Homo erectus in East and Southeast Asia, and the questions of the age of the species and its association with stone artifacts, with special attention to handaxe-like tools

Abstract

Homo ergaster/Homo erectus in Africa and H. erectus in the Old World are securely associated with a toolkit of well-conceived bifacially worked implements of handaxes and cleavers of the Acheulean techno-complex. In India, the abundant handaxe–cleaver assemblages have always been attributed as the work of H. erectus on the basis of comparisons with Africa and the Old World. In 1982, the first cranium of an advanced H. erectus was discovered. In Central Java, many fossil remains of H. erectus have come to light since Dubois found the first skull in 1891. However, it could never be securely established which tools belonged to H. erectus. The Sangiran and Ngandong industries of small flakes have provisionally been connected with late H. erectus soloensis. The Pacitan industry, Java, which has yielded a number of handaxe-like tools, and the so-called handaxes from Cabenge in Sulawesi, have now been established as being of uppermost Pleistocene age, being the work of modern humans. In China and Korea, “handaxes” have been recorded at several truly Early Paleolithic sites, such as Chongokni, Lantian, Bose, and Dingcun. However, these findings are widely dispersed and only indicate that such pointed and sometimes bifacially worked tools are occasional elements within a cobble tool tradition. H. erectus of Zhoukoudian Locality I, on the other hand, is associated with a small flake industry. No Chinese Paleolithic site can be definitely connected with an Acheulean tradition.