Lantian people are early Paleolithic humans and belong to Homo erectus. It was found in Gongwangling and Chenjiawo in Lantian County, Shaanxi. The Lantian human fossils of Gongwangling have skulls, nasal bones, right maxillas, and three molars, all belonging to an adult, possibly female. The skull is low and flat, the forehead is significantly tilted, the brow spine is thick, the bone wall is thick, the brain volume is small, estimated at 780 ml, and the snout protrudes forward, showing a more primitive form. 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.
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. "Lantian man" 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 the Homo erectus fossils in Chenjiawo are also called "Chenjiawo people". The geological age of the Gongwangling site is the early Middle Pleistocene, the paleomagnetic dating data, one is about 1 million years ago, the other is about 800,000 to 750,000 years ago; the geological age of the Chenjiawo site is also middle Pleistocene, and the dating data measured by paleomagnetism is about 650,000 years old and about 500,000 years ago. 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. Age and natural environment Gongwangling is the highest first-class terrace on the left bank of the Bahe River. On top of an ancient layer of thick gravel, there is a brownish red sandy clay about 30 meters thick, which is geologically known as "red soil" or "off-stone loess", in which human fossils are buried. ChenJiawo is located on the right bank of the Bahe River, and the fossils are also found in the red soil layer of the highest terraces. "Red soil" belongs to the Central Pleistocene accumulation in North China. In the red soil of Gongwangling, 42 species of mammal fossils were found, including not only more common Pleistocene species in North China, such as Chinese hyenas, Li's wild boar, Sanmen horse and Ge's sika deer, etc., but also a small number of Tertiary remnants and early Quaternary typical species, such as Lantian saber-toothed tiger, Chinese Naiwang clawed beast, updated cheetah and short-horned lily cow. This suggests that the age of human fossils in Gongwangling is earlier than that of Peking man, belonging to the early Mesozoic, equivalent to the Jetis Layer where fossils of Robust Homo erectus fossils were found on the Indonesian island of Java, or the Gonz-Matilda interglacial period in the Alpine ice age series. A total of 14 mammal fossils have been found in Chenjiawo, most of which are found in Gongwangling, but there are also late Pleistocene animals. Many scholars believe that Chen Jiawo's era was later than Gongwangling, roughly equivalent to that of the Beijingers; others believe that it may be the same as Gongwangling. Dating data measured by paleomagnetism show that the Gongwangling site predates the Chenjiawo site.
The most striking thing about the Gongwangling fauna is that it has a strong southern color, such as the giant panda, the oriental saber-toothed elephant, the South China giant tapir, the Chinese tapir, the hairy-crowned deer and the Qinling Sumen antelope, which are the main members of the Pleistocene fauna in South China and South Asia. There are so many southern forest animals in the Gongwangling fauna, on the one hand, it shows that the climate in the Lantian area at that time was warm, humid and lush; On the other hand, it also shows that the Qinling Mountains at that time were not as high as they are today, and they had not yet risen to become a geographical barrier hindering the migration of animals from the north and south. Unlike Gongwangling, Chenjiawo lacks mammals with strong southern overtones. Molluscs are also basically species that live in north China in modern times. Some scholars believe that the distance between the two sites is only 22 kilometers in a straight line, but there is such a big difference in fauna, which also reflects the inconsistency of the times. The fossil skull of The human fossil Gongwangling consists of a complete frontal bone, most of the parietal bone, the right temporal bone and maxilla (with second and third molars attached), the body part and frontal process of the left maxilla, most of the left nasal bone and the root of the right nasal bone, and 1 upper left second molar, which belong to a female individual in her 30s. The original researcher named it - "Homo erectus blue field subspecies", can also be commonly known as "blue field man".
The Skull of the Lantian Man has many distinct primitive traits. The crest is large and thick, forming almost a straight transverse crest above the orbit, and the two ends extend significantly outward. The area between the crest of the brow and the frontal scales is significantly narrowed. The frontal bone is very low and flat. The skull wall is extremely thick, compared with the Skulls of Pekingese and Javanese, the thickness of each part of the Skull of Lantian People is basically at the upper limit of their range of variation, and some even exceed the maximum value. For example, the average thickness of the six skulls in Beijingers near the anterior fontanelle point is 7 to 9.9 mm, the average of 4 skulls in Javanese is about 5.5 to 10 mm, and the average is 16 mm for Lantian people. The height of the Skull of the Lantian man is the lowest of all Homo erectus. The brain volume of lantian people is estimated to be about 780 ml; Javanese people are 775 to 900 ml; Beijing people are 850 to 1300 ml. The teeth of the Lantian people are closer to those of the Peking people, but they are larger, and the Lantian people are older than the Javanese and the Beijing people, only the Javanese Mozokto people.