Wo Shi Laowai – Wo Pa Shui

From that bastion of historical fact, the same beacon of light that reported Atlantis had been discovered in Fuxian Lake near Kunming, comes this wee chortle:

Stone Age site yields evidence of advanced culture

Chinese archaeologists say they have uncovered strong evidence that Stone Age people in southern East Asia were at least as technologically advanced as their European cousins — challenging the long-standing theory of “two cultures” *. Excavations at the Dahe Stone Age site, in southwest China’s Yunnan Province, had revealed elaborate stone tools and instruments that rivaled those of the Mousterian culture that existed at that time in Europe, said Ji Xueping, chief archaeologist at the site.

• Better known as the ‘Movius Line‘ theory, proposed in 1948

Yeah, except that the European sites are dated 70,000-32,000 BC and the Dahe site is dated 42,000-34,000 BC. Looks suspiciously like the Levalloisian and Mousterian-type tools were simply copied, rather than invented by Chinese Neanderthals.

Ye Gods! What’s the big deal, anyway?