1.36 Million Years Ago, Man Hunted in N. China
Archeologists say crude stone tools indicate that humans lived in north China as early as 1.36 million years ago. The tools found buried in the artifact-rich Nihewan Basin of north-central China represent the earliest known occupation in East Asia as far north as 40 degrees latitude, the same as present-day Beijing.
The researchers reported in the Sept. 27 issue of Nature that the tools were probably used by hunters following game migration routes. Bones of gazelle and horse-like creatures, among other extinct species, were found with the tools at an ancient game processing site.
They said the dig’s northern location suggests that hunters were broadly distributed across Asia and that they reacted flexibly to periodic droughts and other climate changes.
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Compiled by Times medical writer Thomas H. Maugh II
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