Six historic sites dating back to the Paleolithic period at the earliest were listed as China's new archaeological discoveries of 2022 at a forum on Wednesday.

Among these sites unearthed in six provincial-level regions, two are believed to be from the Neolithic period and one from the Bronze Age.

The remaining two discoveries are the royal tomb area and surrounding relics in the Yin Ruins dating back to the Shang Dynasty (1600-1046 B.C.) and a porcelain kiln site from the Western Xia Dynasty (1038-1227), according to the Chinese Academy of Social Sciences, organizer of the forum.

A Paleolithic period site incorporating ruins of ancient humans, animals and stoneware excavated in central China's Hubei Province tops the list. In this site, a fossilized skull regarded as the most intact Homo erectus specimen of its age found in inland Eurasia was unearthed in December 2022.