宁夏旧石器考古调查报告

A REPORT ON PALEOLITHIC RECONNAISSANCE IN NINGXIA, NORTH CHINA

2002年4—5月在宁夏开展的考古调查共发现旧石器时代地点30余处。2003年4月再次调查并对上年发现地点进行复查,确定了灵武地区水洞沟、施家窑、张家窑和固原地区彭阳县岭儿村4处地点群,采集石制品300余件,动物化石20余件,大部分来自地层断面上。石制品个体多较小,类型多样。从地层和石制品特征判断,新地点多属旧石器时代晚期,与水洞沟文化时代相当;少许材料发现自早于水洞沟工业的层位。此项调查扩大了宁夏旧石器时代遗存的分布区,对探讨水洞沟文化的分布范围、渊源和旧石器时代晚期东西方人类迁徙和文化交流提供了重要线索。

This report presents the result of a series of Paleolithic reconnaissance conducted in the Ningxia Hui Autonomous Region in North China by the Institute of Vertebrate Paleontology and Paleoanthropology(Chinese Academy of Sciences)and the Ningxia Provincial Institute of Archeology in 2002 and 2003. From more than 30 sites lithic artifacts and mammalian fossils were collected and 19 of them were confirmed with clear stratigraphy and archaeological values, distributed in Shuidonggou, Shijiayao and Zhangjiayao in the Lingwu District and Linger in Pengyang County. The majority of the more than 300 pieces of collected stone artifacts are ordinary chipped cores, flakes and retouched ones, along with a few microlithic pieces. Most of the stone artifacts are small and some exhibit close tie with the Shuidonggou industry. Based on stratigraphic observations, these newly discovered sites represent at least three archaeological periods: 1)pre-Shuidonggou horizon; 2)the Shuidonggou horizon, characterized in the presence of blade and Levallois-like technology, and 3)the microblade horizon. At present, technological developmental relationship among these cultural stages remains unclear. The result of the reconnaissance is a significant breakthrough in Paleolithic archaeological investigations in the Ningxia Region and for the research on the Shuidonggou techno-complex. For more than half a century the Shuidonggou site has been the only Paleolithic site in the vast region and the so-called typical Shuidonggou artifacts, namely blades and Levallois-style cores, flakes and retouched pieces, have been unearthed only from a limited area at the Shuidonggou site(i.e. Shuidonggou Loc. 1). The reconnaissance makes it clear that ancient humans put their footsteps in a much larger territory in the region, at least during the Upper Pleistocene, and the Shuidonggou site is not a single site but instead a complex of many similar sites in a big area, indicating that human beings with the 'Shuidonggou technology' occupied a much larger area, and their survival and adaptive capabilities are beyond what we have believed before. The reconnaissance provided valuable clues for tracing the migration and adaptation of Pleistocene humans in the region and the origin and development of the Shuidonggou industry.