1. Institute of Geology and Geophysics, Chinese Academy of Sciences, Beijing 100101, China
2. Physics Department, California Polytechnic State University, San Luis Obispo, California 93410, USA
3. Human Origins Program, National Museum of Natural History, Smithsonian Institution, Washington DC 20560, USA
4. Institute of Vertebrate Palaeontology and Palaeoanthropology, Chinese Academy of Sciences, Beijing 100044, China

Correspondence to: R. X. Zhu¹K. A. Hoffman² Correspondence and requests for materials should be addressed to R.X.Z. (e-mail: Email: rxzhu@mail.c-geos.ac.cn) or K.A.H. (e-mail: Email: khoffman@calpoly.edu).

Abstract

The timing of the earliest habitation and oldest stone technologies in different regions of the world remains a contentious topic in the study of human evolution^{1, 2, 3, 4}. Here we contribute to this debate with detailed magnetostratigraphic results on two exposed parallel sections of lacustrine sediments at Xiaochangliang in the Nihewan Basin, north China; these results place stringent controls on the age of Palaeolithic stone artifacts that were originally reported over two decades ago⁵. Our palaeomagnetic findings indicate that the artifact layer resides in a reverse polarity magnetozone bounded by the Olduvai and Jaramillo subchrons. Coupled with an estimated rate of sedimentation, these findings constrain the layer's age to roughly 1.36 million years ago. This result represents the age of the oldest known stone assemblage comprising recognizable types of Palaeolithic tool in east Asia, and the earliest definite occupation in this region as far north as 40° N.