China's oldest bone tools, dating back 115,000 years, have been discovered at a Paleolithic site in the central Henan province, an international team of researchers has confirmed.
The researchers said they had identified seven bone soft hammers or retouchers in Xuchang city.
The bone tools, six made of broken long limb bones from herbivores and one made of antler, are China's oldest bone tools.
Before the new discovery, China's oldest bone tools, dating back 35,000 years, were found in Guizhou province, state-run Xinhua news agency reported.
Li Zhanyang, researcher with Henan Provincial Institute of Cultural Heritage and Archaeology, said the bone soft hammers were mainly used to make and modify stone tools.
Chinese archaeologists have long been troubled by the questions such as when did ancient Chinese start using bone and whether stone tools made by early humans were present in China.
Li said the findings proved the revolution and progress of stone tool appeared in China at least 115,000 years ago, and Chinese hominids at that time had a relatively developed brain.
The results were published in the journal PLOS ON.
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