Paleoanthropological Fossil Sites on stamps and other philatelic items

UNDER CONSTRUCTION



The list of the Fossil Sites:
Country Museum Name
China Danxia Mountain,
Gongwangling village, Lantian County on the Loess Plateau
Hulu cave on Tangshan hill near Nanjing city
Longgupo cave near Zhenlongping Village, Miaoyu Town of Wushan County, Chongqing
Yuanmou Basin near Shangnabang village, Yunnan Province
Zhoukoudian Peking Man Site
France Biache-Saint-Vaast,
Les Eyzies
Germany Bilzingsleben,




China: Tne Danxia Mountain,
Danxia Mountain stamp of China 2004 Skull of Maba Man on illustration of John Hawk and stamp of Hong Kong 2014
The Danxia Mountain stamp of China 2004, MiNr.: 3530-3533, Scott: 4894-4897. Skull of Maba Man on illustration of John Hawk and stamp of Hong Kong 2014
was inscribed as part of the China Danxia World Heritage Site in 2010 because of its unique geographical in formations and spectacular scenery.
The Danxia area is formed from a reddish sandstone which has been eroded over time into a series of outcrops surrounded by spectacular cliffs and many unusual rock formations known as Danxia landform.
Danxia Mountain has a long development history with plentiful scenes and sights of cultural interest.
Our ancestors used to live near Danxia Mountain long time ago. Skull fossils of famous Maba Man found in the southwest of Danxia basin.
The skull pieces were found in June 1958 in a cave in Lion Rock, near the town of Maba, in Guangdong province, China. Its age estimated between 200.000 and 300.000 years old and was labelled an intermediate in form between Homo erectus and Homo sapiens. [R1]

Known Philatelic items:
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China: Gongwangling village, Lantian County on the Loess Plateau.,
Lantian Man Homo erectus lantianensis on postmark of China 1992
Lantian Man, Homo erectus lantianensis with the landscape of the fossil site, on postmark of China 1992.
In 1963 an almost complete mandible of a prehisroric man was discovered in Chenchiawo Village in Lantian County on the Loess Plateau. The following year a partial skull of the same species was found at the same place.
The fossils were first described by Woo Ju-Kan in 1964, who considered the subspecies an ancestor to Peking Man (Homo erectus pekinensis).
These fossils named Lantian Man, formal name Homo erectus lantianensis, its age was first estimated 710–684 thousand years old and the latter 1.65–1.59 million years old.
This makes Lantian Man the second-oldest firmly dated Homo erectus beyond Africa (after Homo erectus georgicus) and the oldest in East Asia. [R4]

Known Philatelic items:
  • Lantian Man, Homo erectus lantianensis depicted on several postmarks of China in 1992: [1] (see on the right), [2].
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China: Hulu cave on Tangshan hill near Nanjing city,
Tang-Shan Cave and Homo erectus nankinensis on postmark of China 1996 Tang-Shan Cave on postmark of China 2003
Head reconstruction of Homo erectus nankinensis and the landscape of the Hulu cave on postmarks of China.
In 1992, group of scientits from the Nanjing Institute of Geology and Paleontology (NIGP) identified the Hulu cave near the town of Tangshen roughly 26 km east of Nanjing city as a mammalian fossil bearing site, and organised further excavations with the Institute of Vertebrate Paleontology and Paleoanthropology (IVPP) headquartered in Beijing.
In March 1993, local labourer Liu Luhong discovered two partial skull fragments, the first retaining most of the face, and an upper molar. The mammal assemblage indicated Huludong was roughly contemporaneous with the Zhoukoudian cave site near Beijing, home of the Peking Man (the reason why the IVPP joined in the first place).
Later these fossils were named Nanjing Man, scientific name Homo erectus nankinensis. The age of Homo erectus nankinensis estimated of 580,000 to 620,000 years old.
The extended occupation of East Asia by Homo erectus suggested by the dating of the Nanjing fossils supports the hypothesis that a transitional species between Homo erectus subspecies of Asia and pre-modern Homo sapiens existed. [R3]

