‘A new culture’: discovery in China reveals ochre processing in east Asia up to 41,000 years ago

Archeologists at the 40,000-year-old ochre processing site in northern China. Photograph: Fa-Gang Wang

A 40,000-year-old archaeological site in northern China has unearthed the earliest evidence of ochre processing in east Asia, researchers say.

The site was discovered at Xiamabei in the Nihewan Basin, in the northern Chinese province of Hebei.