Article · Wikipedia archive · Last revised Jul 30, 2026

Bose Basin

The Bose Basin (百色盆地高岭坡遗址) is in the western part of Guangxi province in southern China, around the city of Baise (Bose), and is the site of the oldest known cutting tools of the Acheulean archaeological industry in China. It is about 800 square kilometres (300 sq mi) in area.

Last revised
Jul 30, 2026
Read time
≈ 1 min
Length
190 w
Citations
6
Source
Bose Basin
Location of Bose Basin in China
23°36′N 108°18′E / 23.6°N 108.3°E / 23.6; 108.3
PeriodsPaleolithic China
LocationBaise
RegionGuangxi
History
Built2,000,000 years ago
Abandoned800,000 years ago

The Bose Basin (百色盆地高岭坡遗址) is in the western part of Guangxi province in southern China, around the city of Baise (Bose), and is the site of the oldest known cutting tools of the Acheulean123 archaeological industry in China. It is about 800 square kilometres (300 sq mi) in area.

The first discovery was in 1973, when petroleum geologists accidentally ran across a dozen stone artifacts. Paleolithic stone tools, notably hand axes have since been found at 114 sites in the basin.1 They were found in a tektite layer dated to 800,000 years ago. Fossils in some of the caves may be 2 million years old.23

References

References

  1. Xu et al. 2012. Spatial distribution of Paleolithic sites in Bose Basin, Guangxi, China Archived 2014-10-22 at the Wayback Machine. Quaternary International 281. 10-13.
  2. Bose, China at Smithsonian Museum of Natural History site
  3. Hou Y.; Potts, R.; Yuan, B.; Guo, Z.; Deino, A.; Wang, W.; Clark, J.; Xie, G.; Huang, W. 2000. Mid-Pleistocene Acheulean-like stone technology of the Bose Basin, South China. Science 287, 1622-1626.