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Archaeologists in China Discover the Oldest Stone Tools Outside Africa

nytimes.com

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Re: Archaeologists in China Discover the Oldest Stone Tools Outside Africa

#21

Post by rossdavidh »

garmaine wrote: post #7
rossdavidh wrote: post #3

So, if we looked at all of the "oldest yet found" discoveries (that held up to later scrutiny), and plotted their date vs. the date they were found, would we see it asymptotically approaching some (presumably actual true) value? A job for an enterprising data scientist/archaeologist out there.

What would that show?

Perhaps, what the actual value could be expected to be. So, for example, you don't do a lot of work on top of the current estimates for oldest tool-using humans outside of Africa, that is likely to be overturned in ten or twenty years.

Re: Archaeologists in China Discover the Oldest Stone Tools Outside Africa

#22

Post by garmaine »

rossdavidh wrote: post #21
garmaine wrote: post #7

Earlier quoted context omitted.

What would that show?

Perhaps, what the actual value could be expected to be. So, for example, you don't do a lot of work on top of the current estimates for oldest tool-using humans outside of Africa, that is likely to be overturned in ten or twenty years.

It wouldn't be convergent.

Re: Archaeologists in China Discover the Oldest Stone Tools Outside Africa

#23

Post by garmaine »

alecco wrote: post #15
garmaine wrote: post #6

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Well, to that end the very first sentence of this article is wrong. These weren't carved by ancestors of anyone living today. This was homo erectus, a distant cousin.

Well, many Chinese scholars claim the Chinese are descendants from Homo Erectus. It's even shown on a BBC documentary, they get disappointed when DNA analysis disproves their skull-shape "evidence". https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Incredible_Human_Journey#2...

The fact that I have healthy half-chinese kids puts the nail in the coffin of that idea... among many other things. It's about as serious an idea as a flat earth or "intelligent design".

Re: Archaeologists in China Discover the Oldest Stone Tools Outside Africa

#24

Post by rossdavidh »

garmaine wrote: post #22
rossdavidh wrote: post #21

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Perhaps, what the actual value could be expected to be. So, for example, you don't do a lot of work on top of the current estimates for oldest tool-using humans outside of Africa, that is likely to be overturned in ten or twenty years.

It wouldn't be convergent.

Interesting if true. I could easily believe what you say, but do we know that? I don't know the field well enough to say.

Re: Archaeologists in China Discover the Oldest Stone Tools Outside Africa

#25

Post by garmaine »

rossdavidh wrote: post #24
garmaine wrote: post #22

Earlier quoted context omitted.

It wouldn't be convergent.

Interesting if true. I could easily believe what you say, but do we know that? I don't know the field well enough to say.

Yes it is rather trivially true. The age is getting exponentially further while discoveries are happening faster.

But that reflects improvements in technology, not anything about what’s being measured.

Re: Archaeologists in China Discover the Oldest Stone Tools Outside Africa

#26

Post by powerapple »

johnzim wrote: post #9
laretluval wrote: post #8

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I don't think even the strongest Chinese nationalist would claim that the Chinese diverged from everyone else 2 million years ago!

Actually there was a very significant amount of money ploughed into researching that exact topic in the PRC. With significant and predictable sadness when the results didn't go their (the CCP and Chinese nationalists) way. A google search gives a good paper on the topic: https://core.ac.uk/download/pdf/28941533.pdf TLDR: CCP, seeking to shore up ethno-nationalism (not an especially rare occurance in Chinese history)…

what's wrong with trying to prove something? As long as it is research, I can see nothing wrong with it. Especially if they want to understand where they are from.
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