Hominin occupation of the Chinese Loess Plateau since about 2.1 million years ago

Abstract

Considerable attention has been paid to dating the earliest appearance of hominins outside Africa. The earliest skeletal and artefactual evidence for the genus Homo in Asia currently comes from Dmanisi, Georgia, and is dated to approximately 1.77-1.85 million years ago (Ma). Two incisors that may belong to Homo erectus come from Yuanmou, south China, and are dated to 1.7 Ma; the next-oldest evidence is an H. erectus cranium from Lantian (Gongwangling)-which has recently been dated to 1.63 Ma-and the earliest hominin fossils from the Sangiran dome in Java, which are dated to about 1.5-1.6 Ma. Artefacts from Majuangou III and Shangshazui in the Nihewan basin, north China, have also been dated to 1.6-1.7 Ma. Here we report an Early Pleistocene and largely continuous artefact sequence from Shangchen, which is a newly discovered Palaeolithic locality of the southern Chinese Loess Plateau, near Gongwangling in Lantian county. The site contains 17 artefact layers that extend from palaeosol S15-dated to approximately 1.26 Ma-to loess L28, which we date to about 2.12 Ma. This discovery implies that hominins left Africa earlier than indicated by the evidence from Dmanisi.

Hyena paleogenomes reveal a complex evolutionary history of cross-continental gene flow between spotted and cave hyena

“…As the earliest presence of Crocuta outside of Africa is Crocuta honanensis in the Longdan basin of China from ~2 Ma (19) and the oldest Crocuta fossils in Africa (Crocuta dietrichi) are from the early Pliocene (3.63 to 3.85 Ma) (20), we propose a dispersal from Africa into Eurasia, most likely into Asia, shortly after the divergence of the two lineages. This timing closely coincides with the oldest fossil of Homo found outside of Africa (Homo georgicus), found in Georgia and estimated at ~1.8 Ma (21), and the oldest Homo artifacts outside of Africa dated to ~2.1 Ma (22). This was most likely followed by subsequent dispersal into Europe from Asia as the earliest confirmed European occurrences of Crocuta are from Sierra de Atapuerca (Spain) [~0.9 Ma (23)] and middle Pleistocene Italy (24).…”

September/October Print Issue: Hominin

“…Asia was considered uninhabited after H. erectus left or went extinct. Denisovans and new discoveries show Asia was continuously populated with a new depth of antiquity (Zhu et al 2018). The absence of data turned out not to be the data of absence.…”

Paleolithic artifact deposits at Wadi Dabsa, Saudi Arabia: A multiscalar geoarchaeological approach to building an interpretative framework

“…Given the wide variation in surface erosion of the lava flows, the Harrat was likely formed through an extended period of punctuated volcanism, related to intraplate volcanism similar to other Arabian harrat (Bosworth & Stockli, ). The timing of this volcanism places it within the known timeframe of the earliest dated hominin dispersals out of Africa, ~2.1 Ma (Zhu et al, ), meaning that it is possible that the landscape of the Harrat al Birk, and the resources it provided, underwent intermittent, significant transformation during the period in which hominin populations inhabited the region, changes which need to be understood before interpreting past hominin occupation of the region.…”