First discovery of a bone handaxe in China

Handaxes, the characteristic tool of the Acheulean industrial complex, are predominantly made of stone. Handaxes made of bone are much less common. Only a few have been reported, from sites in Africa, Europe and western Asia. In this study we report a bone handaxe from Chongqing, southwest China, which represents the first bone handaxe ever discovered in China or any other part of East Asia. Typologically, it is somewhat inconsistent with the classic Acheulean handaxe morphology and is therefore classified as a proto-handaxe in this study. The bone from which the handaxe was made, which is now fossilized, has been dated to ∼170 ka based on a U-series technique. The handaxe was manufactured from the mandible of an individual of the stegodontid Stegodon orientalis, a typical member of the Middle Pleistocene Ailuropoda-Stegodon fauna (sensu stricto) of southern China. This artifact represents the earliest evidence for a tradition of bone handaxe manufacture in East Asia, and provides important evidence regarding the lifestyle, technology, and environmental surroundings of the humans that occupied the upstream region of the Yangtze River during the Middle Pleistocene.