Early Hominin Dispersal across the Qinling Mountains, China, during the Mid-Pleistocene Transition

Xiaoqi Guo, Xuefeng Sun (), Huayu Lu, Shejiang Wang () and Chengqiu Lu
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Xiaoqi Guo: School of Geography and Ocean Science, Nanjing University, Nanjing 210023, China
Xuefeng Sun: School of Geography and Ocean Science, Nanjing University, Nanjing 210023, China
Huayu Lu: School of Geography and Ocean Science, Nanjing University, Nanjing 210023, China
Shejiang Wang: Key Laboratory of Vertebrate Evolution and Human Origins, Institute of Vertebrate Paleontology and Paleoanthropology, Chinese Academy of Sciences, Beijing 100044, China
Chengqiu Lu: Hubei Provincial Institute of Cultural Relics and Archaeology, Wuhan 430077, China

Land, 2023, vol. 12, issue 10, 1-17

Abstract: The Qinling Mountain Range (QMR), where more than 500 hominin fossils and Paleolithic sites have been preserved, was a major center of hominin evolution and settlement and an important link for the hominin migration and dispersal between the north and the south during the Pleistocene in China. The rich culture remains and the related data make it possible and meaningful to study the characteristics and mechanisms of hominin occupation and dispersal in the region. This paper has summarized and analyzed the geographical distributions and chronologies of 55 dated hominin fossils and Paleolithic sites in the QMR to date. By combining them with the evidence from the loess–paleosol sequence, a relatively continuous and chronological sequence of hominin occupation and dispersal has been established, in which we have identified five stages, viz. ~before 1.2 Ma, the sporadic occurrence stage of early hominin occupation; ~1.2–0.7 Ma, the initial expansion stage; ~0.7–0.3 Ma, the stability and maintenance stage; ~0.3–0.05 Ma, the large-scale expansion stage; ~0.05–0.01 Ma, the sharp decline stage of the record of hominin occupation. We conclude that the environmental and ecosystem changes associated with the MPT drove early hominins to disperse southwards across the QMR. In addition, the evidence suggests that the hominin occupation and dispersal here was broadly continuous during both glacial and interglacial scales from early to late Pleistocene, and that the southern QMR provided a glacial refuge.

Keywords: Qinling Mountain Range; mid-Pleistocene transition; hominin occupation and dispersal; chronological framework; dispersal corridors (search for similar items in EconPapers)
JEL-codes: Q15 Q2 Q24 Q28 Q5 R14 R52 (search for similar items in EconPapers)
Date: 2023
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