A surprising archaeological discovery in southwest China is shaking up what scientists thought they knew about ancient humans in East Asia.
Researchers from the University of Washington have found a full set of tools made with a technique known as Quina technology at a site called Longtan, dating back around 50,000 to 60,000 years.
This technology, known from Europe for decades, has never before been found in East Asia.
The discovery was published on March 31 in the journal Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences.
According to Professor Ben Marwick, a co-author of the study, this find challenges the long-held belief that East Asia saw little cultural or technological change during the Middle Paleolithic period, which lasted from about 300,000 to 40,000 years ago.
The Middle Paleolithic is seen as a key time in human evolution. In Africa, it’s when modern humans began to emerge, and in Europe and parts of Asia, it’s linked to now-extinct human relatives like Neanderthals and Denisovans.
But East Asia has often been seen as lagging behind, with slower development and fewer technological changes. This new evidence suggests otherwise.
The most important tool in the Quina toolkit is the scraper—a thick, sharp-edged stone tool used to clean and shape materials like wood, bone, or antler. Researchers found several of these scrapers at the Longtan site, along with stone flakes and other debris left behind from making them. Marks on the tools show they were used and sharpened over time.
The big question now is: how did this European-style technology show up in China? Did people slowly move from west to east and bring it with them, or did different groups come up with the same idea on their own? To find the answer, scientists need to discover more sites with layers of older tools underneath the Quina-style ones. That way, they can see whether this style evolved locally or arrived from somewhere else.
Marwick also pointed out that archaeologists in China are now more aware of global research methods, which helps them better recognize unusual finds like this one. The pace of archaeological research is also picking up, increasing the chances of uncovering rare discoveries.
One major goal for the future is to find human remains at the site. That could help reveal who made these tools—modern humans, Denisovans, or perhaps even a yet-unknown human ancestor.
As Marwick put it, this discovery not only changes how we view ancient East Asia but opens the door to even more surprising finds about our distant past.
