西藏邱桑温泉古人类手脚印的年代测定及其岩面艺术价值

Chronology and artistic value of hands and footprints for prehistoric humans in Quesang hot spring,Tibet

青藏高原中部海拔超过4000 m的中更世古人类手脚印的发现引起了国内外古环境、考古、人类史学界的广泛关注,并予以很高评价。众多评论文章中,《河北师范大学学报(哲学与社会科学版)》上有一篇题为《西藏邱桑温泉手脚印遗迹及相关问题》的文章,对手脚印研究中的“年代”和“岩面艺术如何界定”这两个方面提出了质疑。因此特撰写此文,对这两个方面的质疑做出回应。本文将系统梳理Zhang et al.(2021)所发表的手脚印“岩面艺术”中有关“年代学”和“艺术界定”这两方面的内容,从U-Th测年在碳酸盐沉积中的应用和史前艺术的特征等方面来解答部分学者对此研究存在的疑虑和误导,并提出本文的看法:U-Th法是目前对邱桑温泉方解石泉华进行年龄测定的最合适方法,所测的年代是可靠的,并且“岩面艺术”一词是这些手脚印组合最适合的名称。

The discovery of the Middle Pleistocene hominin hand-and footprints at an altitude of more than 4000 m on the central Tibetan Plateau has attracted extensive attention and high evaluation from domestic media and international academia of paleoenvironmental study, archaeology and anthropology. Among the review articles,we noticed that an article entitled “Footprints and Related Issues at Quesang site in Tibet” on the Journal of Hebei Normal University(Philosophy and Social Sciences), in which two questions on the “chronology” and “parietal art definition” were aroused. Therefore, this article was written to respond to the doubts above. Here we systematically interpreted the reliability of the U-Th dating and provided the solid grounds for naming the parietal art for the hand-and footprints published in Zhang et al.(2021). We also put forward our concerns. Based on systematic analysis, extensive citations and detailed demonstration, we believed there were flaws and misleading in the critiques of Tang H S et al.’s article in 2022. We believed that the U-Th method is currently the most suitable method for dating the travertine at the Quesang hot spring, and the dates are reliable. Besides, the term “parietal art” is the most suitable term to describe the hand-and footprints.