- (Xinhua) -- Chinese archaeologists said newly found evidence
proves that a valley of Qingjiang River, a tributary on the middle reaches
of the Yangtze River, might be one of the regions where Homo sapiens, or
modern man, originated.
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- The finding challenges the "Out-of-Africa"
hypothesis of modern human origins, according to which about 100,000 years
ago modern humans originated in Africa, migrated to other continents, and
replaced populations of archaic humans across the globe.
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- The finding comes from a large-scale excavation launched
in the Qingjiang River Valley in 1980s when construction began on a rangeof
hydropower stations on the Qingjiang River, a fellow researcher with the
Hubei Provincial Institute of Cultural Relics and Archaeology.
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- Archaeologists discovered three human tooth fossils in
one mountain cave in Mazhaping Village, in the Gaoping Township of Jianshi
County, western Hubei Province, and found pieces of lithictechnology and
evidence of fire usage in Minor Cave in Banxia. There were similar findings
in Nianyu Mountain and in Zhadong Cavein Banxia, all in Changyang Prefecture
of the Qiangjiang River Valley.
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- A special research panel named the Jianshi Man research
team has been set up to analyze the findings.
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- Zheng Shaohua, a member of the Jianshi man research team
from the Institute of Vertebrate Paleontology and Paleoanthropology of
the Chinese Academy of Sciences, confirmed the tooth fossils belonged to
humans dating back between 2.15 and 1.95 million years ago.
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- The archaeologists also found fossils of bone implements
in thecultural strata at the ruins where the human tooth fossils were discovered.
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- The fossilized bone implements bear traces of human beating,
testifying that humans, not apes, lived inside the mountain cave, said
Qiu Zhanxiang, another member on the Jianshi Man research team.
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- The pieces of lithic technology and traces of human fire
usage found in Minor Cave in Banxia were said to date back 130,000 years,the
ruins of human fire usage in Nianyu Mountain were dated as
- 120,000 years or 90,000 years old, while pieces of lithic
technology and traces of fire usage found in Zhadong Cave in Banxia, were
dated as 27,000 years old, said Professor Zheng.
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- Before these latest archaeological findings, Chinese
archaeologists had found fossils of what is now known as ChangyangMan in
1957 under the leadership of renowned Chinese paleoanthropologist Jia Lanpo.
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- Changyang Man represents early Homosapiens dating back
200,000 years.
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- The latest archaeological findings together with the
earlier discovery of Changyang Man all prove there was continuity in Homo
sapiens' development in China, said Liu Qingzhu, head of the Archaeology
Institute of the Chinese Academy of Social Sciences.
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- "They are also of great significance to research
on Paleolithic era in China and East Asia, and theories regarding multiple
origins of mankind," said Liu.
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