In the Nihewan Basin of China, often hailed as the "cradle of East Asian humanity," the debate over whether ancient humans possessed relatively primitive technological patterns (Oldowan technology) that remained stagnant or if there were factors such as technological innovation and environmental adaptation due to the diversity and specificity of stone tool technology has long been a topic of interest and ongoing research in the academic community.
The Institute of Vertebrate Paleontology and Paleoanthropology (IVPP) of the Chinese Academy of Sciences announced on March 5th that a systematic study by Chinese and international scientists on the stone tool technology characteristics of the Cenjiawandong site, dating back to 1.1 million years ago in the Nihewan Basin, has revealed the earliest "prepared-core technology" in Eurasia. This discovery indicates that ancient humans at the Cenjiawandong site had a high level of technological sophistication and cognitive ability, advancing the evolution of stone tool technology in China to Mode 2 (Acheulean technology) 300,000 years earlier than the previously known 800,000 years ago in South China.
This breakthrough in research in the Nihewan Basin and even in East Asian Paleolithic studies was jointly achieved by the research team led by Professor Pei Shuwen from IVPP, in collaboration with the Institute of History of the Spanish National Research Council, Hebei Provincial Institute of Cultural Relics and Archaeology, Institute of Geology and Geophysics of the Chinese Academy of Sciences, and University of Chinese Academy of Sciences, among other Chinese and international research institutions. The findings were recently published in the international academic journal Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences (PNAS).
The Scientific Puzzle of Stone Tool Technology Evolution
According to Professor Pei Shuwen, the head of the research team, China, as an important region for the evolution of ancient humans in East Eurasia, boasts numerous archaeological sites from the early to middle Pleistocene (approximately 2.58 million to 130,000 years ago). Unlike the more pronounced phased changes in Western Eurasia, early stone tool technology in China has long been considered to have remained stagnant, exhibiting characteristics of the relatively primitive Mode 1 pattern.
The Cenjiawan site in the Nihe Bay Basin: Location and Chronology
Scholars have proposed various hypotheses to explain the stone tool technology in East Asia, including the presence of biological isolation, cultural loss, or insufficient innovation due to a smaller population.
In recent years, more and more scholars have become aware of the diversity and uniqueness of early Paleolithic stone tool technology in China, emphasizing the potential factors of technological innovation and environmental adaptation.
Thus, the characteristics of the evolution of stone tool technology in early to middle Pleistocene China, the emergence of Mode 2 patterns, and the transformation of current early stone tool technology research concepts are longstanding scientific challenges in the academic community.
Highest Flake Reassembly Rate in the World
To address this scientific challenge, the collaborative research team chose to conduct an in-depth study at the Nihe Bay Basin archaeological site.
Nihe Bay is located in the transitional zone from the Loess Plateau in northeastern China to the North China Plain, where typical Quaternary fluvial-lacustrine sedimentary systems and the early Pleistocene Nihe Bay fauna have garnered widespread attention in the academic community. The Cenjiawan terrace in Yangyuan, Hebei Province, within this basin, has revealed a large number of ancient human activity sites dating back approximately 1.1 million years, making it a hotspot for ancient human activity.
The Cenjiawan site features prepared-core technology and related stone artifacts: (A) Preparation flaking model of prepared-core technology; (B) Assembly preparation flaking technology for core restoration; (C) Stage 4 products of prepared-core technology; (D) Stage 5 products of prepared-core technology. Image by Ma Dongdong.
Discovered in 1984 by Researcher Xie Fei from the Hebei Provincial Institute of Cultural Relics and Archaeology, the Cenjiawan site underwent four excavations in the 20th century. In 2019, Researcher Pei Shuwen and others conducted supplementary excavations, unearthing over 2,000 stone artifacts and abundant animal fossils. It stands as one of the richest Paleolithic sites in the Nihe River Basin.
In addition to stone cores, flakes, and retouching tools, the Cenjiawan site yielded 152 stone tool assemblages, with a high reassembly rate of up to 30%, making it one of the world's early Pleistocene sites with the highest reassembly rate. These findings provide crucial material for understanding ancient human technological and behavioral characteristics.
The presence of "prepared-core technology" was identified through the analysis of stone tool technology and high-precision 3D scanning of the Cenjiawan assemblages. The research team systematically reconstructed the ancient human flaking techniques and tool repair strategies at the site. The results indicate the existence of "prepared-core technology" at the Cenjiawan site, manifested in the production of standardized final products.
