Early And Middle Pleistocene Hominid Behaviour In Northern China

The fossil record of the Far East has been the focus of debate and confusion since the discovery of Javanese and Chinese specimen at the end of the 19th century. Both the paleontological and lithic record, as well as the sites from which these materials are recorded, are not well understood due to a variety of factors and depite their relevance for general issues in human evolution. Keates discussion offers a valuable historical and theoretical background of research relevant to hominid behaviour during the Early and Middle Pleistocene before introducing an examination from the Nihewan sites as well as Xiaochangliang and Dongguto assemblages. Keates focuses on both lithic and fossil materials. An up-to-date review of some of the most important localities (e.g. Zhoukoudian, Kehe, Gongwangling) is included. While Keates conclusions are perhaps inevitable - she calls for the integration and recording of a variety of data-sets including fauna and sediments, better quality of research and integration of it - the volume offers a detailed introduction to Far Eastern Pleistocene human evolution in addition to valuable primary reserach. Both are well presented and assessable in the context of her comprehensive review. Extending beyond the usual coverage of textbooks this volume is an essential introduction as well as research contribution to the field. 387p. 179 b/w illus (BAR 2000)

These twelve papers, taken from a symposium held by the Society for American Archaeology in Philadelphia in 2000, provide an overview of recent developments in our understanding of the Chinese Palaeolithic.

This volume brings together a group of authors that address the question of the first out of Africa into Asia c. 2 Ma. The scope of the book is comprehensive as it covers almost every major region of Asia. The primary goal of this volume is to provide an updated synthesis of the current state of the Asian paleoanthropological and paleoenvironmental records. Papers include detailed studies of the theoretical constructs underlying the move out of Africa, including detailed reconstructions of the paleoenvironment and possible migration routes. Other papers detail the Plio-Pleistocene archaeological and hominin fossil records of particular regions.

Through detailed description and interpretation of the most complete early modern human skeleton from eastern Asia, "The Early Modern Human from Tianyan Cave, China," addresses long-term questions about the ancestry of modern humans in eastern Asia and the nature of the changes in human behavior with the emergence of modern human biology.

This book represents the first comprehensive attempt to bring to western scholarship the great advances made in Paleolithic archaeology and palaeoanthropology in the People’s Republic of China. The 15 chapters are devoted to a historical overview of past and recent studies, the development of chronological frameworks, the composition and stratigraphy of vertebrate fauna, the pongid and hominid palaeontological records, and Pleistocene prehistoric archaeology. Maps, illustrations and tables illustrate the materials presented here.

This study focuses on the Lower Palaeolithic archaeology of China. It examines early hominid adaptive behaviour based on the new evidence from the Luonan Basin, northern China. Unlike past Chinese Palaeolithic studies the study takes a regional approach emphasising the palaeoenvironmental, palaeoecological, and taphonomic information brought together from studies of faunal remains, spatial analysis of stone artefacts and bones, and lithic artefact refitting studies. Detailed analyses consist of lithic typology and technology which is then compared at a regional and global scale. The study describes the regional setting, site formation processes, chronology, lithic assemblage raw materials and provides a typotechnological analysis of stone artefacts. The specific analyses reject the hypothesis of "two Palaeolithic cultural traditions" in North China, and strongly challenge the notion of the existence of the "Movius line". The Palaeolithic open-air sites and the Longyadong cave site were occupied by hominids co-existing under consistent ecological and environmental conditions for hundreds of thousands of years. The very distinctive lithic assemblages found separately in the open-air sites and cave site are interpreted as reflecting different site function and varied subsistence activities rather than different hominid groups living contemporaneously in the valley. It reflects adaptive behaviours that appear to be the precursor to fully modern human behavioural organization.

This book provides the first analysis and synthesis of the evidence of the earliest inhabitants of Asia before the appearance of modern humans 100,000 years ago. Asia has received far less attention than Africa and Europe in the search for human origins, but is no longer considered of marginal importance. Indeed, a global understanding of human origins cannot be properly understood without a detailed consideration of the largest continent. In this study, Robin Dennell examines a variety of sources, including the archaeological evidence, the fossil hominin record, and the environmental and climatic background from Southwest, Central, South, and Southeast Asia, as well as China. He presents an authoritative and comprehensive framework for investigations of Asia's oldest societies, challenges many long-standing assumptions about its earliest inhabitants, and places Asia centrally in the discussions of human evolution in the past two million years.

Sixteen papers taken from a `Human Roots' meeting held in Bristol in 2000 that focused on the question of `how different were humans and human behaviour in Africa and the Far east during the Middle Pleistocene'? The contributors draw on evidence from recent archaeological fieldwork and represent different schools of thought concerning the Out-of-Africa or Multi-Regional origins of man. Among the regions or countries discussed are southern, central and eastern Africa, China, the Yangtze River, Australasia and India.