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Quesang Handprints

Parietal art on Tibetan Plateau
World's oldest hand prints

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Quesang Handprints on travertine boulder, Tibet
Middle Paleolithic handprints arranged on limestone boulder at Quesang, Tibet. Image by David D. Zhang et al.'Earliest parietal art: hominin hand and foot traces from the middle Pleistocene of Tibet.' (CC BY-NC-ND 4.0)

World's Oldest Handprints

In 2018, a series of handprints (and footprints) were discovered on a travertine boulder at Quesang on the Tibetan Plateau.

Scientists believe they were purposely placed in the soft stone by two children, in the middle of an Ice Age, between roughly 167,000 and 224,000 BC.

This makes them by far the oldest known handprints in history.

What's more, the scientists interpret the ichnological event as a conscious artistic act. If they are right, it means that the Qesang Handprints are the oldest example of parietal art (not-portable) in the world. The prints are also the first evidence of early humans on the High Tibetan Plateau.

Location and Discovery

The archaeological site is close to an active hot spring, which is located near the village of Quesang, roughly 100 km northwest of Lhasa in Tibet, on a tributary of the Xiong Qu River.

The first hand and foot impressions were found by David Zhang of Guangzhou University back in 1988. Thirty years later, investigations by a research team from Guangzhou University, China, and Bournemouth University, UK, led to the discovery of the parietal art, which had been exposed by the natural removal of an overlying block.

Hydrothermal springs and travertine deposits are quite common on the Tibetan Plateau. At Quesang, the layer of travertine - the same stuff that forms stalagmites and stalactites in limestone caves - forms a fan-like veneer across a wide slope. The childrens' prints were discovered on a small rocky outcrop near the base of the slope.

How were the Handprints Preserved?

Just like human footprints or dog paw prints accidentallly left in soft cement, are preserved as the cement hardens, the Tibetan children's prints were left in the mud-like clay which builds up around hot springs. This travertine material eventually cooled and lithified, thus preserving the prints until today.

Details of the Handprints

According to the research team's report (lead author David Zhang), published in the journal Science Bulletin, there are five handprints and five footprints, all of which fitted exactly into a set space, and were neatly arranged close to each other, indicating they were deliberately positioned, rather than left by chance.

Judging by their size and height they were likely made by two children - a 12-year-old, and a 7-year-old.

Matthew Bennett, Professor of Environmental and Geographical Sciences at Bournemouth University, another member of the research team, said: “You could just imagine these children playing in the mud by a hot spring, placing their hands and feet carefully, where they have been preserved for thousands of years for us to find, like a child might do in cement today. ”

Who were these children? No DNA evidence exists to indicate what species of early humans they belonged to, but since modern Homo sapiens did not reach the region until around 100,000 BC, they are likely to have been Neanderthals or Denisovans rather than a species of modern humans.

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Dating

The travertine surface on which the handprints and footprints were placed, was analyzed using uranium series dating, and dated to between 167,000 and 224,000 BC.

This places them in the first half of the Middle Paleolithic era of the Pleistocene epoch, alongside artistic phenomena such as the Venus of Berekhat Ram (230,000 BC), the Auditorium Cave Cupules (200,000-500,000 BC), and the Neanderthal Bruniquel Cave Structures (175,000 BC).

Are Quesong Handprints Conscious Art?

Tests have shown that the handprints were not left on the rock in an attempt to stabilize motion, and the footprints were not left as a result of normal locomotion.

As a result, the research team believes the tracks represent a conscious artistic act, a conclusion which is not likely to be universally agreed with.

This is quite normal - archaeologists often disagree about what does and does not amount to prehistoric art.

However, it's worth pointing out that handprints are generally accepted as a valid form of rock art, especially when found in caves.

They may not be as 'artistic' as the black bulls of Lascaux Cave, but they are seen as a perfectly valid form of graffiti-style art.

According to Bennett, a specialist in ancient prints and tracks, “There’s something playful, creative, possibly symbolic about this. This gets at a very fundamental question of what it actually means to be human.”

Oldest Handprints in Prehistory

Handprints left on rock surfaces are a regular feature of Stone Age culture, especially in paleolithic caves within Europe and SE Asia, although the vast majority are made using pigments. According to recent analysis, the majority of painted hands in caves belong to women or children.

There are two basic types of handprint.

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The oldest handprints/hand stencils are found at the following sites:

Other Prehistoric Sites in Tibet

NEXT: Prehistoric Art Timeline (from 540,000 BC).

References

(1)"Earliest parietal art: hominin hand and foot traces from the middle Pleistocene of Tibet." David D.Zhang. Science Bulletin. Volume 66, Issue 24, 30 December 2021, Pages 2506-2515.

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