Editing History of China (section)

===Paleolithic (1.7 Ma – 12 ka)===
{{see also|List of Paleolithic sites in China}}
{{Multiple image
| align =right
| perrow = 2/2/2
| total_width = 300
| caption_align = center
| title = Paleolithic
| image1 = Skull pekingman.jpg 
| caption1 = Traditional reconstruction of the Peking Man skull
| image2 = Teeth of Yuanmou Man (Cast) - cropped.png
| caption2 = Casts of the teeth of Yuanmou Man
| image3 = Dali Man Skull, Replica.jpg
| caption3 = Restoration of the skull [[Shaanxi History Museum]]
| image4 = Longlin 1.jpg
| caption4 = LL-1 partials skull
}}

The [[archaic human]] species of ''[[Homo erectus]]'' arrived in [[Eurasia]] sometime between 1.3 and 1.8 [[million years ago]] (Ma) and numerous remains of its subspecies have been found in what is now China.{{sfn|Wilkinson|2018|p=737}} The oldest of these is the southwestern [[Yuanmou Man]] ({{lang|zh-hans|元谋人}}; in [[Yunnan]]), dated to {{c.}} 1.7 Ma, which lived in a mixed [[bushland]]-forest environment alongside [[chalicothere]]s, [[deer]], the elephant ''[[Stegodon]]'', [[rhino]]s, cattle, pigs, and the [[giant short-faced hyena]].{{sfn|Zhu|Potts|Pan|Yao|2008|pp=1077, 1084–1085}} The better-known [[Peking Man]] ({{lang|zh-hans|北京猿人}}; near Beijing) of 700,000–400,000 [[Before Present|BP]],{{sfn|Wilkinson|2018|p=737}} was discovered in the [[Zhoukoudian]] cave alongside [[scraper (archaeology)|scrapers]], [[chopper (archaeology)|choppers]], and, dated slightly later, points, [[burin (lithic flake)|burins]], and awls.{{sfn|Wu|Lin|1983|p=92}} Other ''Homo erectus'' fossils have been found widely throughout the region, including the northwestern [[Lantian Man]] in [[Shaanxi]], as well minor specimens in northeastern [[Liaoning]] and southern [[Guangdong]].{{sfn|Wilkinson|2018|p=737}} The dates of most [[List of Paleolithic sites in China|Paleolithic sites]] were long debated but have been more reliably established based on modern [[magnetostratigraphy]]: Majuangou at 1.66–1.55 Ma, Lanpo at 1.6 Ma, [[Xiaochangliang]] at 1.36 Ma, Xiantai at 1.36 Ma, [[Banshan]] at 1.32 Ma, Feiliang at 1.2 Ma and Donggutuo at 1.1 Ma.{{sfn|Ao|Dekkers|Wei|Qiang|2013|p=1}} Evidence of fire use by ''Homo erectus'' occurred between 1–1.8&nbsp;million years BP at the archaeological site of [[Xihoudu]], Shanxi Province.{{sfn|James|Dennell|Gilbert|Lewis|1989|p=2}}

The circumstances surrounding the [[Human evolution|evolution]] of ''Homo erectus'' to contemporary ''[[H. sapiens]]'' is debated; the three main theories include the dominant [[Recent African origin of modern humans|"Out of Africa" theory]] (OOA), the [[regional continuity model]] and the admixture variant of the OOA hypothesis.{{sfn|Wilkinson|2018|p=737}} Regardless, the earliest modern humans have been dated to China at 120,000–80,000 BP based on fossilized teeth discovered in [[Fuyan Cave]] of [[Dao County]], Hunan.{{sfn|Liu|Martinón-Torres|Cai|Xing|2015|p=696}} The larger animals which lived alongside these humans include the extinct ''[[Ailuropoda baconi]]'' panda, the ''[[Crocuta|Crocuta ultima]]'' hyena, the ''Stegodon'', and the [[giant tapir]].{{sfn|Liu|Martinón-Torres|Cai|Xing|2015|p=696}} Evidence of [[Middle Palaeolithic]] [[Levallois technique|Levallois]] technology has been found in the lithic assemblage of [[Guanyindong]] Cave site in southwest China, dated to approximately 170,000–80,000 years ago.{{sfn|Hu|Marwick|Zhang|Rui|2018|p=82}}