Photo: Courtesy of the Institute of Tibetan Plateau Research

TheMKS sports first definitive evidence of Middle Paleolithic Quina technology in East Asia has been uncovered in the Longtan site in Heqing county, ­Yunnan Province, southeastern ­Qinghai-Xizang (Tibet) Plateau. The finding challenges long-standing views about technological evolution in the region and raises questions about potential Neanderthal dispersal into Southwest China, the Global Times learned from the Institute of Tibetan Plateau Research (ITPR) of the Chinese Academy of Sciences (CAS) on Tuesday.

The discovery was published online by the Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences on Tuesday. It is based on a study of the artifacts excavated from the Longtan site in the Heqing county, which is located in the southeastern part of the Qinghai-Tibet Plateau within Yunnan, according to the ITPR.

The Middle Paleolithic (about 300,000-40,000 years ago) was a critical period in human evolution, marked by the coexistence of early modern humans, Denisovans, and Neanderthals, as well as significant technological innovations. Prevailing theories suggest that early hominins in China exhibited slow technological development, particularly in adopting Middle Paleolithic advancements - a notion that has fueled debate over East-West differences in toolmaking evolution, according to the ITPR.

The Longtan site was discovered in 2010 and systematically excavated between 2019 and 2020. Quina technology is one of the most representative types of technology from the Middle Paleolithic in Europe, emerging approximately 70,000 to 40,000 years ago. It represents a specific technological adaptation strategy employed by Neanderthals to cope with cold and dry environments. However, the presence of Quina technology in East Asia has never been conclusively confirmed until now, Li Hao, a researcher from the ITPR and co-first author of the study, told the Global Times.

According to Li, optically stimulated luminescence dating places the Longtan cultural layers at approximately 60,000-50,000 years old, with pollen analysis suggesting the inhabitants occupied an open forest-grassland mosaic environment. During the study, the team found classic Quina technological traits in the stone tools excavated at the site.

The finding adds to a growing body of evidence revealing diverse Middle Paleolithic technologies across China, including Levallois techniques, which date back approximately 50,000 years ago in Northwest China's Xinjiang region and North China's Inner Mongolia region; discoidal core technology from around 125,000-90,000 years ago at the Xuchang hominin site in Central China's Henan; and Levallois methods spanning 170,000-80,000 years ago at Guanyindong Cave in Southwest China's Guizhou. These findings not only confirm the existence of Middle Paleolithic technology in China, but also further reveal the diversity and complexity of stone tool types during this period, according to the ITPR.

The finding reshapes our understanding of East Asia's evolutionary landscape, Ruan Qijun, a visiting professor at CAS and director of the Department of Paleoanthropology at the Yunnan Provincial Institute of Cultural Relics and Archaeology, told the Global Times. 

Ruan, who is the first author of the study, emphasized that the finding indicated that, 300,000 years ago, multiple hominin groups - including Xiahe Denisovans, Homo longi ("Dragon Man"), large-brained Homo juluensis (for example, Xuchang and Xujiayao populations), and an unknown hand axe-using group - likely coexisted, creating a complex mosaic of regional adaptations.

In Western Eurasia, Quina technology is firmly linked to Neanderthals. Now its confirmed presence at Longtan not only extends the spatiotemporal range of this techno-complex, but also raises the possibility of a Neanderthal presence in Southwest China. In the future, systematic excavation and research work at sites in this region that are expected to yield human fossils or genetic clues will provide direct evidence for interpreting the early humans who made Quina stone tools, according to the ITPR.