Maba Man Site
The Lion Rock of Shaoguan is also the home of the oldest known Guangdong native a 129,000‑year‑old early Homo sapiens. Maba Man Site is a National Key Cultural Relics Protection Unit
- City
- Shaoguan
- Address
- N° 68, Shiyan Road, Maba Town, Qujiang District, Shaoguan City, Guangdong Province, China
- Cost
- Free
If the Modaoshan site revealed the earliest known footprints of ancient humans in Lingnan, then inside the twin limestone peaks of Lion Rock (Shizi Yan) in Qujiang District, Shaoguan, archaeologists discovered something even more personal: the oldest fossilised skull ever found in Guangdong.
These are the remains of Maba Man , an early Homo sapiens who lived approximately 129,000 years ago.
Unearthed in 1958 by local farmers digging for fertiliser in a karst cave, the Maba Man skull provides an extraordinary window into human evolution at the boundary between the Middle and Late Pleistocene. As the first early Homo sapiens ever found in South China, Maba Man preserves classic features common to Chinese palaeoanthropology while also displaying intriguing similarities to the Neanderthals of Europe. Alongside his skull, cave deposits yielded a rich assemblage of fossilised mammals.
Today, the site is a peaceful park where visitors can climb Lion Rock, explore the very cave that yielded the skull, walk through life‑size dioramas of prehistoric life, and visit a museum dedicated to both the Palaeolithic Maba Man and the Neolithic Shixia Culture.
Opening Hours
Open year‑round
08:00 am - 18:00 pm (last entry 17:30)
About the Maba Man
The skull belonged to a middle‑aged male, roughly 40 years old : a ripe age for a prehistoric human.
Geologists and palaeontologists dated the surrounding deposits to the late Middle Pleistocene, approximately 129,000 to 135,000 years ago.
马坝人头骨化石.jpg
Maba Man's skull displays a fascinating mosaic of primitive and advanced traits:
- Primitive traits: very thick brow ridges, a receding forehead, a low and thick cranial vault, characteristics inherited from Homo erectus
- Advanced traits: a larger braincase (greater than that of Peking Man) and a more rounded skull shape, pointing toward early Homo sapiens
Because of this unique combination, scientists classify Maba Man as an early archaic Homo sapiens, a transitional form between Homo erectus and fully modern humans. Interestingly, some features such as the shape of the eye sockets and cheek region bear a resemblance to Neanderthals from Europe, although Maba Man lacks the specialised anatomical traits that define true Neanderthals.
This has led to lively academic debates about population movements and gene flow between East Asia and the West during the Pleistocene.
As the first early Homo sapiens ever discovered in South China, Maba Man provides crucial fossil evidence for understanding human evolution in the region. In 2011, modern CT scans of the Maba skull revealed a startling detail: a depressed fracture on the cranium, caused by a heavy blow to the head, likely from a stone tool, a bone club, or a wooden weapon. Yet the wound had completely healed before the man died : that means he survived for years after his injury, and during his long recovery he must have been fed, protected, and cared for by his companions. It also makes that discovery one of the earliest pieces of social cooperation among prehistoric humans in East Asia.
曲江马坝人遗址内的马坝人雕塑.jpg
About the Fossil Menagerie
The same cave deposits that yielded the Maba skull also contained the fossilised bones of dozens of animal species:
Hyena, bear, giant panda, badger, tiger, Oriental stegodon (an extinct elephant‑like creature), Naumann's elephant, tapir, macaque...
These animals paint a picture of a lush, warm, forested environment with abundant water sources
About the Lion Rock
The area is named for these two Carboniferous‑period limestone hills that stand side by side, resembling a lion.
Viewed from the north, the twin peaks look like a sleeping lion, head low, tail raised, whereas viewed from the south, the same formation appears as a dancing lion.
The hills are riddled with karst caves, inside you will find stalactites, stalagmites, and stone pillars in fantastic shapes.
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Highliths of the site
- Front Mountain : the primary cave where the Maba skull was found
- Yinyan Cave : life‑size statues and dioramas showing Maba Man's daily life
- Guihuayan (Osmanthus Cave): dedicated to Shixia, a Neolithic civilisation dating to approximately 4,600 years ago.
- Wild Roast Cave & Hunting Chong : experience simulated prehistoric hunting and cooking
- Back Mountain : Zhaoyin Buddhist temple
- Maba Man Museum
Nearby Attractions
Danxia Mountain (UNESCO) : red rock wonderland
Nanhua Temple : the birthplace of Chinese Zen Buddhism
Caoxi Hot Springs : relaxing natural hot springs near Nanhua Temple
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Thumbnail photo : Zhuwq (CC License)
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