BEIJING, July 4 (Xinhua) -- A cache of 35 remarkably well-preserved wooden tools has been unearthed in southwest China, dating back around 300,000 years, offering new insights into early human technology in East Asia.

The discovery at the Gantangqing site in Yunnan Province, detailed in a study published Friday in the journal Science, marks the earliest known evidence of complex wooden tool technology in East Asia.

Alongside the wooden artifacts, a wealth of associated cultural relics, including stone implements, antler "soft hammers," animal fossils and plant remains, was also found during the excavation.

According to an international research team, led by experts from the Institute of Vertebrate Paleontology and Paleoanthropology (IVPP) under the Chinese Academy of Sciences, the wooden tools were mainly used for foraging plant roots and stems.

Although early humans have used wood for over a million years, wooden artifacts are quite rare in the archaeological record, particularly during the Early and Middle Pleistocene.

The research team determined that human activity at the site took place between 360,000 and 250,000 years ago, highlighting the diversity and complexity of early human production and survival strategies.

The wooden tools, mainly crafted from pine, bear cutting and scraping marks indicative of activities like branch pruning and shaping. Polished streaks and fractures at their tips further attest to their use.

Soil residues found on some tool tips contain plant starch grains, confirming that these wooden tools were primarily used for digging up underground plant foods.

The findings highlight the crucial role of bamboo and wooden tools in the lives of ancient humans in East and Southeast Asia, and reveal, for the first time, the nature of ancient human gathering economies, said Gao Xing from IVPP, the paper's corresponding author.

Compared to wooden tool sites in Europe, which generally feature medium-sized hunting gear, Gantangqing stands out for its broader and more diverse array of small, hand-held tools.

The sophistication of these wooden tools underscores the importance of organic artifacts in interpreting early human behavior, particularly in regions where stone tools alone have painted a more "primitive" technological picture.

The site also yielded stone tools, predominantly small scrapers, which were mainly used for crafting wooden tools and butchering prey, according to the study.

The use of wooden tools likely reflects the inhabitants' shift from stone to wooden implements due to limited stone resources.

Four deer antler fragments identified as "soft hammers" show clear usage marks, indicating that East Asian stone tool technology in the early and middle Paleolithic was more advanced than previously thought and challenging the notion that it lagged significantly behind Western technology, according to Gao. ■