Zuojhen Man

The Zuojhen Man is a human fossil. Scholars named it the “Zuojhen Man” due to its being discovered in Tsai-Liao Creek (Chinese: 菜寮溪) in Zuojhen District,[note 1]Tainan City. Fossils of Zuojhen Man were once determined to be approximately 20,000 to 30,000 years old, earning it the title of being “Taiwan’s most ancient man.” In a reexamination in 2015, the fossil was determined to be from the late Neolithic period, 3,000 years ago.[1][2][3]

## Excavations and research

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The first piece of Zuojhen Man’s fossil was discovered in August 1970 by amateur fossil collectors Guo Deling (Chinese: 郭德鈴)[note 2] and his son Guo Donghui (Chinese: 郭東輝)[note 3] from Tainan City.[4][5] When the father and son were collecting fossils in Tsai-Liao Creek of then Zuojhen Township, Tainan County, Guo Donghui found a piece of skull fossil on the riverbed southwest of the village Sanchong Creek (Chinese: 三重溪). The two of them were unable to confirm whether it belonged to a man or an ape, so they kept it.[4][5]

On November 19, 1971, amateur fossil collector Pan Changwu and others discovered intact fossil pieces of the rhinoceros species Nesorhinus hayasakai, and Guo Deling discovered fossils of the elaphure species Elaphurus formosanus. These discoveries brought attention from the Taiwan Provincial Museum (Chinese: 台灣省立博物館, nowadays National Taiwan Museum Chinese: 國立台灣博物館) and National Taiwan University. As a result, Professor Song Wenxun (Chinese: 宋文薰) from National Taiwan University’s Department of Archaeology and Anthropology and Professor Lin Chaoqi (Chinese: 林朝棨) from Department of Geology, accompanied by Taiwan Provincial Museum’s Curator Liu Yen (Chinese: 劉衍), Director Jin Liangchen (Chinese: 金良晨), He Xunyao (Chinese: 何勛堯) and others, traveled south for prospecting in late December.[4][5] They observed Guo Deling’s fossil collection afterward, which included the skull fragment discovered in 1970.[6][7] After Guo Deling showed the fragment to Song Wenxun and Lin Chaoqi, they brought it back to National Taiwan University for research.[4][5]

In 1972, in order to dig up the fossil of a whole rhinoceros, Taiwan Provincial Museum hired Japanese scholars Shikama Tokio (Chinese: 鹿間時夫)[note 4] and Ootsuka Hiroyuki (Chinese: 大塚裕之)[note 5] to come to Taiwan and help. Later in August 1973, National Taiwan University’s Professor Lin Chaoqi asked the Japanese scholars to take the skull fragment back to Japan for identification.[4][8] In January 1974, Pan Changwu gave another piece of skull fossil he had discovered to Shikama Tokio for identification in Japan. Later the same year, Pan donated still another piece of skull fossil to Taiwan Provincial Museum.[8]

The fossils were preliminarily judged by Japanese scholars as human. After undergoing fluorine and manganese measurements, it was determined that the fragments’ absolute age was approximately 20,000 to 30,000 years.[9][6] As the three aforementioned human skull pieces were all discovered in Tsai-Liao Creek of Zuojhen Township, Tainan County, scholars named the species “Zuojhen Man.” During the period, another amateur fossil collector, ”Fossil Grandpa” Chen Chunmu (Chinese: 陳春木), found another four pieces of skull fossil in Kong-a-nah (Chinese: 崗仔林).[8] In 1976, a report on these pieces was formally published on the Journal of the Anthropological Society of Nippon (《日本人類學會期刊》). In 1977, Pan Changwu provided National Taiwan University a human tooth fossil, and the next year Chen Chunmu mailed another human tooth fossil collected by Chen Jitang (陳濟堂). Later, the university’s Professor Lian Chaomei conducted research on them.[6][8]

In 2014, the National Taiwan Museum initiated a “Re-research on Zuojhen Man” project, and the project team sent specimen samples of the Zuojhen skull fossils to a lab in the United States for examination.[10][11] Results of carbon-14 dating showed one of the skull fossil specimens (AH006672) was approximately 3,000 years old,[12] while another specimen (AH006674) was 250 years old. The project team took another sample from the same specimen (AH006672) and sent it to the Australian National University for examination in the same year without sharing their results. The new result obtained was similar to the initial examination, in that the age of specimen AH006672 was dated as approximately 3,000 years.[3]

