Early Asian Cultures - Asian Palaeolithic

Palaeolithic Asia
c.60,000 - 25,000 BC
Incorporating the East Asian Palaeolithic, Eastern Central Asia Palaeolithic, South Asian Upper Palaeolithic, & Zhoukoudian Tradition

Early Asia's Palaeolithic period following early migration from Africa and the Near East is one of gradually encroaching human activity from coastal regions towards vast inland areas. India was reached around 70,000 BC, although that specific date is contested. Anatomically modern humans filtered from there into South-East Asia and Oceania by about 60,000 BC, reaching Australia at some point around or shortly after 50,000 BC (see feature link).

The early history of modern human infiltration into and habitation of East Asia is still very vague. The story has only been illustrated in relatively isolated pockets of research, concentrated especially in Early China (and then only primarily along its Early Yellow River until more recent decades), Early Japan, and the two Koreas.

From East Asia humans reached Berengia around 48,000 BC (now the north-eastern corner of Russia). Those early arrivals in East Asia set about exploiting the resources of today's China, Mongolia, North Korea, South Korea, Japan, Taiwan, and Tibet. Russia's north-eastern corner can also sometimes be included in this group.

Since the start of the twenty-first century more collaborative efforts are being undertaken into exploring East Asia's Palaeolithic record, with Russia now being included in providing a better overview. Details regarding the settlement of China and Japan are covered separately, while early Central Asia enjoyed its own Palaeolithic period which seems to be largely unconnected.

The earliest Siberians split off from Western Eurasians around 36,000 BC, very shortly after Western Eurasians (generally of Europe) and East Asians themselves became genetically distinct.

Two of Central Asia's natural vegetation zones have played a prominent part in the continent's history. These are the forest belt, which is between eight hundred to sixteen hundred kilometres wide and, to the south of this, the steppe, a vast grassland which extends eastwards from Hungary to Mongolia.

The latter area facilitated ancient communications and provided an ample supply of grass, the only raw material which was absolutely essential to the creation of the early cattle-herding cultures (starting around the time of the Dnieper-Donets II culture). The vast forests played host to various forager cultures which were eventually influenced to some extent by the cattle-herder cultures. The frozen marshes of the north and the deserts in the far south played only a minor role in Central Asian prehistory.

It was East Asians who were largely responsible for the migration into the Americas. They also integrated with descendants of Ancient North Siberians to give rise to another group, dubbed the Ancient Palaeo-Siberians, who went on to generally supplant the existing Ancient North Siberians. They too were supplanted in time, by another band of East Asians which headed north about 9000-8000 BC and which gave rise to Neo-Siberians. The vast majority of the genetic makeup of present-day Siberians comes from this last push. It is also the reason that there is no very close connection between contemporary Siberians and Native Americans.

There were no Neanderthals alongside modern humans in Siberia but there was another human species. The Altai Mountains at the junction between Siberia, Central Asia, and China were home to a species of human called Homo denisovan. It is still unclear what part - if any - this potential descendant of Homo Heidelbergensis and cousin of Homo sapiens played in the modern human occupation of the region.

Knowledge about them is only recent (since 2010), and is still undergoing a process of understanding and expansion. Early research does seem to show that, by around 18,000 BC, populations of H denisovan and H sapiens were interbreeding on mainland East Asia (see more on Homo denisovan via feature link).

The early East Asians also found Homo erectus populations still extant, but quickly out-competed them so that this long-established early human species was extinct before about 30,000 BC (see feature link). It was Homo erectus which provided the archaeological predecessor to the East Asian Palaeolithic, in the form of the Zhoukoudian Tradition. The type site for this is Zhoukoudian (Chou-k'ou-tien in older works), in China's Beijing municipality, where so-called Peking Man was discovered.

Various other cultural phases in Asia include the Eastern Central Asia Palaeolithic, South Asian Upper Palaeolithic, South-East Asian Upper Palaeolithic, and the Ordosian tradition, all of which exhibit similar Mousterian Levallois techniques. For the most part, localised cultures and traditions were yet to emerge.

Far East Kingdoms

Early Cultures

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