Work

New evidence for the terminal pleistocene funerary-associated ochre use in southwestern China

Year: 2025

Type: article

Abstract: Although archeological findings have suggested the long history of ochre exploitation by humans, the cultural implications of prehistoric funerary ochre remain unclear due to a lack of in-situ preservation consisting of ochre, artifacts, and human skeletons. This paper aims to investigate how humans in southwestern China interacted with ochre minerals in the terminal Pleistocene. We collected a set of red remains from the Qingshuiyuan Dadong site, dating to ca. 11 cal ka BP, which have been identified as hematite using multiple geochemistry techniques. Combined with microscopic observation of grave goods and ethnographic investigations, our study suggests that the ochre was consciously applied to stone artifacts and placed in burials as a possible component of funerary rituals at that time. By further integrating their archeological context, we inferred the use of ochre could be a cultural link in a broader regions.

Source: npj Heritage Science

DOI: 10.1038/s40494-025-02140-9