About 50 kilometers southwest of the city, there is a small hill with an altitude of 142 meters in Suncun Town, Fanchang County, Wuhu City.
About 50 kilometers southwest of the city, there is a small hill with an altitude of 142 meters in Suncun Town, Fanchang County, Wuhu City. This small hill originally had a very nice name, called "Huaguo Mountain", which is similar to the Huaguo Mountain where Sun Wukong popped out of the cracks in the stone in "Journey to the West", and the scenery is very beautiful. However, due to blind logging, in the early 1980s, the natural vegetation was severely damaged by blasting rocks to make cement, and it became a bare piece. It was difficult to see the once prosperous and colorful flowers and fruit trees, so the locals changed the name of "Huaguo Mountain" to "Bald Mountain".
There is a small cave in the shape of a "human" on the Erli Mountain, also known as the Flower and Fruit Mountain, which is called the "Human Cave" in Fanchang.
In the early 1980s, a groundbreaking discovery was made. The fossils of primates and mammals that had been buried underground for more than millions of years suddenly popped out from the cracks in the rocks, just like the "first appearance" of the Flower and Fruit Mountain. Thus, the "Eurasian Knife" was discovered and named, and there were traces of Eurasian human activities 2.2 to 2.56 million years ago.
The saying that Eurasian is the birthplace of human beings is not groundless, and even the earliest fire of human civilization was ignited, the rise of ancient human pottery making, and the difficult journey of China's Fanchang kiln culture, unremitting pursuit and exploration.
The scraper stone tool used by ancient humans excavated from the "Renzidong" site in Fanchang looks very much like a modern computer "mouse".
Let us hold this magical "mouse" with pious reverence for the sacred china ceramics, click on the prosperous "Renzidong" on the display screen of time and space, and read the profound Chinese civilization...
According to scientists, about 3.6 million years ago in the Pliocene period, the crustal activity was relatively stable, and a large mountain tributary of the Yangtze River acted on the area of Lili Mountain. During the lateral erosion process of this mountain river, the river valley widened continuously and the earth's crust also rose slightly, causing the terraces formed to tilt toward the mainstream direction. Horizontal caves were formed along the underground water table in the limestone mountains. In some places, cracks developed above the horizontal caves, forming vertical caves.
The prosperous "Human-shaped Cave" that shocked the world is a vertical cave formed during this period.
In May 1998, archaeological experts searched for and discovered relics of Eurasian human activities dating back 2.2-2.56 million years ago in the area of Lili Mountain. Because the natural section of its fissure-shaped accumulation was in the shape of a "human", it was named "Human-shaped Cave".
After analyzing the distribution and development characteristics of the fissures and the natural profile deposits, experts believe that the development process of the "Human-shaped Cave" in Fanchang is roughly as follows: in the late Tertiary period, the structural fissures in the limestone were deeply dissolved and expanded to develop into very deep vertical karst caves, which were then continuously filled with deposits with a thickness of more than 40 meters. After the cave was filled, it was subsequently closed and became the current appearance.
Since May 1998, after years of excavation, archaeologists have discovered more than 7,000 early Pleistocene mammal fossil specimens in Renzidong, including a large number of large primate vertebrate fossils of rich species. In particular, the discovery of true horses in the animal group is very precious. In addition, among the unearthed stone and bone artifacts, more than 10 bone artifacts have obvious processing marks, and the impact points and even extremely detailed repair scars on them are clearly visible. It can be inferred that these stone and bone tools are scrapers made by ancient humans, indicating that as early as the early Pleistocene 2 million to 2.4 million years ago, there were ancient human activities in the Yangtze River Basin in my country.
In March 2006, the "Renzidong" site in Fanchang was officially announced by the state as the sixth batch of national key cultural relics protection units.
Let's move the mouse back to more than 200 million years ago. At that time, the area around Lai Li Mountain, where the prosperous "Renzi Cave" was located, was still a vast ocean with surging white waves. With the uplift of the Quaternary glacial orogeny, with "Renzi Cave" as the center, there was a fertile grassland in the south and a large forest formed by gymnosperms in the north; various animals lived between the forest and the grassland. The ancestors of Eurasian humans took a fancy to this Feng Shui treasure land, and from apes to humans, they lived in this beautiful natural environment.
Wu Xinzhi, a famous paleoanthropologist, academician of the Chinese Academy of Sciences, and director of the Anthropology Committee of the Chinese Academy of Sciences, believes that as early as more than 3 million years ago when the Australopithecus, our ancestors had already walked out of Africa. At that time, there was no insurmountable barrier between Africa and Asia, so this migration was basically possible. In view of this, Wu Xinzhi proposed a bold conjecture about the origin of humans: African apes traveled thousands of miles to China, one of their branches evolved into humans in China (Fanchang "Renzidong"), and then returned to Africa. The ancient humans found in Africa 6 to 7 million years ago may not necessarily have originated in Africa. They are very likely to have migrated back to Africa from China.
Based on the scraper stone tools used by humans 2.2-2.56 million years ago and a large number of early Pleistocene mammal fossil specimens excavated from the "Renzidong" site in Fanchang, it can be inferred that the "Renzidong" in Fanchang is the earliest birthplace of Eurasian humans. But it is regrettable that the fossils of ancient humans have not been found yet...
