BEIJING, CHINA—Paleoanthropologists re-examining stone tools from the Paleolithic site of Shuidonggou have found that the relatively sophisticated stone tools known as blades began to appear in northern China around 34,000 to 38,000 years ago. That's about ten thousand years earlier than archaeologists assumed. The discovery shows that not only were people using diverse technologies in eastern Eurasia at this time, but that the cultural traits neccessary to make these blades moved quickly from Central Asia to China.
Sophisticated Stone Tools Appear Earlier in China
News March 13, 2013
Recommended Articles
Off the Grid January/February 2025
Tzintzuntzan, Mexico
Digs & Discoveries January/February 2025
Bad Moon Rising
Digs & Discoveries January/February 2025
100-Foot Enigma
Digs & Discoveries January/February 2025
Colonial Companions
-
Features January/February 2013
Neolithic Europe's Remote Heart
One thousand years of spirituality, innovation, and social development emerge from a ceremonial center on the Scottish archipelago of Orkney
Adam Stanford/Aerial Cam -
Features January/February 2013
The Water Temple of Inca-Caranqui
Hydraulic engineering was the key to winning the hearts and minds of a conquered people
(Courtesy Tamara L. Bray) -
Letter from France January/February 2013
Structural Integrity
Nearly 20 years of investigation at two rock shelters in southwestern France reveal the well-organized domestic spaces of Europe's earliest modern humans
-
Artifacts January/February 2013
Pacific Islands Trident
A mid-nineteenth-century trident illustrates a changing marine ecosystem in the South Pacific
(Catalog Number 99071 © The Field Museum, [CL000_99071_Overall], Photographer Christopher J. Philipp)