Known Philatelic items:
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China: Longgupo cave near Zhenlongping Village, Miaoyu Town of Wushan County, Chongqing.
Longgupo cave and the Wushan Man on postmarks of China 1998
Longgupo cave and the Wushan Man on postmarks of China 1998.
The cave at Longgupo is called "Dragon Bone Slope", due to the way the collapse of the cave's roof and walls shaped the above land.
It was discovered as a site containing fossils in 1984 and then initially excavated by a team of Chinese scientists, led by Huang Wanpo of the Institute of Vertebrate Paleontology and Paleoanthropology in Beijing and the Chongqing National Museum (Sichuan Province) from 1985 to 1988.
The deposits on the cave floor are over 22 m deep, with the 10 m containing fossils overlain by 12 m that don't have any fossil.
Some of the fossils excavated by the team, in 1985, were belongs to remains of an extinct, undetermined non-hominin ape.
The remains are dated to around 2 million years ago and were originally considered to represent a subspecies of Homo erectus (Homo erectus wushanensis).
It unformal name is the Wushan Man (literally "Shaman Mountain Man").
Fossils of many other mammals werer discovered in the cave, including large ape Gigantopithecus and an extinct pygmy giant panda Ailuropoda microta.
The discovery of the Wushan Man, suggests that hominids entered Asia before 2 million years ago, coincident with the earliest diversification of genus Homo in Africa. [R5]

Known Philatelic items:
  • postmark of China from 1998 (see on the top-right)
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China: Yuanmou Basin near Shangnabang village, Yuanmou County, Yunnan Province, southwestern China.
Yuanmou Man (Homo erectus yuanmouensis) on postmark of China 2005
Yuanmou Man (Homo erectus yuanmouensis) on postmark of China 2005.
The Yuanmou Basin sits just to the southeast of the Tibetan Plateau, and is the lowest basin on the central Yunnan–Guizhou Plateau.
The Yuanmou Formation has been identified as a fossil-bearing site since the 1920s and palaeontological work on the area suggest a Lower Pleistocene age.
On May 1, 1965, geologist Qian Fang recovered two archaic human upper first incisors (catalogue number V1519) from fossiliferous deposits of the Yuanmou Basin near Shangnabang village, Yuanmou County, Yunnan Province, China.
The teeth were formally described in 1973 by Chinese palaeoanthropologist Hu Chengzhi, who identified it as a new subspecies of Homo erectus, distinct from and much more archaic than the Middle Pleistocene Peking Man.
He named it Homo erectus yuanmouensis and believed it represents an early stage in the evolution of Chinese Homo erectus. Later on, a partial tibia (also known as the shinbone or shankbone) presumed to have belonged to a female and 16 stone tools were discoverd in the Yuamou Basin by a team of the Chinese Academy of Geosciences and the Institute of Vertebrate Paleontology and Paleoanthropology.
Both fossils assigned now to Homo erectus yuanmouensis, also called t.he Yuanmou Man. These fossils estimated to be at 1.7-2 million years old.
According to the recent research Yuanmou Man inhabited a mixed environment featuring grassland, bushland, marshland, and forest dominated by pine and alder. They lived alongside chalicotheres, deer, the elephant Stegodon, rhinos, cattle, pigs, and the giant short-faced hyaena (fossils of over 35 animals were discovered in the Yuanmou Formation to date).
[R6]

Known Philatelic items:
  • postmark of China 1995, show the teeth
  • postmark of China 1997, show the Yuanmou earth forest
  • postmark of China 2000, show a head reconstruction of the Yuanmou Man (Homo erectus yuanmouensis)
  • postmark of China 2005, show a head reconstruction of the Yuanmou Man (Homo erectus yuanmouensis) and a mount in the Yuanmou Formation, see on the top-right
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China: Zhoukoudian Peking Man Site,
archaeological site near the village of Zhoukoudian, Beijing municipality, China, 42 km southwest of the central city.
Prehistoric humand at Zhoukoudian Peking Man Site on the cachet of postal stationery of China 1989
Prehistoric humand at Zhoukoudian Peking Man Site on the cachet of postal stationery of China 1989.
The site, including some four residential areas, has yielded the largest known collection of fossils of the extinct hominin Homo erectus—altogether some 40 incomplete skeletons, which are commonly known as the Peking man fossils.
Remains of anatomically modern humans (Homo sapiens) have also been excavated there. The discoveries at Zhoukoudian have proved vital to advancing the study of human evolution.

