Paleolithic culture of Longgupo and its creators

Abstract

Longgupo Site at Wushan (30°51′46.8″N, 109°39′55.8″E), Chongqing Municipality, China was discovered in 1984. The unearthed materials include Hominidae gen. et sp. indet., stone artifacts and a large quantity of vertebrate fossils. More than 1000 stone artifacts with evident human agency such as bipolar hammer, cores, flakes, choppers, points, scrapers, proto-cleavers, drilling tools, proto-picks and proto-hand-axes have been collected from Levels 2–15 successively. Bone accumulations of large amount of limbs of herbivores, indicating human agency, were unearthed from Levels 3–4 and 7–8. All of these early Paleolithic remains are termed “Longgupo culture”. The culture signifies that its creators have evolved from tool-using stage to tool-making one in their life style. Who the creators of Longgupo culture were is still a mystery. Three types of highly-evolved primate fossils have been unearthed from Longgupo Site. They are represented by a mandibular fragment with p4-m1, an upper incisor, and 14 isolated teeth of Gigantopithecus blacki respectively. All these three types could be the possible creators of Longgupo culture. On the other hand, we cannot exclude a possibility that an ancient human still unknown but similar to Homo habilis could be revealed with the forthcoming excavations.