拂去时光尘埃：从“龙人”之名到文明源起(3)

The question of "who we are" inevitably leads to "where we come from" and ultimately concerns "what this land beneath our feet has experienced". Thus, when the gaze extends beyond the name Homo longi, a vast expanse of land and the million years of time behind it slowly unfold, guiding us to ponder a deeper question: What role did this Eastern land play in the grand epic of human evolution?

Homo longi fossil offers a new answer to this. Traditional views often regard East Asia as a "terminus" for ancient human migration. However, new discoveries represented by Homo longi fossil indicate that East Asia was likely a vibrant, regional evolutionary center. During the long Pleistocene epoch, Homo longi evolved independently on this land for hundreds of thousands of years. They not only endured the severe tests of glacial and interglacial periods but also developed a cranial capacity of about 1420 milliliters—a value comparable to that of modern humans. All signs suggest that Homo longi charted a unique evolutionary path in the East Asian continent, running parallel to the Neanderthals in Western Eurasia.

This discovery not only confirms that the East Asian region possessed the ecological stage and evolutionary conditions to independently foster intelligent life, but also endows this land with a profounder meaning: before the birth of Chinese civilization, a magnificent epic of intelligent evolution had already unfolded here, accumulating a prehistoric foundation far deeper and more enduring than written history. This memory of life, spanning a million years, injects an unprecedented temporal depth into our understanding of the land beneath our feet and inspires a deeper reverence in us, the later generations, for this ancient, sacred place that continues to create miracles.

In today's culturally diverse world, Homo longi story offers a new perspective for contemplating cultural identity. While it does not directly tell us "who we are," it profoundly reminds us "where we came from". Our ancestors, like Homo longi, were once travelers and explorers on this land. Their existence enriches our understanding of the concept of "humanity," and makes the land beneath our feet feel even more substantial because of this profound memory.

Although most people in China are not descendants of Homo longi, we are undoubtedly the cultural inheritors of this land that has fostered countless miracles of life. As inheritors of this land, we shoulder a dual mission: to interpret history with a scientific spirit and to warm memory with cultural breadth. Science allows history to speak, and culture gives history warmth. In this era of rapid technological advancement, safeguarding the warmth and respect for cultural roots may become an important spiritual resource for facing the future.

When the soft murmur of life from the ancient East travels through time to reach our ears, it invites us to understand humanity's place in nature with a more humble attitude, to hold a deep reverence for all intelligent life that has ever existed, and on this foundation, to take solid steps toward the future.