Lantian people are early Paleolithic humans and belong to Homo erectus. It was discovered in 1964 in Gongwangling, Lantian County, Shaanxi Province.
Found in 1963 in Shaanxi Province, China, near the village of Chenjiawo in Lantian County, the Lantian people fossilized the skull of a woman in her 30s. In May of the following year, a fossil of a largely intact middle-aged female skull was found in the Gongwangling formation of Lantian County. After indoor restoration of this skull fossil, a complete fossil of the ape human skull was restored. The original researchers grouped Chen Jiawo's mandible and Gongwangling's skull together and named it "Lantian Chinese Ape Man", referred to as "Lantian Ape Man" or "Lantian Man". However, many scholars believe that the degree of primitivity shown in these two specimens is obviously different, and the era of the two sites is divided into successive points, and it is suggested that a new species of "Lantianren" be established for the skull of Gongwangling; the scientific name of the Chenjiawo mandible should be given the scientific name of "Homo erectus Chenjiawo subspecies", which can also be called "Chenjiaworen". Lantian man belongs to the early human fossil in China. Its forehead is low and broad, the brow bone is thick and raised, the bone wall is thick, the orbit is slightly square, and the mouth is protruding forward. The intracranial ear is 71 mm high and has a brain volume of 778.4 ml, which is basically equivalent to the 775-900 ml of Indonesian Javanese.
Fossil skull
Stone tools such as large sharpeners, choppers, scrapers and stone balls have been found in the layers of the Lantian man fossils. The processing method is a simple hammering method, and the stone chips are generally used without the second step of processing. There are forty-one symbiotic fauna, including giant pandas, eastern saber-toothed elephants, and hairy-crested deer, with strong southern fauna colors. Chen Jiawo's Lantian man fossil has a mandible and belongs to an elderly woman. The Lantian people of Gongwangling are about 800,000-750,000 years old, and the Lantian people of Chenjiawo are about 530,000 years old.
Fossil mandible
Between 800,000 and 750,000 years ago, some primitive humans lived in the Gongwangling area of present-day Lantian County, Shaanxi Province. On their low, flat foreheads, there was a noticeable bulge of thick brow bones. The stone tools they made were relatively simple, thick and large, but a closer look revealed that there were already signs of different types of stone tools. This is the famous Lantian people. Their fossils were found in the early Pleistocene strata of Gongwangling in Lantian County, Shaanxi Province, between 1963 and 1965.
Archaeologists have shown that the Brain Capacity of lantian people is smaller than that of later Beijingers, about 778 milliliters. But one thing that has caught the eye is that they have been able to walk completely upright, and this is the earliest Homo erectus in northern Asia that has been discovered. The significance of this discovery is very significant, because standing upright is an important sign of becoming a person.
Blue field portrait
"Lantian people" once referred to the early Paleolithic Homo erectus fossils found in Gongwangling and Chenjiawo in Lantian County, Shaanxi Province, China; However, many scholars argue that this name is appropriate for homo erectus fossils dedicated to Gongwangling, and that the Homo erectus fossils in Chenjiawo are called "Chenjiawo people". The geological age of the Gongwangling site is the chronology of the paleomagnetic dating data of the early Middle Pleistocene, one is about 1 million years ago, and the other is about 800,000 to 750,000 years old; The geological age of the Chenjiawo site also belongs to the Middle Pleistocene, and the chronological data measured by paleomagnetism is about 650,000 years old and about 500,000 years old. In Gongwangling, in the same layer as human fossils, stone tools featuring three-sided large pointed tools have also been excavated, and traces of fire have been found. The Gongwangling fossil is the oldest Homo erectus fossil ever found in northern Asia.
The Chenjiawo fossil was discovered in 1963 by the Institute of Vertebrate Paleontology and Paleoanthropology of the Chinese Academy of Sciences near the village of Chenjiawo in the northwest of the county seat. The fossil of Gongwangling was excavated by the same unit in 1964 in Gongwangling, east of the county seat. In the next two years, stone artifacts and charcoal chips that may have been left by human fire were also excavated in Gongwangling.