Location of human fossils of the Mid
Paleolithic Age
Location: Qujiang
County, Guangdong Province
Period: 129,500-135,000 BP
Excavated in 1958
Significance: The find is of great
significance to the study of the evolution of human physical development in
south China.
Introduction
|
Fossil cranium of the Maba Man: (up-left); Fossil teeth
of the Stegodon: (up-right); Fossil mandible of rhinoceros: (bottom-left);
Stone hammer: tool (left of the bottom-right, diameter is 5.8 cm); Stone
chopper: tool (right of the bottom-right, length 15. 8
cm) |
In 1958, a skull fossil of early Homo Sapiens (Maba
Man) was found in a karst cave in Maba area in Qujiang
County, Guangdong Province.
Maba Man was an early Homo Sapiens of the
middle Paleolithic Age. The skull fossil found here belonged to a middle-aged
man. The skull had very coarse superciliary arches and an extremely contracted
orbital surface. The frontal bone was longer than the parietal bone. All these
indicate the primitive character of Homo Erectus, although the skull had thin
walls and the brain was larger than Beijing Man. Thus, it has
been classified as Homo Sapiens. Actually, this individual represented a
transitional state from Homo Erectus to early Homo Sapiens. These remains can be
dated between the Middle and Late Pleistocene Epochs -- about 200,000 to 100,000
years ago.
In the same cave where Maba Man was
discovered, a large quantity of animal fossils of the Fourth Ice Age has been
unearthed.