To produce thin stone flakes with relatively flat backs, ancient humans at the Cenjiawan site demonstrated the capability to perform a series of preparatory steps, including raw material selection and prefabrication of core platforms and flaking surfaces. In terms of tool repair technology, ancient humans intentionally bifurcated thin stone flakes, using one half to create further pointed implements.
The tools for repairing the Cenjiawan site: (A-E) composite assembly of pointed tools; (F-I) pointed artifacts; (J-M) drills. Image provided by Ma Dongdong and Ye Zhi. In addition to the advanced lithic technology demonstrated by the composite assembly, the research team also discovered products at various stages of the "prepared core technology" in the site. Similar repair patterns were found in individual repair tools such as pointed artifacts and drills, providing solid evidence for the existence of "prepared core technology" and tool repair models at the Cenjiawan site. This strongly supports the hierarchical, standardized, and patterned lithic technology of ancient humans at the Cenjiawan site, which differs from the previously assumed simple Mode 1 pattern. Additionally, features of lithic technology exhibited the ancient humans' ability in raw material management and long-sequence flaking, indicating a high level of technological and cognitive abilities at the Cenjiawan site.
The "prepared core technology" originated from the Mode 2 stage of lithic technology evolution in ancient humans and is an important technical element in the Acheulean industrial system. The preparation techniques demonstrated by ancient humans at the Cenjiawan site for both core platforms and flake surfaces began to appear in the mid-phase of the Acheulean technology. Examples include the "Soweto core" in South Africa dating back to 1 million years ago, which serves as evidence of this technology in Africa.
Thirty thousand years earlier than previously thought
Based on the lithic technological characteristics of the Cenjiawan site, the research team believes that the ancient humans at the Cenjiawan site had the cognitive level and technological capability of the Acheulean population. However, they might have abandoned the production of large Acheulean tools due to factors such as adapting to the chert resources and high latitude ecological environment of the Mudanjiang Basin, thus producing smaller tools, which is an adaptation strategy to the chert resources and ecological environment of the Mudanjiang Basin.
Furthermore, the research team suggests that although handaxes are the most significant feature of Mode 2 technology, Mode 2 technology should not be limited to handaxes alone. It should be understood as a technological complex of ancient humans with certain similar biological features, cognitive levels, and technological capabilities. Therefore, the technology primarily characterized by handaxes in the western Eurasian continent is one manifestation of Mode 2 technology, and as ancient humans adapted to different environments or resources in East Asia, they developed a different set of tool assemblages under similar technological capabilities.
The first author of the paper, Ma Dongdong, a graduate student from the Institute of Vertebrate Paleontology and Paleoanthropology, Chinese Academy of Sciences, and a postdoctoral fellow at the Institute of History, Spanish National Research Council, stated that considering the uniqueness of the early Paleolithic to middle Paleolithic sites in East Asia, early technologies in East Asia should not be defined solely by the presence or absence of specific lithic types. In addition to focusing on handaxes, the research perspective should be expanded to identify the technological characteristics of small flake products produced by ancient humans and the cognitive levels and technological capabilities they reflect.
Currently, the Cenjiawan site is the earliest site on the Eurasian continent with "prepared core technology," indicating that ancient humans with technological capabilities similar to those of the Acheulean technology were living in northern China 1.1 million years ago. They developed a set of survival strategies and technological manifestations different from those in western Eurasia, emerging 30,000 years earlier than the Mode 2 technology products in southern China dating back 800,000 years ago.
Great potential for further research
Pei Shuwen believes that the new results of this study will have significant implications for the research concepts of small-sized stone artifacts widely present in early northern China, the evolution and innovation of technology in the Early Paleolithic, and the origin and diffusion of Acheulean technology in East Asia. Moreover, the discovery of this technology in the Mudanjiang Basin provides new insights into the debate on related technologies in the middle Paleolithic of East Asia.
In summary, the latest research indicates that the Mudanjiang Basin, as a crucial region outside of Africa for studying human evolution and technological development, has enormous potential in constructing the research field of million-year human evolution and behavioral development in East Asia.
Systematic research on ancient human information in the Mudanjiang Basin will also be of great scientific and practical significance in enriching the scientific and cultural connotations of "the cradle of Eastern humanity" and verifying the "million-year history of humans in China."
