A tiny and lovely bird carved into the burnt bones, discovered in China and older than 13,500 years, takes the title of oldest figurine of East Asia, according to a study published Wednesday in PLOS One.

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“The sculpture is not a representation totally realistic of a bird. The artist oversized the tail of the bird to allow the sculpture to stand on its pedestal,” said the AFP Francesco D’errico, CNRS researcher, for which this implies that there was already, at that time, at “an advanced stage” of artistic practice. “The artist was fully aware of the fact that the statuary is the art of balance and harmony,” adds the co-author of the study.

And to carry on her work, the artist has used four different techniques and worked no less than 68 different areas of the os. An update to Lingjing, in the North of China, in the middle of remains of animals cremated and fragments of ceramic, the figurine of 19.2 mm long by 5.1 mm wide and 12.5 mm high was in a “state of conservation” exceptional”.

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To determine the age of the sculpture – about 13,500 years, researchers have relied on the dating by the carbon 14 found bones with the model, and on the characteristics of the stone tools found at the site. The little sparrow regrowth and the origin of the sculpture and representations of animals in East Asia of more than 8500 years.

“We already knew, that at this time, the hunter-gatherers of China made bone tools (spear points, needles, etc.) and personal ornaments made of sea shells, ostrich eggs, or animal teeth”, explains the archaeologist of the University of Bordeaux in France.

“The sculpture of objects without apparent function and requiring a specific learning, opens a new window on these companies and makes them even closer to the hunter-gatherers historically known”, he adds.

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