A new look at an archaeological site in northern China that was excavated in the 1960s has revealed that Homo sapiens may have been present there about 45,000 years ago, reports New Scientist, UNN writes.
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"Modern humans lived in what is now China 45,000 years ago. This discovery means that our species reached this place thousands of years earlier than is commonly believed, possibly via a northern route through modern-day Siberia and Mongolia," the publication writes.
A team led by Francesco d'Errico from the University of Bordeaux in France has been re-exploring an archaeological site called Shiyu in northern China. It was excavated in 1963 during the unrest of the Cultural Revolution in China. "It was not the best time to find such an important site," says d'Errico.
Shyu is an open-air site in a river ravine. There are sand and other deposits 30 meters deep, which initial excavations divided into four horizontal layers, the second from the bottom of which was found to contain evidence of human activity.
The excavators found more than 15,000 stone artifacts and thousands of animal bones. There was also one piece of a hominin skull that anthropologist Wu Ru-Kang identified as a modern human (Homo sapiens).
Some of the artifacts were later transferred to the Institute of Vertebrate Paleontology and Paleoanthropology in Beijing. But those that remained at local sites, including a hominin bone, were lost. "We have about 10 percent of the stone tools," d'Errico points out.
Люди знищують майже 40% тропічних лісів Амазонки04.02.23, 23:47 • [views_1075860]