History of the study of the Paleolithic sites of Northern China

This article reviews the history of Paleolitic archaeological research in Northern China, and presents important events and important figures in the development of Paleolithic archaeology in the past 100 years. Through nearly a hundred years of Paleolithic archaeological research, China has undergone several generations of hard work, which has changed the world's original understanding of the time-space framework of Paleolithic archaeology in China. Chinese Paleolithic studies began with the discovery of the remains of a Sinanthropus ( Homo erectus pekinensis ) and stone tools made by him in the Zhoukoudian Cave. The next important step in the study of the Paleolithic was the discovery in China of a series of sites where tools made in microlithic technique were discovered. Subsequently, it turned out that some of them date back to the Late Paleolithic, and others to the Mesolithic or Neolithic. In addition, it summarizes the new developments of Paleolithic archaeology in northern China since the beginning of the new century. These discoveries established a set of the sequence of Chinese archaeological culture in the Paleolithic period, and deeply explored the origin of China's earliest humans and the origin and evolution of modern humans. In the village of Shanchen in Lantian County, Shaanxi Province, stone products were found about 2.12 million years ago - the oldest in East Asia. The Acheulean biface, found in the middle part of the Yellow River basin in Lonan County, Shaanxi Province, testified to the spread of Acheulean technology in China. The discovery in northern China of blades made using the Levallois technique indicated links with Mongolia and made it possible to determine the ways of dispersal of Homo sapiens sapiens in antiquity. Article also calls on Russian scholars to participate in the study of Chinese Paleolithic archaeology and jointly solve some related problems.

North China, Paleolithic, Zhoukoudian, sinanthropus, Homo sapiens sapiens, microblade technology, Acheulean culture, Mousterian technology, nucleus, stratigraphy

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