Shangchen

A Paleolithic Archaeological Site called Shangchen may be found in Lantian County, Shaanxi Province, China, about 25 kilometers south of Weinan. It was found in 1964, and excavations took place in 2004 and 2017.

Shangchen is named after Shangchen Village in Yushan Town. The archaeological site is situated on the rock wall of a ravine in the Loess Plateau. Archaeologists identified Shangchen as one of China's Paleolithic Sites because they discovered that all the larger rocks in the loess sediments were brought in by humans or other animals.

A 2018 research used magnetic fields to date stone tools discovered at the site. The site's oldest artifact-bearing stratum dates back to 2.12 million years ago, while the youngest is just 1.26 million years old, indicating that the region was inhabited for at least 850,000 years. A Loess with an age of 2.12 Ma precedes the first fossils of Eurasian archaea by around 300,000 years. Deer and cow bones, as well as several artifacts, were discovered among the bones of the animals. The lowest strata of Shangchen remained inaccessible as of 2018 since the region was "actively farmed," thus it is possible that even earlier remains have not been found.

The Homo erectus specimen, now referred to as the Lantian, was found in Lantian County in 1964. The oldest fossil discovered by archaeologists is a cranium that is 1.15 million years old. Geologist Zhu Zhaoyu and other researchers returned to the location in 2001 and found another skull that was 1.63 million years old. The discoveries are remarkable because they surpass Dmanisi in Georgia's Caucasus area, which was previously known, and are one of the oldest indications of Homo outside of Africa after Masol in India. It dates back 1.85 million years and is the earliest Paleolithic site outside of Africa. Additionally, it dates back 1.7 million years earlier than the Yuankou, the earliest fossilized hominid discovered in East Asia. Further exploring the region around the fossil discovery, Zhu's team found stone tools at Shangchen, which is only a little more than three miles away, buried deep inside a trench. The site was then extensively explored and excavated between 2004 and 2017 by a team under the direction of British paleontologist Robin Dennell, whose results were released in March in the journal Nature's July 2018 edition. As a result, a total of 96 stone tools were discovered at Shangchen, including fragments, points, and cores that belonged to 17 different artifact classes. However, dating of the sediments is only possible by paleomagnetic methods because the Shangchen site lacks volcanic minerals like the African sites.

To conclude, Shangchen Paleolithic Archaeological Site:

• was found in 1964 in Ha Long, Lantian County, Shaanxi Province, China, about 25 kilometers south of Weinan.
• the artifacts were discovered in 17 strata from 1.26 Ma (palaeosol S15) to 2.12 Ma indicating that the region was inhabited for at least 850,000 years.
• contains Lantian fossils dating from 1.15 million years to 1.63 million years old.
  
• a total of 96 stone tools were discovered, including fragments, points, and cores.
• archaeologists have not been able to reach the lowest levels of Shangchen since 2018.