2024-01-19 15:00:00
By analyzing several artifacts found at the Shiyu site in China, researchers including the French discovered that Homo sapiens was already in China around 45,000 years ago.
Part of Africa 100,000 years ago, A wise man traveled millions of kilometerset established on all continents. Our species began its immigration to Europe, and settled in the southeast of the old continent around 47,000 years ago, thus cohabiting with the Neanderthals. It then passes through western Siberia, between around 50,000 years ago in the Russian Altai, then in northern Mongolia between 46 and 45,000 years ago.
When did they arrive in China? Homo sapiens was already present in the Middle Kingdom 45,000 years agoor 5,000 years earlier than we thought, according to a study published on January 18 in Nature ecology & evolution.
Tools 45,000 years old
The team of researchers from China, Australia, France, Spain and Germany examined several artifacts found at the Shiyu site, about twenty km from the city of Shuozhu, in northern China. The tools discovered include stone toolspoints of Levallois, a graphite disk perforated as well as bone pointsall sculpted by the hand of modern man.
“Our new study has identified an initial Upper Paleolithic archaeological assemblage from the Shiyu site in northern China dating back 45,000 years agoincluding blade technologytanged and hafted projectile points, long distance obsidian transfer and the use of a perforated graphite disk”, introduced Associate Professor YANG Shixia, first and corresponding author of the study, a researcher at the Institute of Vertebrate Paleontology and Paleoanthropology of the Chinese Academy of Sciences (CAS). This makes Shiyu the oldest archaeological site testifying to the arrival of modern man in China.
These created, shaped and reflected objects demonstrate that the population of Shiyu was advanced et “had a rich culture”notes the Academy in a communiqué . Above all, they indicate that Homo sapiens arrived in China much earlier than previously thought. “This discovery, resulting from work carried out on the Shiyu site by an international team involving CNRS researchers, questions the timeline of China’s colonization by populations of Homo sapiens, previously dated at 40,000 years ago”indicates for its part the CNRS.
Horse hunters
Analyzes of mammal fossils and stone tool wear suggest that this people equipped with projectile points were “horse hunters”.
Obsidian, a volcanic rock, was used to make certain tools found at the Shiyu site. However, this was located hundreds of kilometers from the population, which suggests that the latter was implementing advanced resource supply strategies and had long-distance migration capabilities.
Finally, experts believe that interactions between populations of Homo sapiens and indigenous communities took placeand that these “were good plus complexes than what archaeologists imagined until then, leading to a crossbreeding significant genetic and cultural”according to the CNRS.
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