What is the prehistory of humans in China and Southeast Asia so long ago?
The answer comes from intensive research in our African homeland. By about 2million years ago, a species known as Homo erectus was evolving. They were adept at making stone tools, were meat eaters, walked upright and lived in small social groups. They were also inquisitive and given to exploration. Excavations at Dmanisi in Georgia have uncovered the remains of where they lived about 1.8million years ago.
They hunted a wide range of animals: deer, gazelles, rhinos, ostriches and bison. One old male survived with just one tooth, so perhaps his extended family provided him with suitable prepared food. Some groups then progressed further eastward into what is now the island of Java, and further north into China.
Archaeologists have tracked the presence of Homo erectus in the Far East for over a century, but finds are few and far between, and dating their arrival has not been easy.
But in 2022, a nearly complete Homo erectus skull was found at Yunxian in Central China. It is the third to be found there and is the best preserved. The important next step was to date it. On February 26, the result was published: 1.77million years ago.
The two studies — mosquitoes’ taste for human blood on the one hand, and the arrival of humans into the mosquito homeland on the other — are independent, but they close in on the same key event in the world before us.
It has been suggested the insects were attracted to the unique odour of the new humans and turned on them rather than the macaques. Mosquitoes have been a real pest to us ever since. I once excavated a site in Thailand where, 4000 years ago, the inhabitants had the thalassaemia gene. This provides resistance to malaria but also leads to anaemia and poor health. Few of the people who lived there reached 40 years of age, and we found the graves of many newly born infants.
