An international research team led by Chinese scientists has found that East Asian hominins had possessed advanced stone tool technology as early as 1.1 million years ago, much earlier than previously thought.

The team, led by the Institute of Vertebrate Paleontology and Paleoanthropology (IVPP) of the Chinese Academy of Sciences, carried out systematic study on the characteristics of stone tool technology at Cenjiawan site in Nihewan basin, northern China, revealing the earliest prepared core technology in Eurasia.

According to technical analysis and high-precision 3D scanning of stone tools at the site, the research team revealed how hominins at the site made and used stone tools. The results show that prepared core technology had existed at the site.

Prepared core technology is an important part of Acheulean industry, the first standardized tradition of toolmaking of Homo erectus and early Homo sapiens. The research team believes that the hominins at the Cenjiawan site had similar cognitive level and technical ability as the Acheulean hominins.

The study is of great significance to the study of the evolution and innovation of early Paleolithic technology, said Pei Shuwen with the IVPP, one of the corresponding authors of the study.

It shows the great potential of Nihewan basin in the research field of constructing the development model of human evolution and behavior in East Asia for millions of years, Pei said.

The study was published in the journal Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences of the United States of America (PNAS). 

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