Exploration of human ichnology began in the 20th century and significant advancements have been made in the 21st century. These imprints, including footprints and handprints, are invaluable resources for elucidating the evolutionary trajectories and living contexts of ancient human populations. Unlike traditional archaeological remains, such as human fossils, cultural layers, and faunal and floral remains, exceptionally well-preserved imprints can offer unique insights into aspects like muscle morphology, mobility patterns, gender distinctions, height, and ancient population demographics. On a global scale, noteworthy ichnological research includes analyses of hominin tracks found in volcanic ash in Tanzania, Africa (dated to 3.66 Ma), footprints at White Sands National Park in New Mexico, USA (dated to 23-20 ka), and handprints discovered in Indonesian caves (dated to 51.8 ka). These imprints have significantly contributed to research on the evolution, migration, and behavioral cognition of ancient human societies. However, relatively little attention has been paid to the study of ancient human ichnology within China, and international investigations of imprints within travertine deposits are scarce. Since the 1980s, over 100 archaic human handprints and footprints have been discovered at different elevations within the multilayered sediments of the Quesang hot spring travertine, in the central Tibetan Plateau. This travertine is composed of calcium carbonate formed from the precipitation of CaCO3-supersatuated thermogenic water from the deep, underlying carbonate rocks and deposited at different elevations from 4043 m a.s.l. to 4270 m a.s.l. since 500000 a BP. The archaic hominins intentionally and unintentionally pressed their hands and feet on the surface of the soft travertine that was recently deposited when the water emerged on the surface, after which the travertine was rapidly dehydrated to form trace fossils within the travertine beds. Evidence of 3D modeling and anatomic analysis indicates that they were made by the impression of hominin hands and feet when the travertine was in a soft state, and not by carving or the use of tools. Four groups of hand and foot traces are imprinted in laminated travertine layers at two locations from the top to downslope. The older traces were exposed by weathering/sliding of the overlying layer and were preserved under the arid climate and alkaline precipitation of Tibet. U-Th dating is currently the most dependable chronometric technique for dating the thermogenic travertine, after several dating methods were tested. Pure and dense travertine samples from different depths were selected for U-Th dating, and age modeling samples eliminated the possibility of 'open system' behavior by using stratigraphic and geochemical methods. The traces in Group 4 were dated to 187.7 +/- 9.6 and 207.3 +/- 9.3 ka BP, and those in Group 1, 2 and 3 were dated to between 9.2 +/- 2 and 6.6 +/- 1 ka BP. This remarkable discovery of hominin traces further demonstrates that ancient humans, possibly Denisovans, inhabited this Alpine hypoxic environment since the middle Pleistocene, and they represent the earliest artistic behavior within the archaic hominins.

古人类印迹学的研究始于20世纪,并在21世纪快速发展.作为研究古人类演化过程和生存环境的重要媒介,古人类印迹(如脚印、手印等)具有其他考古遗存(如骨骼化石、动植物遗存、文化层等)所不具备的优势:保存状况完好的印迹可以反映古人类的肌肉形态、运动状态、性别、身高和种群构成等信息.在全球范围内,非洲坦桑尼亚火山灰上的脚印(～3.66 Ma),北美洲白沙国家公园的脚印(23～20 ka)以及印度尼西亚洞穴中的手印(51.8 ka)等,都是代表性的印迹学研究成果,为古人类演化、迁移和行为认知等方面的研究提供了关键线索.自20世纪80年代以来,青藏高原中部邱桑温泉的泉华多期沉积层中有超过100个古人类手印和脚印被陆续发现,时间跨度超过20万年.古人类印迹学研究在国内很少涉及,国际上对泉华沉积上的古人类印迹学研究也比较少,因而本文系统地综述和讨论了青藏高原上泉华形成的地质、地貌及水文条件;古人类手脚印印迹的形成过程、保存条件及其基本鉴定特征;印迹的采样、定年方法;以及印迹形态学反映的古人类行为特征等,并回应了泉华U-Th测年结果存在的一些争议.本文旨在吸纳更多有兴趣的学者加入古人类印迹学研究行列,使古人类印迹学研究成为中国考古和古环境研究中一个新的领域.

