Peking Man could have used weapons in China 700,000 years ago
April 30th, 2011 - 5:48 pm ICT by ANIWashington, April 30 (ANI): A new research has found that Peking Man, who is believed to be 700,000 years old, was smarter than thought.
At a time when China’s climate was chillier than it is today, a group of Homo erectus lived in a cave system in Zhoukoudian China.
A team of scientists led by Dr. Chen Shen, of the Royal Ontario Museum in Toronto Canada, have been re-examining the tools that Peking Man used.
“The new study suggests that Peking Man lithic technology was not simple as previously thought,” Unreported Heritage News quoted Shen in the abstract of a paper, as saying.
“The micro-wear evidence indicates many typed tools were made for specific tasks related to processing animal substances,” added Shen.
Peking Man didn’t just know how to butcher animals, he also knew the best way to hunt them - with the end of a stone pointed spear.
“Importantly, most pointed tools were probably hafted, and this provides arguably the earliest evidence for the composition tools in the Chinese Middle Pleistocene,” said Shen.
The paper was presented at a recent Society for American Archaeology conference. (ANI)
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