Who is taller, ancient or modern? The answer may be different from what you think!

On July 5, 2023, the Science Popularization China Starry Sky Forum, with the theme of "Empowering Cultural Relics with Science and Technology to Bring Them to Life", invited 5 cultural and historical experts from different fields to talk about how science and technology can empower cultural relics protection and make cultural heritage timeless from the aspects of cultural relics excavation, restoration, display, protection and exchange.

Wang Minghui, Director of the Center for Scientific and Technological Archaeology of the Chinese Academy of Social Sciences, gave a speech: "Technology Brings Cultural Relics to Life"

The following is an excerpt from Wang Minghui’s speech:

One of the purposes of archaeological work is to restore ancient society and serve the present.

In addition to the relics and magnificent buildings that look very beautiful, archaeology is more likely to come into contact with some very ordinary things. Although they are not so eye-catching, they are indeed the basic materials for reproducing the lives of ancient people in three dimensions. These require scientific and technological archaeology to complete.

To put it simply, scientific and technological archaeology is a discipline that uses the methods, theories, and techniques of modern natural science-related disciplines to conduct research and solve archaeological problems.

It can be said that scientific and technological archaeology has comprehensively opened up areas that could not be covered in previous archaeological research, greatly improved the scientific nature and accuracy of archaeological research, and made cultural relics three-dimensional and alive to the greatest extent.

Ancient DNA analysis:

Let us understand cultural relics at the molecular level

The fields involved in scientific and technological archaeology are very broad. For example, the application of digital technology to the field of archaeology has formed digital archaeology , including three-dimensional reconstruction, digital restoration technology, VR technology, and so on.

It can perfectly present the full picture of cultural relics or ruins, allowing us to see cultural relics or ruins that have disappeared, and it can also allow ordinary people to experience the fun and even sadness of archaeologists...

When ordinary people look at the pagoda, it is basically like the one on the left. Through 3D reconstruction technology, we can see the one on the right, which provides us with very accurate information for a more comprehensive understanding of the relics and artifacts.

In the past two years, especially since the new century, the application of ancient DNA technology in archaeology has become very popular and has achieved great results. Ancient DNA analysis allows us to understand cultural relics at the molecular level.

By extracting DNA from the fossil mandible of an ancient human in Xiahe County, Gannan, Gansu Province, it was confirmed that Denisovans existed on the Qinghai-Tibet Plateau 160,000 years ago. Denisovans were the first ancient human to be discovered in southern Siberia, which means that more than 100,000 years ago, there may have been human contact or genetic exchange between the Qinghai-Tibet Plateau in our northwest and southern Siberia .

At the same time, the study found that 5,100 years ago, there were signs of modern human life on the Qinghai-Tibet Plateau , including a small number of individuals among the current Tibetans who have Denisovan fragments. These fragments have the ability to adapt to the plateau, so Tibetans have an innate ability to adapt to the plateau.

The laws of human evolution. Photo courtesy: Wang Minghui

We also conducted research on the main populations in East Asia and China. We found that the continuous evolution of the main populations in China and East Asia is the main theme, and there is no such phenomenon as "Chinese culture originated from the West" or "Chinese people came from the West" as some people say.

Ancient DNA can also be used to analyze individuals and populations.

For example, the Ancient DNA Laboratory of Jilin University is currently extracting and analyzing ancient DNA from Cao Cao's tomb .

The remains of the female owner unearthed from the Laoshan Han Tomb in Beijing 20 years ago were not well preserved, so some people thought she was a woman from the Western Regions with a high nose and deep eyes. However, after DNA analysis, it was found that the DNA sequence of the female owner of the Laoshan Han Tomb in Beijing represented the genetic traits of a certain ancestral type of modern people in East Asia, which means that she was a Han woman, not a woman from the Western Regions.

We have also done some research in population genetics. For example, we studied the Yelu clan, the royal family of the Liao Dynasty, and the Xiao clan, the descendants of the Liao Dynasty. We found through separate studies that although they had intermarried for generations, they were completely different in genetics and were quite far apart, which was a complete exogamy.

Ancient DNA analysis. Photo courtesy: Wang Minghui

Ancient DNA can also help us understand some unique cases of death.

For example, we found nearly 100 human bones in a house that collapsed after a fire at the Haminmangha site in Tongliao, Inner Mongolia . They had no obvious signs of death, which is very rare in other archaeological sites. With the help of DNA analysis, we extracted ancient DNA residues of plague bacteria from the bones. Combined with paleoenvironmental research, we believe that these people may have died from a sudden outbreak of plague. At that time, in order to isolate the infection, the dead were concentrated in one house and the house was burned down.

In addition to studying humans, ancient DNA can also be used to study ancient animals.

For example, the origin of Chinese horses, the distribution of horse coat colors... It is difficult to imagine doing this research in traditional archaeology. Ancient DNA analysis has expanded the areas that we could not do before.

Schematic diagram of the coat color distribution of domestic horses in ancient China. Photo courtesy: Wang Minghui

Carbon-14 dating technique

Help study the Xia, Shang and Zhou dynasties and the origin of Chinese civilization

The most important issue in archaeological research is the issue of age.

Generally speaking, there are two types of ages in archaeology: absolute age and relative age. One of the largest and earliest studies in scientific archaeology is the carbon-14 dating study using absolute age .

