Story perspectives

146,000-Year-Old Chinese Tools Rival Neanderthal Technology

5/25/2026

Summary

Story summary

Archaeologists led by Yuchao Zhao, an archaeologist, dated Lingjing stone tools to 146,000 years ago.
Nearly 15,000 quartz artifacts from a butchering layer show shaping, planning and precise flake production.
The tools resemble Middle Paleolithic implements of Neanderthals in Europe and early humans in Africa, challenging the view that East Asian groups lagged.
Zhao said the industry likely arose as an ice-age adaptation, suggesting Homo juluensis possessed technological thinking.

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Story summary

Archaeologists led by Yuchao Zhao, an archaeologist, dated Lingjing stone tools to 146,000 years ago.
Nearly 15,000 quartz artifacts from a butchering layer show shaping, planning and precise flake production.
The tools resemble Middle Paleolithic implements of Neanderthals in Europe and early humans in Africa, challenging the view that East Asian groups lagged.
Zhao said the industry likely arose as an ice-age adaptation, suggesting Homo juluensis possessed technological thinking.