Shiyu site in northern China reveals evidence of an advanced material culture 45,000 years ago
A multinational team of researchers has revealed the existence of an advanced material culture at the Shiyu site in Shanxi Province, China, dating back approximately 45,000 years.
The Shiyu Upper Palaeolithic site, initially excavated in the 1960s, yielded more than 15,000 stone tools, animal remains, and a fragment of a hominid skull identified as Homo sapiens.
Unfortunately, part of the archaeological collection, including the cranial fragment, was lost over the years. However, under the leadership of Dr. Shixia Yang, researchers revisited the remaining materials using modern radiometric techniques to establish an accurate chronological timeline.
The results of the study, which dates the cultural layer at Shiyu to a period between 45,800 and 43,200 years ago, reveal an Initial Upper Palaeolithic (IUP) archaeological assemblage.
This assemblage includes laminar technology, Levallois points, tanged and hafted projectile points, tools made with obsidian from hundreds of kilometers away, and a perforated graphite disk...
