News releases Research Social science. These artifacts found in China are among the nearly four dozen that reflect the Levallois technique of toolmaking. In a paper published Nov. Marwick et al. New analysis of artifacts found at a South China archaeological site shows that sophisticated tool technology emerged in East Asia earlier than previously thought.
A study by an international team of researchers, including from the University of Washington, determines that carved stone tools, also known as Levallois cores, were used in Asia 80, to , years ago. With the find — and absent human fossils linking the tools to migrating populations — researchers believe people in Asia developed the technology independently, evidence of similar sets of skills evolving throughout different parts of the ancient world.
_-_2023-07-06_-_1.jpg "SEX AGENCY Levallois-Perret")
The study is published online Nov. It shows the diversity of the human experience. The cores were named for the Levallois-Perret suburb of Paris, where stone flakes were found in the s. The knapping process represents a more sophisticated approach to tool manufacturing than the simpler, oval-shaped stones of earlier periods. This animation shows the Levallois technique of knapping stone. Jose-Manuel Benito Alvarez. The Levallois artifacts examined in this study were excavated from Guanyindong Cave in Guizhou Province in the s and s.
Previous research using uranium-series dating estimated a wide age range of the archaeological site — between 50, and , years old — but that earlier technique focused on fossils found away from the stone artifacts, Marwick said. Analyzing the sediments surrounding the artifacts provides more specific clues as to when the artifacts would have been in use.
Marwick and other members of the team, from universities in China and Australia, used optically stimulated luminescence OSL to date the artifacts. OSL can establish age by determining when a sediment sample, down to a grain of sand, was last exposed to sunlight — and thus, how long an artifact may have been buried in layers of sediment. Luckily we found residual sediment left over by the previous excavations, so that allowed us to take samples for dating. The researchers analyzed more than 2, artifacts found at Guanyindong Cave, narrowing down the number of Levallois-style stone cores and flakes to In Africa and Europe these kinds of stone tools are often found at archaeological sites starting from , and , years ago.