In archaeological articles or TV programs, we often encounter "Late Yangshao Culture" and "Erlitou Culture Phase IV". Carbon-14 dating shows that the Late Yangshao Culture was about 5300 to 4500 years ago, and the Erlitou Culture Phase IV may have been from 1565 BC to 1530 BC.

Since the new century, the most important research focus of Chinese chronology has been on the Xia, Shang and Zhou dynasty dating project and the project to explore the origins of Chinese civilization .

The Xia, Shang and Zhou Chronology Project sets the beginning of the Xia era at 2070 BC and the year when King Wu conquered Shang at 1046 BC. Of course, this date is still debatable, but carbon-14 dating technology gives us a prerequisite for full understanding.

Year identification. Photo provided by: Wang Minghui

Technological Archaeology and the Dining Table of Ancient People

What did ancient people eat? Are there any differences in regions or times? For example, did people in Shaanxi and Sichuan eat spicy food in ancient times? This requires scientific archaeology to complete some work.

For 99.9% of human history, people have been engaged in hunting, fishing and gathering. It was not until nearly 10,000 years ago that people began to domesticate and eat domestic pigs. The Chinese have been eating domestic pigs until today, but cattle and sheep were not introduced to China from West Asia and Central Asia until 4,000 to 5,000 years ago.

The proportion of domestic animals in the Yellow River Basin has gradually increased with the development of the times, while the proportion of wild animals has gradually decreased. Photo courtesy: Wang Minghui

From the Neolithic Age to the Bronze Age in China, the food in the northern region has always been mainly millet. It was not until the end of the Neolithic Age, more than 4,000 years ago, that wheat and soybeans were added, but they were not the mainstream. The output of wheat and soybeans gradually increased after the Han Dynasty.

The Yangtze River Basin has always been dominated by rice, with little change.

In southern China , such as Guangdong and Guangxi, tuberous plants are the main crops.

Photo courtesy: Wang Minghui

Regarding fruits and vegetables, everyone can consciously go to the morning market to see which ones are native to China and which ones are not.

For example, watermelon, which we often eat in summer, originated in Africa . Corn, potatoes, peppers, tomatoes, etc. originated in Central and South America . So the tradition of Sichuan and Shaanxi people loving to eat peppers is actually very short, that is, after the Ming Dynasty, but China is now a major producer and consumer of watermelon, potatoes, corn, peppers, etc. It is the factor of Chinese culture that embraces all rivers and uses them for my own benefit that has created the diversified and integrated structure of Chinese culture.

Photo courtesy: Wang Minghui

In addition to rice, the southerners' food structure also included a large number of fish and shellfish. The bones of pelagic fish were even found in prehistoric sites in Zhejiang , indicating that human shipbuilding and driving technology were already very mature at that time.

At sites along rivers and lakes in South China, we have discovered a large number of shell remains, some of which are still several meters tall. Different fish and shells represent different living environments.

In some sites, we found that the early fish or shells were relatively large, but in the later period they were relatively small. It is possible that the early people ate the large fish or shells. However, the later period found fish and shells that were not produced locally , which also provides information for us to understand the living environment at that time and the relationship between people and the environment.

Technological Archaeology and Human Birth, Aging, Illness and Death

How old did people in ancient times live? Some say 50 or 60 years old, but we actually found that their average life expectancy was only in their 30s .

In addition to the large number of children dying in underage, which lowered the average life expectancy, heavy labor and social unrest were the main culprits. At that time, 40 to 50 years old were already considered old, so the ancients said that it was rare for a person to live to be 70.

Photo courtesy: Wang Minghui

The chapter novel says that ancient people were "eight feet tall". Even if we calculate it based on the Han foot, which is 23 centimeters per foot, eight feet is still very tall. Is this true?

Through research, we found that the height of ancient people is not much different from that of modern people . The average height of men in the northern region is generally between 165 cm and 170 cm. Of course, there are a few people who are a little taller, such as Dawenkou in Shandong. Women are generally between 155 cm and 160 cm.

In addition, there is the problem of illness.

Some people think that “people in ancient times did not have cancer, so they had a higher life happiness index”. But in fact, we found that the diseases that modern people have also existed in ancient times , but some of them had not yet started to occur or were not very obvious due to their age.

At the same time, we found a large number of conditions such as lumbar muscle strain, bone hyperplasia, intervertebral disc herniation, and even heart disease, three highs, intestinal parasites and other diseases on some observable bones.

Photo courtesy: Wang Minghui

Death is the most difficult thing to determine in previous archaeological studies. For most individuals, it is impossible to find out how a person died, so other scientific and technological means are needed to determine the cause.

We discovered a large number of bronze wine vessels at the Yin Ruins in Anyang. We speculate that when drinking wine from bronze wine vessels, excessive lead was precipitated from the bronze vessels. Drinking such wine could cause chronic lead poisoning and lead to death.

Photo courtesy: Wang Minghui

A large number of archaeological and scientific archaeological discoveries have proved that Chinese culture is an independent, uninterrupted civilization, and at the same time a diverse civilization , with both the diversity of Chinese culture itself and the diversity of constantly absorbing foreign cultural factors for our own use. Chinese civilization has grown and developed by constantly absorbing excellent foreign cultural factors and combining them with Chinese culture.