On April 14, archaeologists in Guangxi
Zhuang Autonomous Region, south China, unearthed remains of a
180-centimeter tall man dating back more than 6,000 years.
"Such a tall man would rarely have been seen in
south China in ancient times," said Huang Xin, head of the Cultural
Relics Management Institute of Youjiang District, Baise City.
Huang is one of the archaeologists who took part in
the recent excavation at the Neolithic site in Gongyuan Village,
Yangxu Town of Baise City.
Huang said they were amazed to see that the bones
of ancient people scattered at the site were thicker than that of
modern people, and were awestruck by a penis-shaped stone totem
unearthed there.
Archaeologists also found a large number of stone
tools such as hammers and chisels, and remains of animals including
bears, monkeys and deer.
Whether the discovery implies the existence of a
tall ancient race or not would require further study, said
Huang.
With an area of 800 sq km, the Baise Basin, where
the Neolithic site is located, lies between south China's
Yunnan-Guizhou Plateau and Southeast Asia, a crucial location in
the study of the origins, evolution and migration of ancient
peoples, experts said.
Experts from the Chinese Academy of Sciences have
been digging at the site since 1973. In 2000, a paper in
Nature argued that finds of stone tools there dating back
800,000 years undermined the Movius Line theory, which contended
that East Asian cultures were stagnant compared to those in western
Eurasia and Africa at the time.
(Xinhua News Agency April 25, 2005)