The amazing discovery of Denisovan's fossils traced back to a Buddhist monk

This is the first time that a Denisovan fossil has been discovered outside of Siberia, or even outside the Denisova cave. The presence of the fossil on the Tibetan plateau at high altitude finally explains why Denisovans had a genetic variant associated with resistance to altitude sickness. It also shows that the Denisovans preserved some primitive physical characteristics, such as robust molars, and that they traveled throughout Asia. In all, a very important archaeological discovery, details of which were published today in Nature.

That said, Denisovan's mandible was not discovered by the authors of the new paper, a collaboration between the Max Planck Institute for Evolutionary Anthropology (MPI-EA) and the University of New York. Lanzhou. The fossil was rather found in 1980 by an anonymous Buddhist monk who fell on the relic after venturing into the cave to pray and meditate, according to Jean-Jacques Hublin, archaeologist of MPI-EA and senior author of the new study.

This story could have ended there because of a local custom. As Hublin pointed out, the inhabitants of the nearby town of Xiahe were grinding the "sacred bones" collected in this cave to produce medicine. The monk, however, decided to hand over the fossil to Gung-Thang's Sixth Living Buddha, who handed it to the scientists at Lanzhou University. It was not until 2010 that a team of researchers from Lanzhou University was allowed to investigate the Baishiya Karst cave, which is a protected religious sanctuary, said Hublin. MPI-EA researchers joined the survey in 2016. This collaboration ultimately resulted in the identification of the mandible as belonging to a young individual from Denisovan who occupied the cave 160,000 years ago.

The discovery of this fossil now famous by the monk is an interesting story, but it presents serious obstacles for scientists.

As Hublin pointed out at a press conference earlier this week, the relic was found "outside of an archaeological context". What he meant by that, is that the mandible was not documented in its original position in the cave. As a result, archaeologists are unsure of where it came from. It will therefore be difficult in the future to associate it with objects of importance such as stone tools, cut animal bones or even other objects to discover at Denisovan. bones. As Hublin pointed out, this will pose a daunting challenge for future archaeologists. Assuming of course that other fossils or objects will be found in the cave Baishiya Karst. Fortunately, as Hublin explained to Gizmodo, a layer of carbonite crust on the mandible allowed her team to date the fossil, which means that she might be able to associate her with a particular stratigraphic layer.

Another problem with the nature of this discovery is the possibility that the mandible was delivered to the cave by the monk or someone else.

"In theory, yes," Hublin told Gizmodo after questioning about this possibility. He said that many Xiahe residents remember the discovery made by the monk almost forty years ago and that it would be "strange" for a monk to find a mandible somewhere else and assert the Found in the cave Baishiya Karst. During the press conference on Monday, Dongju Zhang, an archaeologist at Lanzhou University and co-author of the new study, said, "I do not think local people would lie about it."

Hublin said new archaeological research in the cave would only strengthen arguments for the claim that the mandible would come from this particular site. At least once the local authorities have issued permits to explore this religious sanctuary, a task that, according to Hublin, will not be easy.