Recent discovery of handaxes associated with tektites in the Nanbanshan locality of the Damei site, Bose basin, Guangxi, South China

This paper reports the recent discovery of 176 stone artifacts, including two handaxes (bifacial large cutting tools), which are preserved in the laterized sediments of terrace 4 of the Youjiang River at the Nanbanshan locality of the Damei site in the Bose basin, south China. Their characteristics are similar to Paleolithic stone artifacts discovered from other sites in this basin. The handaxes, picks and other stone artifacts are associated with 155 tektite pieces found in the same horizontal layer. These fresh, unabraded and sharp-edged tektites were buried immediately after the airfall event. This provides fur- ther evidence that the Bose stone artifacts and the tektites were deposited simultaneously around 0.8 Ma. More stone artifacts were also unearthed above the tektite layer, indicating that early humans in the area survived the event.