Zhoukoudian Upper Cave personal ornaments and ochre: Rediscovery and reevaluation

Paleolithic eyed needles and the evolution of dress

Eyed needles are among the most iconic of Paleolithic artifacts, traditionally seen as rare indicators of prehistoric clothing, particularly tailoring. However, recent finds across Africa and Eurasia show that other technologies like bone awls also facilitated the creation of fitted garments. Nonetheless, the advent of delicate eyed needles suggests a demand for more refined, efficient sewing. This refinement may signify two major developments: the emergence of underwear in layered garment assemblages, and/or a transition in adornment from body modification to decorating clothes, as humans covered themselves more completely for thermal protection. Archaeological evidence for underwear is limited, but the Upper Paleolithic saw an increase in personal ornaments, some sewn onto clothing. Eyed needles may mark a pivotal shift as clothes acquired the social functions of dress, decoupling clothing from climate and ensuring its enduring presence.

Evidence from personal ornaments suggest nine distinct cultural groups between 34,000 and 24,000 years ago in Europe

Mechanisms governing the relationship between genetic and cultural evolution are the subject of debate, data analysis and modelling efforts. Here we present a new georeferenced dataset of personal ornaments worn by European hunter-gatherers during the so-called Gravettian technocomplex (34,000-24,000 years ago), analyse it with multivariate and geospatial statistics, model the impact of distance on cultural diversity and contrast the outcome of our analyses with up-to-date palaeogenetic data. We demonstrate that Gravettian ornament variability cannot be explained solely by isolation-by-distance. Analysis of Gravettian ornaments identified nine geographically discrete cultural entities across Europe. While broadly in agreement with palaeogenetic data, our results highlight a more complex pattern, with cultural entities located in areas not yet sampled by palaeogenetics and distinctive entities in regions inhabited by populations of similar genetic ancestry. Integrating personal ornament and biological data from other Palaeolithic cultures will elucidate the complex narrative of population dynamics of Upper Palaeolithic Europe.

Initial Upper Palaeolithic material culture by 45,000 years ago at Shiyu in northern China

The geographic expansion of Homo sapiens populations into southeastern Europe occurred by ∼47,000 years ago (∼47 ka), marked by Initial Upper Palaeolithic (IUP) technology. H. sapiens was present in western Siberia by ∼45 ka, and IUP industries indicate early entries by ∼50 ka in the Russian Altai and 46-45 ka in northern Mongolia. H. sapiens was in northeastern Asia by ∼40 ka, with a single IUP site in China dating to 43-41 ka. Here we describe an IUP assemblage from Shiyu in northern China, dating to ∼45 ka. Shiyu contains a stone tool assemblage produced by Levallois and Volumetric Blade Reduction methods, the long-distance transfer of obsidian from sources in China and the Russian Far East (800-1,000 km away), increased hunting skills denoted by the selective culling of adult equids and the recovery of tanged and hafted projectile points with evidence of impact fractures, and the presence of a worked bone tool and a shaped graphite disc. Shiyu exhibits a set of advanced cultural behaviours, and together with the recovery of a now-lost human cranial bone, the record supports an expansion of H. sapiens into eastern Asia by about 45 ka.

A Multi-Analytical Approach to Investigate the Polychrome Clay Sculpture in Qinglian Temple of Jincheng, China

This article presents an integrated analytical method to investigate the polychrome clay sculptures of the Qinglian Temple in Jincheng City, Shanxi Province, China. Digital microscopy, SEM-EDS, XRD, Herzberg stain, Micro-Raman spectroscopy and FT-IR were selected to identify the raw materials and techniques used to produce the ground clay layer, the white powder layer and the mineral pigment of the polychrome clay sculptures. The investigation shows that the clay used to make the coarse and fine clay layer is consistent. However, different kinds of fibres were found mixed in the coarse and fine clay layers: wheat straw was the main fibre used in coarse clay layer, while the bast fibres, including ramie, kenaf and sisal hemp, were used as the fibre supports in the fine clay layers due to their useful properties. The white powder layer was made of a mixture of kaolinite and gypsum. For the mineral pigments, it principally contained red (hematite, minium or a mixture of minium and cinnabar), green (atacamite and atacamite), blue (azurite), yellow (yellow ochre), black (amorphous carbon) and white (the mixture of kaolinite and gypsum). Additionally, a gilding technique and multiple paint layers also typified many pigment areas. This work has furthered understanding of the materials and techniques used in making the sculptures of the Qinglian Temple and has clear implications for the restoration and conservation treatments on these kinds of ancient painted clay sculptures.