Late Middle Pleistocene Levallois stone-tool technology in southwest China

Yue Hu, Ben Marwick (), Jia-Fu Zhang, Xue Rui, Ya-Mei Hou, Jian-Ping Yue, Wen-Rong Chen, Wei-Wen Huang and Bo Li ()
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Yue Hu: University of Wollongong
Ben Marwick: University of Wollongong
Jia-Fu Zhang: Peking University
Xue Rui: University of Wollongong
Ya-Mei Hou: Chinese Academy of Sciences
Jian-Ping Yue: Chinese Academy of Sciences
Wen-Rong Chen: Qianxi County Bureau of Cultural Relics Protection
Wei-Wen Huang: Chinese Academy of Sciences
Bo Li: University of Wollongong

Nature, 2019, vol. 565, issue 7737, 82-85

Abstract: Abstract Levallois approaches are one of the best known variants of prepared-core technologies, and are an important hallmark of stone technologies developed around 300,000 years ago in Africa and west Eurasia1,2. Existing archaeological evidence suggests that the stone technology of east Asian hominins lacked a Levallois component during the late Middle Pleistocene epoch and it is not until the Late Pleistocene (around 40,000–30,000 years ago) that this technology spread into east Asia in association with a dispersal of modern humans. Here we present evidence of Levallois technology from the lithic assemblage of the Guanyindong Cave site in southwest China, dated to approximately 170,000–80,000 years ago. To our knowledge, this is the earliest evidence of Levallois technology in east Asia. Our findings thus challenge the existing model of the origin and spread of Levallois technologies in east Asia and its links to a Late Pleistocene dispersal of modern humans.

Keywords: Levallois Technology; Prepared Core Technology; Standardized Growth Curves (SGCs); Levallois Flakes; Flake Removal (search for similar items in EconPapers)
Date: 2019
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DOI: 10.1038/s41586-018-0710-1

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