New discoveries in China challenge traditional understanding of technology in the Paleolithic era of East Asia.

Chinese researchers led a team that published a new research in the British academic journal "Nature Communications" online on the 28th Beijing time. The results showed that early humans in central China may have already undergone important technological changes, such as the use of stone tool handles, between about 160,000 and 70,000 years ago. This overturns the long-held traditional belief in the archaeological community that "East Asian Old Stone Age cultures are conservative and lag behind in technological innovation."