artifacts. The hall houses over a thousand cultural relics, with the exhibition divided into three parts: “The Origin of Humanity,” “Yuanmou Ancient Apes,” and “Yuanmou Prehistoric Culture,” revealing the brief history of human origin and development and systematically presenting the evolutionary links of primitive humans.

The Yuanmou Man site has a monument, and nearby there is a museum displaying samples of Yuanmou Man’s fossilized teeth, paleontological fossils, and other related artifacts and materials.

In 2009, the Yuanmou Man Exhibition Hall was designated as a national third-level museum by the State Administration of Cultural Heritage.