160,000 Years Ahead of Their Time: How Ancient Toolmakers in China Are Rewriting Human History

Show Notes

For decades, scientists assumed technological innovation spread from Africa and Europe to the rest of the world—that East Asian populations lagged behind in tool development. Then archaeologists uncovered 2,600 stone tools at China's Xigou site, including the earliest known composite tools in East Asia. These weren't crude implements. They were sophisticated, handle-fitted weapons that challenge everything we thought we knew about early human ingenuity.