Journal
NATURE
Volume 413, Issue 6854, Pages 413-417Publisher
MACMILLAN PUBLISHERS LTD
DOI: 10.1038/35096551
Keywords
-
Categories
Ask authors/readers for more resources
The timing of the earliest habitation and oldest stone technologies in different regions of the world remains a contentious topic in the study of human evolution(1-4). Here we contribute to this debate with detailed magnetostratigraphic results on two exposed parallel sections of lacustrine sediments at Xiaochangliang in the Nihewan Basin, north China; these results place stringent controls on the age of Palaeolithic stone artifacts that were originally reported over two decades ago(5). Our palaeomagnetic findings indicate that the artifact layer resides in a reverse polarity magnetozone bounded by the Olduvai and Jaramillo subchrons. Coupled with an estimated rate of sedimentation, these findings constrain the layer's age to roughly 1.36 million years ago. This result represents the age of the oldest known stone assemblage comprising recognizable types of Palaeolithic tool in east Asia, and the earliest definite occupation in this region as far north as 40 degrees N.
Authors
I am an author on this paper
Click your name to claim this paper and add it to your profile.
Reviews
Recommended
No Data Available