Here, we apply the well-established isochron 26Al/10Be burial dating to quartz gravels from two sediment layers of the site. The age results push the Yunxian crania back to 1.77 ± 0.08 million years ago (±1σ internal error), representing the oldest H. erectus fossils discovered in situ in eastern Asia. A much older age assignment to Yunxian supports the model of rapid dispersal and widespread distribution of early H. erectus and contributes to narrowing the chronological gap between the earliest archaeology and hominin paleontology in eastern Asia.