5 November 2021 - GAD Lecture "The Earliest Parietal Art in the World: Discovery and Implications of Tibetan Handprints"-Faculty of Humanities & Social Sciences

Dear all,

You are cordially invited to the Serial Lectures of Topics in Globalisation and Development organized by DHSS GAD Programme. Details of the event are as follows:
 
Topic:The Earliest Parietal Art in the World: Discovery and Implications of Tibetan Handprints

Date: 5 Nov 2021 (Friday)
Time: 14:00
Venue: T2-102

Abstract:

At Quesang on the Tibetan Plateau Professor Zhang and his team discovered a series of hand and foot impressions that appear to have been intentionally placed on the surface of a unit of soft travertine. The travertine was deposited by water from a hot spring which is now inactive and as the travertine lithified it preserved the traces. On the basis of the sizes of the hand and foot traces Professor Zhang and his team suggest that two track-makers were involved and were likely children. They interpret this event as a deliberate artistic act that created a work of parietal art. The travertine unit on which the traces were imprinted dates to between 169 and 226 thousand years before present and a handprint dated 188 - 207 thousand years. This would make the site the earliest currently known example of parietal art in the world and would also provide the earliest evidence discovered to date for hominins on the High Tibetan Plateau (above 4000 m.a.s.l.). This remarkable discovery adds to the body of research that identifies children as some of the earliest artists within the genus Homo.

 Guest Speaker: Dr. David Dian ZHANG
Professor David Dian ZHANG is an Overseas Distinguished Professor of Chinese government and employed by Guangzhou University as a chair professor in the Hundred-Talent Program. He was served as the head of Department of Geography (11th in 2021 in QS World University Rankings for Geography) at The University of Hong Kong for two terms and as the Asia Editor in a top-ranking international journal, Progress in Physical Geography, for 5 years.

Professor Zhang obtained his PhD degree from The University of Manchester in 1991. He has been engaging in the research and teaching at The University of Manchester, The University of the West Indies, and The University of Hong Kong, during which he has published more than 200 academic articles, with over 120 of them published on international journals (SCI and SSCI), including top academic journals, such as Science and PNAS. In the recent decade, he has been awarded Second Prize of Natural Sciences Award from Ministry of Education of China, the title of “Prestigious Fellow” by the Hong Kong government, and “Outstanding Researcher Award” as well as “Research Output Prize” (twice) by The University of Hong Kong.

Prof. Zhang is famous for his multi-disciplinary innovative studies that cover many regions of the world. His research fields include earth sciences, climate change and societal responses, geography, environmental sciences, archaeology, and humanities.

For more information, please refer to the attached event posters.
All are welcome!

Thank you and see you there!