Abstract: The Xujiayao-Houjiayao site, called the Xujiayao site for short, is an important Middle Paleolithic site in North China. The “Xujiayao Man” fossils unearthed from the site were identified ?as ?archaic ?Homo sapiens. On the basis of the stratigraphic paleontological approach, the Xujiayao fauna was assigned to the early Late Pleistocene and the cultural layers containing Paleolithic remains should therefore belong to the Late Pleistocene. Up to now, the Xujiayao Formation? in? which? the? Xujiayao? site? is? embedded? is? the? stratification? that? has? yielded? the? most? abundant paleoanthropological, Paleolithic, and paleontological data known in the Nihewan Basin. There has been a misunderstanding about the paleomagnetic dating of the Xujiayao site as it is misleading to determine the age of a Paleolithic archeological site by calculating the average rate of sediment accumulation, because all the stratigraphic sections with human remians are not represented as uniform sedimentary sequences.

Key words: Xujiayao-Houjiayao site; Dating; Stratigraphy; Misunderstanding