Adequate water supplies and natural limestone caves in this area provided an optimal survival environment for early humans.

Swedish geologist Johan Gunnar Andersson first started his explorations of the region in 1918, He was intrigued by tales of “dragon bones” that local people found in the clefts and used for medicinal purposes.
In 1921 Andersson and American palaeontologist Walter W. Granger were led to the site known as Dragon Bone Hill by local quarry men.
During the exploration, Andersson discovered some quartz pieces that could have been used as early cutting tools. This discovery lent credence to his theory that the bones were actually human fossils.
The excavation continued by Austrian paleontologist Otto Zdansky in 1921 and 1923 unearthing two human teeth.
These were later identified by Canadian paleoanthropologist Davidson Black as belonging to a previously unknown species, which he named Sinanthropus pekinensis, and extensive excavations followed.
In 1929 the first skullcap was unearthed at the site by Chinese paleontologist Pei Wenzhong.

So far, ancient human fossils, cultural remains and animal fossils from 23 localities within the property dating from 5 million years ago to 10,000 years ago have been discovered by international scientists.
These include the remains of Homo erectus pekinensis, who lived in the Middle Pleistocene (700,000 to 200,000 years ago), archaic Homo sapiens of about 200,000–100,000 years ago and Homo sapiens sapiens dating back to 30,000 years ago.
At the same time, fossils of hundreds of animal species, over 100,000 pieces of stone tools and evidence (including hearths, ash deposits and burnt bones) of Peking Man using fire have been discovered.

The international, interdisciplinary team at Zhoukoudian during the 1920s and 1930s included the key researchers who influenced the fields of paleoanthropology and Paleolithic archaeology until near the end of the twentieth century.
Research by scholars including French anthropologists and priests Abbe Henri Breuil and Pierre Teilhard de Chardin (both were depicted on several French and international postage stamps and postmarks) and many others assured that Zhoukoudian would become the main point of reference for our understanding of human biological and cultural evolution in East Asia.

In 1953 the Zhoukoudian Peking Man Site Museum was opened just 500 meters away from the Longgu Hill, where the first complete fossilized Peking Man skullcap was excavated by Chinese paleontologist Pei Wenzhong in 1929.
In 1962 the Zhoukoudian site was designated one of the foremost protected cultural sites by the State Council and inscribed in the World Cultural Heritage list in 1987 by UNESCO. [R2]

Known Philatelic items:
Reconstruction of the Peking Man and some ladscapes of the Zhoukoudian Peking Man Site on commemorative postmark of China Philatelic stuff issued by Chinese Post in 2018
Reconstruction of the Peking Man and some ladscapes of Zhoukoudian Peking Man Site on commemorative postmark of China (on the left). Philatelic stuff issued by Chinese Post in 2018 (on the right). Many thanks to the fellow collector Peter Brandhuber for these compilations.

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France: Biache-Saint-Vaast
is a commune in the Pas-de-Calais department in the Hauts-de-France region in northern France.
The Museum of Tautavel European Center of Prehistory on postmark of France 1981
Biache-Saint-Vaast prehistoric site on postmark of France 1982.
A 180,000-year- old Paleolithic site was discovered in April 1976, during the construction of a Usinor metallurgical plant. Salvage excavations, led by A. Tuffreau, followed until 1982 and uncovered the remains of two individuals, Neanderthals, including two incomplete skulls (the oldest found in the northern half of France).
The site also contained numerous animal bones and many stone tools, all in a remarkable state of preservation.
The deposit was destroyed by the construction of the factory which closed twenty-five years later.
A copy of the discovered skull can be seen at the municipal library.

