Originally unearthed in the late 1920s, the Sanxingdui Ruins have been regarded as one of the world’s greatest archaeological     1     (finding) of the 20th century. In July this year, a     2     (new) completed exhibition hall at the world-famous Sanxingdui Museum opened in Guanghan, Sichuan Province.

    3     (cover) an area of nearly 55,000 square meters, the exhibition hall is now the largest single exhibition building showcasing the cultural relics     4     (dig) from historical sites in southwest China. The new hall     5     (hold) more than 1,500 cultural items, with 600 of them on show for the first time.

One iconic (标志性的) exhibit is the four-meter-tall bronze sacred tree,     6     takes up the central position in the new hall. And it makes a much     7     (strong) visual impression than it did in the old hall. The bronze altar (青铜神坛) that was discovered last year is also     8     impressive piece of artwork. It is made up of three parts and shows ancient sacrificial (献祭的) scenes.

Divided into three themed areas, the exhibition hall makes use of a range of new technologies     9     (celebrate) the cultural features and social development of the Shu civilization. It also shows China’s latest achievements     10     archaeological research.

The site of Changgan ancient city, unearthed in Xijie site of east China’s Nanjing City, has been confirmed to date back to 3, 100 years ago,     1    (extend) Nanjing’s history by more than 600 years, Nanjing institute of archaeology said.

The site of the ancient city, named “Changgan”, the     2    (early) known name of the city of Nanjing, features relics of a platform, ring ditches, walls, doorways and sacrificial pits.

During the excavations that began in 2017, archaeologists     3    (unearth) four ring ditches from the Shang and Zhou dynasties (1600 BC-256 BC), containing collapsed rammed-earth walls, said Chen Dahai,     4     archaeologist with the institute, who was responsible for the excavation.

“We also found more evidence supporting our     5    (conclude), including a well on the side of the ditch     6     was originally constructed during the late Shang Dynasty and the unearthed pottery     7    (decorate) with triangular and ladder patterns, ”Chen added.

According to carbon-14 dating data, it is identified that the various artifacts date back to the period ranging from the late Shang Dynasty     8     the early Zhou Dynasty.

Up to now, the excavation area at the Xijie site has reached     9    (approximate) 12, 000 square meters, with more than 500 relics of various types     10     over 10, 000 specimens (样本) of archaeological importance unearthed.

3 . The Canadian Fossil Discovery Centre has recently “rediscovered” an ancient shark skeleton that has been sitting in the museum’s collection for nearly 50 years. Could this shark be a part of a newly discovered ancient shark species?

This fossil’s original discovery was in 1975 on a farm just west of Morden, Manitoba. The skeleton was brought into the museum and was forgotten within the ever-growing fossil collection. The skeleton was hidden in the collections room for over 40 years and the center just recently found the fossil in its storage around eight years ago.

Adolfo Cuertara, the director of the Canadian Fossil Discovery Centre, explained that “It’s a very special shark for many reasons. It’s highly possible that we are talking about a new species.” Although the shark has not been given a scientific name yet, the museum has unofficially named the skeleton, “Dave”, in honor of the farmer on whose land the skeleton was found.

After the fossil rediscovery, Dave was exhibited at the fossil center museum. Dave is around 15 feet long and is one of the largest well-preserved shark skeletons in the entire world. Within the paleontology (古生物学) world, complete shark fossils are extremely rare due to their soft cartilage (软骨结构) which disintegrates as they age. Dave’s shark species are filter feeders with no teeth, who receive their nutrition by absorbing it out of the water. Cuertara emphasizes Dave’s uniqueness by explaining, “The shape of the jaws and the skull and the kind of structures that it has, because the preservation is really amazing, is telling us that it is probably going to be a new species. The problem is now we need scientific papers and scientific research and this paper is underway.”

The Canadian Fossil Discovery Centre is hopeful that more scientific research will provide more information on Dave’s ancient shark species. For now, Dave is currently on display at the Canadian Fossil Discovery Centre and the museum has the exhibit up to date with their current information.

5 . According to a new research, published in the journal Nature by a team from the University of Liverpool, humans were building structures made of wood, dating back at least 476,000 years ago. The research team found well-preserved wood at the site of Kalambo Falls, Zambia. Stone tool cut-marks on the wood show that these early humans shaped and joined two large logs (原木) to make a structure, probably the foundation of a platform. This is the earliest evidence in the world of the designed arrangement of logs to fit together.

Until now, evidence for the human use of wood was limited to its use for making fire, digging sticks and other tools. Wood is rarely found in such ancient sites as it usually rots and disappears, but at Kalambo Falls permanently high water levels kept the wood.

This discovery challenges the prevailing view that Stone Age humans were moving around. Here humans not only had a constant source of water, but the forest around them provided enough food to enable them to settle and make structures. Professor Larry Barham, from the University of Liverpool, who leads the “Deep Roots of Humanity” research project said, “This find has changed how I think about our early ancestors. They used their intelligence, imagination, and skills to create something they’d never seen before, something that had never previously existed.”

