The so-called Levalois instruments, characteristic of the middle and upper Paleolithic, found throughout the world. The age of the guns found in Western Europe and Africa reaches 300,000 years. But in Asia, they appeared not earlier than 40,000 years ago — at least they thought so until the last moment.
American scientists studied in detail the ancient tools found in 1960-1970 in the Chinese province of Guizhou. To study, they used the method of optically stimulated luminescence, which will allow to understand when the sample was last exposed to direct sunlight. Since the samples were removed from the earth many years ago, the researchers applied their own modification of the technology, which allows to determine the age by very small particles of the sample.
The tool, which the archaeologists called the “prehistoric Swiss knife” for its multifunctionality, turned out to be much older than they had previously thought. Its age is about 170,000 years, which means that such tools appeared in Asia 130,000 years earlier than expected.
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