Discovery of a prehistoric site at Sao Din (Nanoi, Nan province, Northern Thailand): Stone tools and new geological insights

While a series of new discoveries in India or China seem to demonstrate a much older human presence during the Early Pleistocene, information concerning the demographic expansion of human groups into continental Southeast Asia is generally lacking – although osteological evidence does exist for an early human presence in Indonesia. Recent excavations in northern Thailand have produced a series of stone tools which present an ideal opportunity for reconsidering the archaeological record of the Early Pleistocene in this region. Here we provide a preliminary description of the geomorphological context and an initial technological analysis of the stone tools from the Early Pleistocene site of Sao Din in northern Thailand. Technologically, the lithic assemblage presents the most similarities with southern Chinese assemblages dated to between 1 Ma and 0.5 Ma.