Journeys to the past

In Africa

Thanks to the Belt and Road Initiative, Chinese archaeologists now have more opportunity to conduct joint archaeological research around the world owning to recent intergovernmental agreements. According to statistics of the National Cultural Heritage Administration, Chinese archaeologists participated in 38 archaeological projects overseas in 2019, cooperating with around 20 countries.

In Kenya, Chinese archaeologists from the Henan Provincial Institute of Cultural Heritage and Archaeology and Shandong University conducted a joint research project into the origins of modern humans－a hot topic in global academia.

They began excavations in September at a site on Lake Bogoria dating back to the mid-Paleolithic period, which in Africa refers to an era between 250,000 and 40,000 years ago.

"Fundamental methodologies of Paleolithic archaeology are basically the same all over the world," Zhao Qingpo, an archaeologist from the Henan Provincial Institute of Cultural Heritage and Archaeology, says. "Consequently, it is really convenient for us to have exchanges with overseas scholars in this field."

Sparse vegetation and continuous rainfall have led to many relics being discovered lying on the open ground. However, it is still not easy to spot them in an area of around 16 square kilometers.

"We can only walk all around the area," Zhao says, recalling the tough but exciting days spent working in the field. "If we traveled in a vehicle, important findings could be easily overlooked."

Zhao and his colleagues identified 14 key excavation sites by Lake Bogoria, where 5,000 pieces of stone tools－choppers, scrapers, adzes and pickaxes, among others－were unearthed. On a 2-square-meter spot alone, over 700 relics were found within a 15-centimeter-deep layer of earth.

"There is no doubt that the site used to be a workshop," he says. "The adoption of the Levallois technique (a distinctive type of stone knapping) to create these highly standardized stone objects was apparent, where it functioned much like a modern assembly line. The ancient humans who used this process had a strong cognitive ability."

The site at Lake Bogoria was accidentally unearthed by a local villager who was a guide for the Leakey family, a group of renowned British archaeologists credited with many key findings on early-stage humans.

Standing in a local museum, surrounded by a myriad of relics dating back more than 2 million years, Zhao realizes how difficult it is to catch up with Western scholars, who have been studying the origins of humans for over a century.

Nevertheless, for Zhao, traveling to Kenya has not only been an academic pilgrimage. He says through the ongoing project, and following key findings in China in the recent years, Chinese scholars can also have their voices better heard in the study of modern humans－which is thought to have begun some 200,000 years ago.

According to current Sino-Kenyan agreement, the research on Lake Bogoria site will last for four years, but Zhao expects that to be extended.

"The Leakey family were stationed in Africa for decades," he says. "We need to adopt a similar attitude and focus on one place for a long time. Harvests only follow persistence."