The special exhibition "The Story of Longgu Slope" is launched at the China Three Gorges Museum in Chongqing and will last until January 3, 2027.

China News Service, Chongqing, September 29 (Zhang Xu) The special exhibition "The Story of Longgu Slope" was officially launched at the China Three Gorges Museum in Chongqing on September 29. The exhibition will last until January 3, 2027.

At the launch ceremony, Zhang Zhao, director of the Science and Technology Division of the Institute of Vertebrate Paleontology and Paleoanthropology, Chinese Academy of Sciences, said that the discovery of the Longgupo site is an important breakthrough in the field of East Asian prehistoric culture research in the past 40 years, and has a profound impact on the research of human origins and Paleolithic archeology.

The picture shows the opening ceremony of the special exhibition "The Story of Longgu Slope". Photo by Li Zhengyi

Zhang Zhao said that in April this year, the Institute of Vertebrate Paleontology and Paleoanthropology of the Chinese Academy of Sciences signed a strategic cooperation framework agreement with the China Three Gorges Museum in Chongqing and the Wushan County People's Government. In the future, the institute will continue to conduct in-depth scientific research on ancient human and paleontological resources in Wushan County, and assist in the completion of relevant protection, research and application work for the Longgupo site.

Ren Pengyu, deputy secretary of the Wushan County Committee of the Communist Party of China, said in his speech that the Longgupo site is undergoing inheritance and development from "protection and excavation" to "activation and utilization", and every departure is worth looking forward to. Under the guidance of superior departments, Wushan County will work hand in hand with brother units to create the "Longgupo National Archaeological Site Park" as the traction, with deepening the research on "human origins and evolution" as the core, and "Longgupo activation and utilization" as the starting point, insisting on creative transformation and innovative development, so that the ancient civilization of Longgupo can radiate new vitality and vitality in the new era.

It is understood that the special exhibition "The Story of Longgu Slope" will be displayed as a free exhibition at the China Three Gorges Museum in Chongqing. Here, citizens can see special limestone artifacts, come face-to-face with early Pleistocene mammal fossils such as Gigantopithecus apes, small species of giant pandas, Hyena sangii, and the last ancestral deer, and "encounter" the fossil restoration model of Australopithecus "Lucy".

The picture shows citizens viewing the special exhibition "The Story of Longgu Slope". Photo by Zhang Xu

The exhibition showcases strange burial phenomena, including a mixed accumulation of herbivore limb bones and stone tools, and the first saber-toothed tiger dung fossil discovered in Asia, revealing the clues left by ancient humans at the site and endless unsolved mysteries.

This exhibition also demonstrates the continuous development of Paleolithic archaeological work in recent years. Refined excavation and material sorting, dating by various methods, analysis of stone tool residues, detection of ancient DNA and ancient proteins...multidisciplinary methods work together to solve the mystery left by millions of years of strata. (over)