Salkhit shares archaic features with both Zhoukoudian Locality 1 and Upper Cave samples. Metrics position Salkhit intermediate between Middle Pleistocene Locality 1 and Late Pleistocene Upper Cave. Salkhit has broader frontal and thinner supraorbital region than Middle Pleistocene samples like later hominins. This reflects encephalization and gracilization modernization trend. Results reject null hypothesis of Salkhit belonging to Zhoukoudian Homo erectus sample. Archaic features indicate regional predominance not archaic species membership. Salkhit sagittal keel is weaker than in most Locality 1 but similar to Upper Cave 101. Supraorbital region gives Salkhit archaic look but differs from Middle Pleistocene in modernization ways. Archaic morphology signals archaic ancestry not archaic time period. Salkhit unlikely 800,000 years old due to unreliable woolly rhinoceros dating. Hominin presence in Asia dates to late Early Pleistocene allowing Middle Pleistocene age for Salkhit. Coppens et al. clustered Salkhit with Neandertals and erectus but ruled out modern sapiens. Paper supports archaic features persisting in later regional specimens.