Ancient China was one of the earliest centers of human civilization. Chinese civilization was also one of the few to invent writing independently, the others being Mesopotamia , the Indus Valley Civilization , the Mayan civilization , the Minoan Civilization of ancient Greece , and Ancient Egypt .

Prehistory

Archaeological evidence suggests that the earliest hominids in China date from 2.24 million to 250,000 years ago. [ 7 ] [ 8 ] A cave in Zhoukoudian (near present-day Beijing ) has fossils dated at somewhere between 300,000 to 550,000 years. The fossils are of Peking Man , an example of Homo erectus who used fire .

The earliest evidence of a fully modern human in China comes from Liujiang County , Guangxi , where a cranium has been found and dated to approximately 67,000 years ago. Although much controversy persists over the dating of the Liujiang remains, [ 9 ] [ 10 ] a partial skeleton from Minatogawa in Okinawa , Japan has been dated to 18,250 ± 650 to 16,600 ± 300 years ago, so modern humans must have reached China before that time.