Chinese archaeological finding ranks in top 10 of 2021

BEIJING -- Hominin hand and foot traces uncovered on the Qinghai-Tibet Plateau were listed among the top 10 discoveries of 2021, according to the list released by the magazine Archaeology.

The finding was published in the journal Science Bulletin in September, titled Earliest parietal art: hominin hand and foot traces from the middle Pleistocene of Tibet.

About 200,000 years ago, children left their handprints and footprints on the Qinghai-Tibetan Plateau, according to the research. The prints, preserved in a type of limestone called travertine, provide the earliest evidence that human ancestors lived in the region and probably represent the earliest rock art.

The research was jointly conducted by researchers from Guangzhou University, the Institute of Tibetan Plateau Research of the Chinese Academy of Sciences and Lanzhou University.