In recent years, engraved ochre, bones and ostrich eggs unearthed from various Palaeolithic sites in Africa, the Near East and Europe have attracted the attention of many scholars. However, such items are rarely encountered at Palaeolithic sites in East Asia.

Professor Gao Xing and Dr Peng Fei from the Chinese Academy of Sciences found an engraved stone artefact in a stone tool assemblage unearthed at the famous Shuidonggou Palaeolithic site, in the Ningxia Hui Autonomous Region of northwest China.

Dr Peng Fei describes it as, "the first engraved non-organic artefact from the entire Palaeolithic of China"....