Paleolithic site sheds light on human origins

Some 105,000 tools, animal fossils and their fragments have been unearthed at the site, and more than 95 percent of the tools are made from petrified wood that look like stone.

"These (the tools) defy the traditional concept that during the Paleolithic period, stone tools were often small in the northern part of China, while in the southern part they were often big. Among those making big stone tools, the people in Mengxihe also uniquely made small artifacts, and formed a lasting regional tradition," said Zheng.

Wang Youping, an archaeology professor at Peking University, said the abundant plant remains discovered at the site are the first found from this period.

Despite archaeologists recovering more than 30,000 pieces of seed and fruit remains so far, they only represent a very small proportion of all the samples recovered in 2023.

Rudimentary studies found that the plants, including peach, grape, plum, walnut and acorn, were mostly edible.

"Most Paleolithic sites only have stone tools and animal fossils, but this one has a great number of plant remains. We know Paleolithic people lived by hunting and gathering plant-based food. The first theory has been proved by the many animal fossils discovered before, but the latter is being proved for the first time," said Wang.

Zheng from the Sichuan Provincial Institute of Cultural Relics and Archaeology said that plant remains are extremely difficult to preserve, but those at the site were found in a special water-saturated environment.

Ziyang first found fame about 70 years ago upon the discovery of the Ziyang Man, a human skull dating back 40,000 years. The skull is regarded as an important representative of Homo Sapiens in the southern part of China. The Mengxihe site is about 35 kilometers from where the Ziyang Man was found.