Chinese hominins made advanced stone tools 160,000 years ago, showing complex cognition earlier than thought.

Based on data from the Xigou site in Henan Province, a study published in Nature Communications claims that hominins in China made complex composite stone tools as early as 160,000 years ago. Scrapers, borers, and hafted implements are among the 2,600 quartz and quartzite tools that demonstrate sophisticated design and craftsmanship. This finding casts doubt on earlier theories regarding eastern Asia's technological simplicity and suggests cognitive capacities similar to those of Africa and Europe in the Middle to Late Pleistocene.