La possibilité d’un Paléolithique chinois. La première «Mission paléontologique française en Chine» (1923–1924)

The geological study of China develops from the second half of the 19th century. It then suggests a Chinese paleontological potential for anchoring this territory in prehistoric studies at the time European researches begin to outline the contours of Paleolithic. This discovery will be made possible through the Father Emile Licent’s works and to his naturalistic and systematic exploration of so little known areas, and support from Paris and on the ground by researchers from the Muséum national d’histoire naturelle (Paris), as Professor Marcellin Boule or Father Pierre Teilhard de Chardin. The study of the archives of these researchers allows to highlight the context of international scientific competition within which the earliest French paleontological missions in China (1923–1924) took place. They also provide new insight into the success and the offspring of this work, including the weak echo in historiography of Prehistory which is related in part to a misunderstanding between various actors pursuing different types of objectives and, above, for a reconfiguration of paleoanthropological issues.