The discovery of stone tools in China shows that individuals in East Asia were revolutionary throughout the middle Paleolithic, reminiscent of in Europe and the Middle East

Today, latest technologies often include electronic devices which are smaller and smarter than before. During the Medium paleolithicWhen Neanderthals were the neighbors of contemporary people, latest technologies meant something completely different: latest kinds of stone tools that were smaller but may very well be used for a lot of tasks and took a protracted time.

Archaeologists like me are enthusiastic about the Medium paleolithic – A period of 250,000 to 30,000 years – since it includes the primary appearance of our species, our arrival in lots of parts of the world for the primary time and our invention of many latest kinds of stone tools.

In our study, which has just been published within the Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences, a team of international employees and I Describe our discovery in China The first full example of a medium -sized paleolithic technology that was previously only seen in Europe and the Middle East.

Archaeologists thought that the elderly in East Asia the center paleolithic completely skipped. Our discovery questions the long -term concept that the elderly in Europe and Africa invented latest tools during this time, but people in East Asia only held probably the most basic tools which have remained unchanged for hundreds of years.

Quina Scrapers helped hunters to kill the method

The tool identified by us is named A Which scraper. This style of stone tool is thought from archaeological sites in Europe and the Middle East.

Quina scrapers are typically quite thick and asymmetrical, with a large and sharp work edge, which shows clear signs that they’re used and moved several times. This shape results in long -lasting cutting edges, ideal for long application cycles, followed by resharpening.

People used Quina-Schaber to scratch and cut soft materials reminiscent of meat and animal skins in addition to medium-hard materials reminiscent of wood. We know that from Tiny scratches and chips on the scratches This agreement of traces attributable to the work of those materials in experiments with contemporary stone tools.

European archaeologists consider that Quina -Schaber was invented to satisfy the needs of high Mobile hunters live in cool and dry climate zones. These hunters targeting seasonal prey reminiscent of reindeer, giant deer, horse and bison. Quina Scrapers would have helped them process their kills in food and other resources – for instance to extract marks.

Find a Quina tool in East Asia first

Our team led by Hao Li Quina -Schaber and related stone tools from the Archaeological site Longan Archeological within the southwest of China were excavated from the Institute for Tibetan Plateau Research and Qijun Ruan from the Yunnan Provincial Institute of Cultural Relics and Archeology.

Our colleague Bo Li used on the University of Wollongong Optical luminescent -dating methods On the layers of the earth that contained the artifacts. This technology can determine how much time has passed since each grain of sand was recently exposed to the sun. It is essential so far many individual grains in a sample, since tree roots, insects or other animals can mix younger sediments in older mixture.

After identifying and removing intrusive younger grains, we found that the layers that contained the artifact were 50,000 to 60,000 years old. That is Around the identical time Quina Scrapers were utilized in Europe at Neanderthal locations.

Keliang Zhao from the Chinese Institute for vertebrate Paleontology and Paleoanthropology examined pollen grains from the Longan excavations. He found that the center paleolithic in Longtan lived in a comparatively open forest grassland environment and a dry and funky climate. This environment is comparable to that of Quina locations in Europe.

Davide DelpianoPresent Marco Peresani And Marie-Hélène MoncelExperts in European technique of paleolithic tools joined our team to assist comparison the Chinese and European specimens and to substantiate their similarities.

Hélène MonodFrom Universidad Rovira, I Virgili in Spain, our Quina -Schaber checked out under the microscope and located traces on them by scratching and scratching bones, antlers and wood. She also found polish because she used the tools for meat, skins and soft plants.

Who lived in East Asia during this time?

Our latest discovery of Quina Scrapers in East Asia is an additional recent find of a special type of medium paleolithic technology: Levallois tools from the Guanyindong Cave within the province of Guizhou within the southern Central Center China. Levallois tools result from a characteristic multi -stage sequence that efficiently produces many useful cutting tools with a minimal wasted stone. Taken together, these two finds make a robust case that medium paleolithic technologies were present in East Asia.

But why can we only find this Quina tool kit when it has been known in Europe for thus long?

One reason for that is that archaeologists in Europe have been in search of longer than almost some place else on the planet. Another reason why middle paleolithic evidence in East Asia appears rare is that what has now been neglected, which now appears to be less typical variations of the quina tool previously present in China, might be neglected because of the close definitions of archaeologists based on European examples.

The Quina tools in Longtan are among the many earliest artifacts on this website, which makes it difficult for researchers to find out the origins of this latest technology. Has it been introduced by visitors from Europe? Or did the locals invent it independently in East Asia?

In order to reply these questions, we hope to search out more quina scrapers from web sites with deeper – what older – layers than longtan. When older layers seem like the stays of experiments in stone tools that may finally result in Quina tools, this implies that Quina -Tools were invented locally. When deeper layers have different tools, this means that Quina technology has been introduced from a neighboring group.

We also hope that future work shall be revealed who made these tools. Our excavations in Longtan found no human bone or DNA that might help us discover the toolmakers.

During the center paleolithic there have been several human species that might produce such tools. It might have been modern people like us. But it might have been Neanderthals too. In view of the indisputable fact that Quina technology is directly connected to Neanderthals in Europe, this seems likely. But it could even have been Denisovans, a extinct species much like the fashionable one who was found during this time SiberiaThe Plateau Tibetan And LaosOr even a brand new human species that has not yet been seen.

Anyone who manufactured and used this Quina -Schaber may very well be inventive and versatile with their technology and adapted to their changing environment.