The special new luminescence (冷光) dating technique was carried out by experts, which explains the last time materials in the sand surrounding the finds were exposed to sunlight, to determine their age. This research forms part of the pioneering “Deep Roots of Humanity” project. Professor Barham added, “Kalambo Falls is an extraordinary site in Zambia. The Deep Roots team is looking forward to more exciting discoveries coming from its waterlogged sands.”

The Gansu Jiandu (简牍) Museum in northwest China’s Gansu Province on Sunday launched four online exhibitions related to the ancient Jiandu culture.

“Jiandu” refers to the bamboo and wooden slips on which ancient Chinese people wrote     1     (use) ink and brushes before the invention of paper. Since 1907, over 80,000 slips     2     (unearth), in Gansu province,     3     is particularly abundant in bamboo and wooden slips, contributing to our understanding of ancient Chinese culture and knowledge. These artifacts hold significant historical, scientific, and     4     (art) value.

Additionally, the exhibitions feature high-resolution     5     (image) of the museum’s cultural artifacts, accompanied by detailed text and voice explanations     6     (help) audiences gain a deeper understanding of the items     7     display, said Xu Rui, the museum’s deputy curator. The digital exhibitions also include interactive experiences such as riddle challenges and Jiandu-making games, aiming to attract young visitors, Xu said.

Distinguished as China’s only provincial-level museum focusing on bamboo and wooden slips, the Gansu Jiandu Museum boasts     8    collection of nearly 40,000 such slips     9     (date) back to the Qin Dynasty (221-207 B.C.) and Western Jin Dynasty (265-317). In addition, it     10     (house) more than 10,000 other artifacts, including paper, textiles, woodenware, lacquerware (漆器) and ironware.

8 . Sound echoing within caves may have also influenced what early humans put on rock walls. Thousands of years ago, early humans adventured deep within a cave, where sound bounced off the walls. Perhaps by either speaking or walking, they generated the sound re-mindful of a hoof. To represent this sound, they drew a hoofed animal.

They would have been using the same skills that facilitated the earlier development of language, theorizes anew study. “Our research suggests that the cognitive mechanisms (认知机制) necessary for the development of cave and rock art are likely to be similar to those employed in the expression of the symbolic thinking required for language.” says Cora Leisure, a linguist at MIT and one of the study’s authors.

Whether or not this art would have shaped how language further developed is doubtful. The study’s researchers note that language is thought to have evolved around 100,000 years ago. And the oldest forms of cave art found date back roughly 40,000 years. “We could assume that human language. emerged as an abstract symbolic system, while its expression — in the form of cave and rock art, or any other modality — may have appeared very late,” says Vitor Nobrega, a linguist at the University of Sao Paulo and author on the study.

The markings, they suggest, are external representations of internalized thought. “It’s a theory contrary to a belief among archaeologists (考古学家) that language doesn’t fossilize,” says Lesure, adding that their study doesn’t outright say the cave art they looked at equals language, only that the same cognitive functions may have been present.

Archaeologists have theorized early evidence of language can be found in objects like converted bones that may have been used for anything from counting days to taking attendance. But they are still searching for some of the first physical evidence of linguistic capabilities. The sound factor is an important one to consider, but it was not the only explanation for why people made marks in the places they did.

9 . That dinosaurs ate the mammals (哺乳动物) that ran beneath their feet is not in doubt. Now an extraordinary fossil newly described in Scientific Reports, unearthed by a team led by Gang Han at Hainan Vocational University of Science and Technology in China, shows that sometimes the tables were turned.

The fossil -dated to about 125 million years ago, during the Cretaceous period-was formed when a flow of boiling volcanic mud swallowed two animals seemingly locked in a life-and-death fight. The one on top is a mammal. This animal is a herbivorous species closely related to the Triceratops (三角恐龙). Animal interactions such as this are exceptionally cam e in the fossil record.

One possibility is that the mammal was eating something already dead, other than hunting live prey. These days it is uncommon for small mammals to attack much larger animals. But it is not unheard of. And Dr. Han and his colleagues point out that those mammals which eat dead bodies typically leave tooth marks all over the bones of the animals. The dinosaur’s remains show no such marks. There is also a chance the fossil could be a fake. More and more convincing fake s have emerged, as this one did -though Dr. Han and his colleagues argue that the complexly connected nature of the skeletons (骨骼) makes that unlikely, too.

Assuming it is genuine, the discovery serves as a reminder that not all dinosaurs were enormous during the Cretaceous and not all mammals were tiny. From nose to tail, the dinosaur is just 1.2 meters long. The mammal is a bit under half a meter in length. Despite being half the size, the mammal has one paw firmly wrapped around one of its prey’s limbs, and another pulling on its jaw. It is biting down on the dinosaur’s chest, and has ripped off two of its ribs. Before they were interrupted, it seems that the mammal was winning.