Newly discovered Palaeolithic artefacts from loess deposits and their ages in Lantian, central China

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• 作者：Shejiang Wang (1)
  Huayu Lu (2)
  Hongyan Zhang (2)
  Xuefeng Sun (2)
  Shuangwen Yi (2)
  Yingyong Chen (2)
  Gaike Zhang (3)
  Luda Xing (1) (4)
  Weigang Sun (5)
  
• 关键词：Lantian area ; Palaeolithic open ; air sites ; Loess deposit and chronology ; Late Pleistocene ; Acheulian ; type lithic artefacts
• 刊名：Chinese Science Bulletin
• 出版年：2014
• 出版时间：March 2014
• 年：2014
• 卷：59
• 期：7
• 页码：651-661
• 全文大小：1,413 KB
• 作者单位：Shejiang Wang (1)
  Huayu Lu (2)
  Hongyan Zhang (2)
  Xuefeng Sun (2)
  Shuangwen Yi (2)
  Yingyong Chen (2)
  Gaike Zhang (3)
  Luda Xing (1) (4)
  Weigang Sun (5)
  
  1. Key Laboratory of Vertebrate Evolution and Human Origins of Chinese Academy of Sciences, Institute of Vertebrate Palaeontology and Palaeoanthropology, The Chinese Academy of Sciences, Beijing, 100044, China
  2. School of Geographic and Oceanographic Sciences, Institute for Climate and Global Change Research, Nanjing University, Nanjing, 210093, China
  3. Guizhou Provincial Institute of Cultural Relics and Archaeology, Guiyang, 550004, China
  4. University of Chinese Academy of Sciences, Beijing, 100049, China
  5. Shaanxi Provincial Institute of Archaeology, Xi’an, 710054, China
  
• ISSN：1861-9541

文摘

Eight new Palaeolithic open-air sites were identified and 770 stone artefacts were collected from 2009 to 2011 in the Lantian area of the Bahe River valley, central China. Because the famous Homo erectus fossils were unearthed at the Gongwangling and Chenjiawo localities, and more than 30 Palaeolithic open-air sites were investigated in the 1960s in this region, the catchment of Bahe River is regarded as one of the most important hominin sites from the late early Pleistocene to the middle Pleistocene. These eight newly discovered open-air sites are located at the second (n?=?6), third (n?=?1) or higher terraces (n?=?1) of the Bahe River. The Diaozhai section on the second terrace was sampled in detail. Two samples were collected for optically stimulated luminescence dating (OSL). The OSL results suggest that a buried lithic artefact layer at the Diaozhai site spans approximately 70-0?ka. The lithic assemblage analysis suggests that the stone artefacts were made of local pebbles/cobbles such as greywacke, quartz, sandstone and igneous rocks. The main percussion techniques that were used were direct hard hammer percussion and bi-polar techniques. The lithic artefacts comprise hammer stones, cores, flakes, retouched tools and flaking debris. Acheulian-type large cutting tools (LCTs) such as hand-axes, picks and cleavers were indentified in the Lantian region as well. This is the first time Acheulian-type LCTs from the late Pleistocene have been identified in this region. This study distinguishes age gaps between Western world and East Asian Acheulian-type tools.