Hominin Response to Oscillations in Climate and Local Environments During the Mid‐Pleistocene Climate Transition in Northern China

Abstract

Archeological evidence from loess sediments from Shangchen on the southeastern Chinese Loess Plateau indicates a suspension of hominin occupation around the time of the early mid-Pleistocene climate transition, prompting a re-assessment of climate-vegetation-hominin interactions. Loess deposits with in situ lithic records cover the period of hominin occupation and reveal four distinct climate-vegetation periods (2.1–1.8, 1.8–1.26, 1.26–0.9, and 0.9–0.6 Ma). Major oscillations in climate superimposed upon an aridification trend and an expansion of C4 herbaceous vegetation from about 1.26 Ma may have driven early humans to move to more hospitable locations in the region. Comparison with the record at Nihewan indicates that large-scale climate oscillations induced disparate hominin responses due to distinctive local environmental conditions.