Multidisciplinary research has examined prehistoric human adaptation and survival in the Tibetan Plateau’s alpine and hypoxic environment. As an important prehistoric human hand and footprint site for studying prehistoric human activities, Quesang, on the central Tibetan Plateau, has witnessed prehistoric human arrivals at least twice: in the Middle Pleistocene and early-middle Holocene. Recent investigations along the gully incised by water flow of the active spring have discovered a series of prehistoric human footprints and repeated trampling marks on the residual travertine in the different locations of gully and their ichnological characteristics and ages are unknown. To determine whether and when the imprints were left by Hominin and explore their association with the surrounding environment and landform evolution, we conducted detailed stratigraphic and geomorphological analysis of travertine deposit, 3D modelling and morphological study of hand and footprints, as well as Uranium–Thorium and optically stimulated luminescence dating of hand and footprints and strata. Based on these analyses, we obtained the following results: The active hot springs formed after 17.37 ka BP, probably when the Bølling-Allerød Interstadial began. The newly discovered footprints and repeated trampling traces are ichnologically identified as Hominin traces, which were unintentionally impressed at 8.5–9.2 ka BP and 14.2 ka BP, respectively, and are related to the development of the gully. In the cold, dry, and anoxic environment of the Tibetan Plateau, the Quesang hot spring is undoubtedly a very attractive survival resource, attracting prehistoric humans to frequently patronise it for a long time. The discovery of these imprints provides new evidence of prehistoric human expansion and occupation on the Tibetan Plateau before and in the Holocene.

Gypsum deposits within loess deposits are an important indicator of weathering processes and climate change. We conducted a thermoluminescence (TL) dating study of the gypsum from loess deposits of the Jiuzhoutai section in the western Chinese Loess Plateau. Determination of the equivalent doses (D-e) of gypsum samples was conducted using several protocols, including single-aliquot regenerative-dose (SAR-TL), multiple-aliquot additive dose (MAAD-TL), and Isothermal TL of SAR (SAR-ITL). The TL glow peak at 280 degrees C was targeted because of its reported stable signals. The test dose check, estimation of sensitivity changes, and the dose recovery test were applied to assess the applicability of the different protocols, and the characteristics of the thermoluminescence signals for gypsum were evaluated. The D-e results for the SAR-TL, MAAD-TL, and SAR-ITL protocols were within the error ranges. Among the three protocols, SAR-ITL did not involve high-temperature heating and it provided a more accurate D-e value, and thus it was used for D-e determinations for gypsum dating. With a dose rate of 1.74 +/- 0.07 Gy/ka, the minimum TL age of the gypsum veins was similar to 182 +/- 7 ka. U-series dating was also applied to the same samples for comparison. However, the extremely low ratio of Th-230/Th-232 (<= 4 x 10(-6)) of the gypsum veins deposited within the loess resulted in a large error of the U-series dates. We conclude that TL dating is more appropriate for the dating of gypsum in loess deposits.

Previous studies have demonstrated that quartz optically stimulated luminescence (OSL) dating has limitations for samples older than the last glaciation. However, infrared stimulated luminescence (IRSL) from K-feldspar can be applied beyond this limit if the problem of anomalous fading can be overcome. Elevated temperature stim-ulated IRSL signals (pIRIR) have shown great potential for minimizing the underestimation. In this study, we compared three commonly applied protocols (pIR50IR290, pIR200IR290, MET-pIRIR) for the same set of loess samples from the Tianshan Mountains in arid central Asia (ACA). For loess samples in the 70-130 ka age range (i. e., De values in the range of 200-400 Gy), pIR200IR290 and MET-pIRIR could both be used for dating, while a varying degree of underestimation occurred for the pIR50IR290 dating protocol. For samples older than 130 ka (i. e., De values in the range of 400-700 Gy), the MET-pIRIR250 signal was the most suitable.

青藏高原中部海拔超过 4000 m的中更世古人类手脚印的发现引起了国内外古环境、考古、人类史学界的广泛关注,并予以很高评价.众多评论文章中,《河北师范大学学报(哲学与社会科学版)》上有一篇题为《西藏邱桑温泉手脚印遗迹及相关问题》的文章,对手脚印研究中的"年代"和"岩面艺术如何界定"这两个方面提出了质疑.因此特撰写此文,对这两个方面的质疑做出回应.本文将系统梳理Zhang et al.(2021)所发表的手脚印"岩面艺术"中有关"年代学"和"艺术界定"这两方面的内容,从U-Th测年在碳酸盐沉积中的应用和史前艺术的特征等方面来解答部分学者对此研究存在的疑虑和误导,并提出本文的看法:U-Th法是目前对邱桑温泉方解石泉华进行年龄测定的最合适方法,所测的年代是可靠的,并且"岩面艺术"一词是这些手脚印组合最适合的名称.

茂名市城乡生活垃圾的污染防治工作虽然取得了一定成绩,但也还存在立法不足、执法力度不够、法律监管责任缺失等问题.以问题为导向,提出制定专门的城乡生活垃圾污染防治条例、健全城乡生活垃圾管理法律制度以及强化城乡生活垃圾治理法律监督等建议,促进茂名市生活垃圾的减量化、资源化与无害化,以期为茂名市城乡生活垃圾的污染防治提供智力支持.