‘Dragon bones’: did early humans in China collect ancient fossils for fun?
- A new location at an old Chinese archaeological site has turned up evidence that hominins knew how to play, create and entertain
- Trail of clues dating back over 2 million years adds to evidence that early humans left Africa earlier than originally thought
A million and-a-half years ago the early human inhabitants of a region in eastern China were doing more than just trying to survive – new evidence suggests they were creating, entertaining and even playing.
But at a site newly discovered by a villager, archeologists have uncovered evidence of “human” marks on objects, which may indicate that the individuals who made them used them for entertainment.
The fossils and gravel found at the site, which appeared to have originated elsewhere, along with items showing marks of “human creativity”, could help reveal more about the culture and behaviours of ancient human ancestors in China.
“A growing number of archaeological finds in the basin suggest that humans could not have migrated out of Africa later than 2 million years ago,” said Wei Qi, a researcher at the Chinese Academy of Sciences (CAS) Institute of Vertebrate Paleontology and Paleoanthropology.
Wei said a new site in the basin called Lujiaoliang had been dated to be around 1½ million years old.