## Culture

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As there were only fossils and no archaeological ruins or cultural relics[note 6] discovered with regard to Zuojhen Man,[9] it could only be confirmed as having existed. Its culture was speculated to be Changbin (Chinese: 長濱文化) or Wangxing (Chinese: 網型文化)[6][13] which were both late-Paleolithic cultures. However, studies in 2015 negated the possibility that Zuojhen Man lived in the Paleolithic Era. Its culture is currently unclear.[14]

## Notes

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1. ^ When the fossils were discovered, it was Zuojhen Township of Tainan County by the administrative division at that time.
2. ^ He was an assistant manager in First Bank at that time.[4]
3. ^ He was a first-year student at Tainan First Senior High School at that time.[4]
4. ^ He was a professor at Yokohama National University and president of the Palaeontological Society of Japan at that time.[4]
5. ^ He was an assistant professor at Kagoshima University at that time.[4]
6. ^ The pottery and stoneware discovered on the riverbed of Tsai-Liao Creek were made after the Neolithic Era, which is a different time from the Zuojhen Man.[8]

## Reference

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1. ^ 陳至中 (2016-01-05). "左鎮人翻案後 長濱文化台灣最早". 中央社. Archived from the original on 2018-05-17. Retrieved 2016-01-10.
2. ^ 蕭玗欣 (2016-01-05). "歷史教科書都錯了！ 左鎮人是台灣最早人類被推翻". ETtoday新聞雲. Archived from the original on 2023-03-22. Retrieved 2023-03-22.
3. ^ a b 邱, 鴻霖; 陳, 有貝 (2016). 左鎮人再研究. 臺北市: 國立臺灣博物館. ISBN 9789860479195.
4. ^ a b c d e f g h i 陳春木 (August 2005). "〈-{台}-灣初次發現的化石人類〉（1974年）". 《左鎮地方史》 (葉春榮 編 ed.). 臺南縣政府. pp. 204–208\. ISBN 957-01-5738-0.
5. ^ a b c d 尹章義（總編纂） (June 2012). 《左鎮鄉志【上】》. 臺南市左鎮區公所. pp. 67–70\. ISBN 978-986-03-2996-4.
6. ^ a b c d 鄭佳韻、謝明俸、謝米亮、林志秋、林炳宏、許清保、梁茂隆、陳榮輝、吳瑞祥、張維文、朱玉君、黃智信、張溪南、趙文榮、許永河、周俊霖、游凌雀、潘豐富、謝文雄、姜天陸、王文亮、林正忠 (2004). 黃文博總編 (ed.). 《南瀛探索》. 台南縣政府. pp. 127－135頁. ISBN 957-01-6484-0.
7. ^ 何傳坤 (2002). "淺談-{台}-南縣史前文化". 台中: 國立自然科學博物館. Retrieved 2014-03-19.
8. ^ a b c d e 連照美 (December 2012). "〈臺南縣菜寮溪的人類化石〉". 《國立臺灣大學考古人類學刊》. 國立臺灣大學文學院考古人類學系: 53–71\. ISSN 0077-5843.
9. ^ a b 吳建昇、蔡郁蘋、杜正宇、蔡博任 (March 2013). 《大臺南的前世今生》. 臺南市政府文化局. pp. 12, 13. ISBN 978-986-03-5182-8.
10. ^ 呂, 孟璠 (2017). 張, 婉真 (ed.). 左鎮人的「發現」與「再發現」：臺博館典藏左鎮人頭骨化石的文化意義. 國立臺灣博物館. pp. 243–266\. ISBN 9789860535259.
11. ^ 陳, 歆怡 (February 2016). "左鎮人解謎 尋找台灣最早人類？". 經典雜誌.
12. ^ 周美惠 (2015-12-24). "大翻案！左鎮人距今3千非2萬年 可能改寫台灣史前史". 聯合報. Archived from the original on 2021-03-01. Retrieved 2015-12-24.
13. ^ 劉益昌 (2001-03-19). "-{台}-灣的史前文化". 台北: 財團法人吳三連-{台}-灣史料基金會. Archived from the original on 2014-08-08. Retrieved 2014-03-19.
14. ^ "台灣最早人類是誰？新證據出現". 自由時報. 2015-12-24. Archived from the original on 2021-03-01. Retrieved 2015-12-24.