The picture shows a stone object unearthed at the newly found Paleolithic site in Yuanjiang, Hunan Province.
 

Changsha, Hunan Province—A Paleolithic site dating back 200,000 years was discovered in Yuanjiang, a prefecture-level city in Central China’s Hunan Province, the Hunan Provincial Institute of Cultural Relics and Archaeology announced on April 20. 

The discovery indicates that humans had settled the modern-day Dongting Lake District in northern Hunan Province hundreds of thousands of years earlier than scholars once believed.

In collaboration with the Dongting Lake Museum in Yuanjiang, the Hunan Provincial Institute of Cultural Relics and Archaeology found the site when rechecking the Chishan Section of the expressway that stretches from Nanxian County to Yiyang City.

The archaeological team began excavation on April 13, unearthing more than 40 Paleolithic utensils that date back approximately 50,000 years in the upper cultural layer beneath the surface. In the previous trial trench, more ancient objects were uncovered.
 

“The cultural layer is more than three meters thick and has been dug roughly 40 to 50 centimeters deep. It is unusually thick and aged. Judging from the unearthed stone implements, it is unlikely that many more will be found, and most will be chipped artifacts,” said Li Yiyuan, leader of the archaeological team.

The team has kept a faithful record of the location of each unearthed object to prepare for future restoration as well as further analysis and research.
 

“Based on the excavation, the site was for stone tool making. Human beings may have made and repaired stone implements here,” Li said, raising the possibility that man might have lived in Yuanjiang and Chishan Island 200,000 years ago.
 

“By exploring the cultural layer, its culture and the uncovered stone tools, we can figure out when human activities started in Yuanjiang and Chishan Island as well as what stone techniques were like at the time,” Li said.   

 

Ming Haiying is a reporter at the Chinese Social Sciences Today.