Evrim Yazgin
Cosmos science journalist
The discovery of a stone tool production technique never before seen in East Asia has revealed that ancient people in the region experienced more cultural change than previously believed.
Middle Palaeolithic finds in other parts of the world point to key developments in ancient human technology and behaviour. The Middle Palaeolithic is the second subdivision of the Palaeolithic – or Old Stone Age – and spans roughly 300,000 to 40,000 years ago.
This era begins around the time that early modern humans and Neanderthals first emerged.
Finds from Europe and Africa show that ancient humans in these areas were living in dynamic times with many changes in their lifestyle and technology. It was, however, often viewed as a relatively static period in East Asia.
New research published in the Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences challenges this perception.
The study analyses finds from the Longtan site in southwest China which date to 55,000 years ago. The artefacts show “Quina technology” – a method for making stone tools – which has previously been found in Europe, but never before in East Asia.
“This is a big upset to the way we think about that part of the world in that period of time,” says co-author Ben Marwick, a professor of archaeology at the University of Washington in the US. “It really raises the question of, what else were people doing during this period that we haven’t found yet? How is this going to change how we think about people and human evolution in this area?”
A key tool in the Quina system is the scraper – a thick, asymmetrical stone tool with a broad and sharp working edge. Several scrapers were found at Longtan, as well as the bits broken off when the scrapers were made. Tiny scratches and chips on the tools indicate they were used for scraping and scratching bones, antlers or wood.
It is unknown how the Quina method of tool production came to be in East China.
One possibility is that the technique developed locally. If this is the case, then finds dating further back might show evidence that ancient humans in East Asia were experimenting with tool production before homing in on the Quina method.
The team also doesn’t know which species of ancient human was responsible for the Quina tools. The archaeologists hope that future finds will solve this mystery.
“That could answer the question of whether these tools are the product of a modern human like you and me,” says Marwick. “There have never been any Neanderthals found in East Asia, but could we find a Neanderthal? Or, more likely, could we find a Denisovan, which is another kind of human ancestor? If we can find the human remains associated with this period, we might find something surprising – maybe even a new human ancestor that we don’t know about yet.”
