People left Africa and conquered China more than two million years ago
It’s about 270 thousand years adrenal expansion of Homo outside their native continent.
Chinese researchers with the participation of British colleagues found in the Central part of this country stone tools, whose age is defined 1.26—2.12 million years. If the correct lower bound for this date, these tools — the most ancient evidence of human presence outside Africa, where there was the genus Homo. The corresponding article published in Nature.
According to current data, the most ancient form of our species is Homo habilis, whose remains are found only in Africa. To him or his direct ancestors include the jaw LD 350-1. Her age is 2.8 million years old, and she is the oldest of the remains of members of the genus Homo. However, the first species validly published outside Africa was Homo erectus — their remains in Georgian Dmanisi cave appeared 1.8 million years ago. And about 1.7 million years ago, the bones of the same species appear in China.
Authors of new work studied 88 stone tools from 17 layers of the excavation in the area of Chanchan, Henan province, Central China. These guns of different types — from the relatively specialized scrapers and drills to a more universal chopping. They are mainly made from quartz and quartzite, the output of which is in the mountains in the vicinity of the excavations. Found near the bone tools of the people failed. It is worth noting that the quartz and quartzite — a very hard rock, and their treatment requires strong skills working with stone. But in this case it is rather a plus than a minus — such tools can be confused with stones, split due to natural processes unrelated to human activity.