School of Life Sciences, Jilin University, 130012 Changchun, People's Republic of China.
Max Planck Institute of Geoanthropology, 07745, Jena, Germany.
Proc Biol Sci. 2023 Oct 25;290(2009):20231129. doi: 10.1098/rspb.2023.1129.
The application of Zooarchaeology by Mass Spectrometry (ZooMS) on Pleistocene sites in Europe and northern Asia has resulted in the discovery of important new hominin fossils and has expanded the range of identified fauna. However, no systematic, large-scale application of ZooMS on Palaeolithic sites in East Asia has been attempted thus far. Here, we analyse 866 morphologically non-diagnostic bones from Jinsitai Cave in northeast China and Yumidong Cave in South China, from archaeological horizons dating to 150-10 ka BP. Bones from both sites revealed a high degree of collagen preservation and potentially time-related deamidation patterns, despite being located in very distinct environmental settings. At Jinsitai, we identified 31 camel bones, five of which were radiocarbon dated to 37-20 ka BP. All dated specimens correspond to colder periods of Marine Isotope Stages 3 and 2. We regard the presence of camels at Jinsitai as evidence of wild camels being a megafauna taxon targeted, most likely by early modern humans, during their expansion across northeast Asia. This large-scale application of ZooMS in China highlights the potential of the method for furthering our knowledge of the palaeoanthropological and zooarchaeological records of East Asia.
迄今为止，尚未有系统的、大规模的针对东亚旧石器时代遗址的动物考古质谱分析（ZooMS）应用。本文中，我们分析了来自中国东北金斯泰洞和中国南方玉门洞的 866 块形态非诊断性骨骼，这些骨骼来自于距今 150-10 千年的考古层位。尽管位于截然不同的环境中，但来自这两个遗址的骨骼均表现出了高度的胶原保存，且具有潜在的时间相关脱酰胺模式。在金斯泰洞，我们鉴定出 31 块骆驼骨，其中 5 块经放射性碳定年法测定的年代为 37-20 千年。所有定年标本都对应于海洋同位素阶段 3 和 2 的寒冷时期。我们认为金斯泰洞的骆驼存在表明，野生骆驼可能是一个被早期现代人猎捕的巨型动物群类，这一现象可能发生在早期现代人向东北亚扩张的过程中。这种在中国的大规模应用动物考古质谱分析突显了该方法在进一步了解东亚古人类学和动物考古记录方面的潜力。
