Forbidden Archeology_ The Full Unabridged Edition - Michael A. Cremo [394]
9.2.2 Tongzi, Guizhou Province
Let us now consider a specific example of the date range problem. In 1985, Qiu Zhonglang reported that in 1971 and 1972 fossil teeth of Homo sapiens were found in the Yanhui cave near Tongzi, in Guizhou province, southern China. The Tongzi site contained a StegodonAiluropoda fauna. Stegodon is a type of extinct elephant, and Ailuropoda is the giant panda. This StegodonAiluropoda fauna is typical of southern China during the Middle Pleistocene.
The complete faunal list for the Tongzi site given by Han Defen and Xu Chunhua (Han and Xu 1985, pp. 285–286) contains 24 kinds of mammals, all of which are also found in Middle (and Early) Pleistocene lists given by the same authors (Han and Xu 1985, pp. 277–283). But a great many of the genera and species listed are also known to have survived to the Late Pleistocene and the present.
The author of the report on the Tongzi discoveries stated: “the Yanhui Cave was the first site containing fossils of Homo sapiens discovered anywhere in the province. . . . The fauna suggests a Middle-Upper Pleistocene range, but the archaeological [human] evidence is consistent with an Upper Pleistocene age” (Qiu 1985, pp. 205–206).
In other words, the presence of Homo sapiens fossils was the determining factor in assigning a Late Pleistocene age to the site. This is a clear example of dating by morphology. But according to the faunal evidence reported by Qiu (1985), all that can really be said is that the age of the Homo sapiens fossils could be anywhere from Middle Pleistocene to Late Pleistocene.
But there is stratigraphic evidence suggesting a strictly Middle Pleistocene range. Qiu (1985, p. 206) gave the following information: “The deposits in the cave contain seven layers. The human fossils, stone artifacts, burned bones, and mammalian fossils were all unearthed in the fourth layer, a stratum of greyishyellow sand and gravel.” This concentration in a single layer suggests that the human remains and the animal fossils, all of mammals found at Middle Pleistocene sites, are roughly contemporaneous. And yellow cave deposits in South China are generally thought to be Middle Pleistocene (Han and Xu 1985, p. 273; Simons and Ettel 1970, p. 84).
Our own analysis of the faunal list also suggests it is reasonable to narrow the age range to the Middle Pleistocene. Stegodon, present at Tongzi, is generally said to have existed from the Pliocene to the Middle Pleistocene (Belyaeva et al.1962, p. 365). In a list of animals considered important for dating sites in South China, Aigner (1978) indicated that Stegodon orientalis survived only to the late Middle Pleistocene, although she did place a question mark after this entry.
A strictly Middle Pleistocene age for the Tongzi cave fauna is supported by the presence of a species whose extinction by the end of the Middle Pleistocene is thought to be more definite. In her list of mammals considered important for dating sites in South China, Aigner included, in addition to Stegodon orientalis, other species found at Tongzi. Among them is Megatapirus (giant tapir), which Aigner (1981, p. 289) said is confined to the Middle Pleistocene. The species found at Tongzi is listed as Megatapirus augustus Matthew et Granger (Han and Xu 1985, p. 25). Aigner (1981, p. 325) characterized Megatapirus augustus as a “large fossil form of the mid-Middle Pleistocene south China collections.” We suggest that Megatapirus augustus limits the most recent age of the Tongzi faunal collection to the end of the Middle Pleistocene ( Figure 9.3).
Another marker fossil listed by Aigner (1981, p. 289) is Crocuta crocuta (the living hyena), which first appeared in China during the middle Middle Pleistocene. Since Crocuta crocuta is present at Tongzi, this limits the oldest age of the Tongzi fauna to the beginning of the