Known Philatelic items:
  • postmark of France 1982-2001, see above.

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France: Les Eyzies
Les Eyzies de Tayac, Dordogne - the centre of prehistory in the Dordogne.
Prehistoric deers on the rock painting from one caves in Les Eyzies, on postmark of France 1972
Prehistoric deers on the rock painting from one caves in Les Eyzies, on postmark of France 1983
Prehistoric deers on the rock painting from one caves in Les Eyzies, on postmark of France 1972 and 1983.
Cro-Magnon Mann statue on meter farnking France 2008
Statue of Cro Magnon man at Les Eyzies de Tayac in the Dordogne departement of France on meter farnking of Dordonge, France 2008.

Dordogne is a large rural department in Southwestern France, with its prefecture in Périgueux.
Located in the Nouvelle-Aquitaine region roughly half-way between the Loire Valley and the Pyrenees, it is named after the river Dordogne, which runs through it.
It corresponds roughly to the ancient county of Périgord. In January 2022, Dordogne had a population of 413,223.

Les Eyzies is in the heart of the Vezere Valley and surrounded by many caves and prehistoric drawings and shelters - including some of the most beautiful to be seen in Europe - and other prehistoric attractions.

It was in Les Eyzies that Cro-Magnon man was discovered, The three skeletons were discovered at the end of the 19th century, as well as the cave paintings at Font de Gaume, nearby, one of the last prehistoric cave-painting sites that is still open to the public.

Les Eyzies runs along the Vezere Valley with the river Vezere on one side and the imposing overhanging cliff above the village on the other.
The village is home to a number of important sites including the National Prehistory Museum which houses one of the world’s most complete collections of prehistoric artifacts.

The Statue of Cro Magnon man was sculpted by Paul Dardé (1888-1963), a French Sculptor. In 1931, the statue was inaugurated by Paul Léon, Minister of the Fine Arts.
It is situated in the Eyzies, in the front of the National Museum of Prehistory. Known as «the Cro Magnon man», the statue was to represent the Neanderthal man, but its creator entitled it "The primitive man",

[R8]

Known Philatelic items:
  • landscape postmark of France 2006 with statue of Cro Magnon man at Les Eyzies de Tayac in the Dordogne departement of France (see above).
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Germany: Bilzingsleben
is a former stone quarry in Thuringia, Germany, notable for its wealth of palaeolithic human fossils and artifacts.
Excavation site Bilzingsleben, on postcard of Germany
Excavation site Bilzingsleben, on postcard of Germany

Bilzingsleben is located on the northern border of the Thuringian Basin, a depression made of triassic Keuper. To the North are the Kyffhaeuser mountains, Hainleite and Schmuecke that contain mainly Bunter sandstone and Muschelkalk deposits.

Fossils had been found at the site as far as back as the 13th century.
In 1908 geologist Ewald Wüst (1875-1934) of the University of Halle-Wittenberg published his first work on local flint artifacts.
Amateur researcher Adolf Spengler took up work at the site in 1922.
In 1969 Dietrich Mania, later professor at the University of Jena, discovered numerous fossils and artifacts during a routine investigation.
Under the auspices of the Halle State Museum of Prehistory a systematic excavation was launched in 1971 that lasted until 1992 during which 1,600 m2 were documented and several human fossils were unearthed.
In 1974 a piece of a human skull was identified among the finds.
To date, 37 human bones and teeth have been found, mainly parts of the skull.
They represent the remains of at least three individuals and have been classified as Homo erectus bilzingslebenensis by Emanuel Vlcek.
The remains of the skulls show that they had been intentionally smashed postmortem, maybe as part of a burial rite.
There are striking similarities between the Bilzingsleben-man and the Homo erectus finds Olduvai Huminid from East Africa and the Peking and Java mans. [R9]

Known Philatelic items:
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References:



Acknowledgements:
  • Many thanks to fellow collector Peter Brandhuber from Germany (who run Evolution of mankind and Philately group on facebook) for his help to find and identify many postmarks of China related to Paleoanthropology and who also provided me many good scans from his own collection.