万寿岩旧石器时代遗址埋藏学研究

A Taphonomic Study of the Wanshouyan Paleolithic Site

本文对福建三明万寿岩遗址文化层形成、遗物与动物骨骼埋藏、风化、破坏等现象进行观察,认为灵峰洞旧石器早期文化遗物和化石,由于暴露于洞内表面时间较长而经受强烈风化、侵蚀与钙质胶结;船帆洞旧石器晚期遗址因洞口坍塌和外部水流侵漫进洞而被废弃,在潮湿环境下,遗物和化石遭受腐蚀、铁锰质浸染严重。3个文化层的遗物及伴生哺乳动物化石均属原地埋藏类型;而船帆洞内3号支洞化石的集聚是高层洞穴作为排泄通道时由流水携带堆积而成的异地埋藏。

The Wanshouyan Hill,a Paleolithic site complex, is situated 17 km northwest of Sanming City, Fujian Province. Excavations were conducted at two sites on the hill, namely the Lingfengdong Cave and the Chuanfandong Cave in 1999--2000 and again in 2004. More than one hundred artifacts and 11 species of mammalian fossils were unearthed from the upper travertine in Lingfengdong Cave, and two cultural layers were identified at the Chuanfandong Cave. Each cultural layer contains a large amount of stone artifacts and mammalian fossils. This paper is a preliminary report on the taphonomy of the site complex based on the information collected during the second excavation in 2004. We suggest that for the Lingfengdong site, artifacts and mammalian fossils had been weathered for a long period of time, as the surface of most bones had been gnawed by rodents. For the Chuanfandong Cave, pebbles of the artificial pebble-paved ground and bones in the lower cultural layer were corroded by iron, manganese and various humus. The cultural and fossil remains in the Lingfengdong Cave and Chuanfandong Cave were probably buried in situ as no disturbance could be identified. In the No. 3 tunnel of the eastem part of the Chuanfandong Cave, a large number of fossil teeth and mammalian bones were unearthed from greenish-gray sandy clay and olive yellow sticky clay. The fauna was named ＂the Wansbouyan fauna＂ and most of them were members of the ＂ Airulopoda Stegodon Fauna＂ in South China. Analysis of the sediments indicates that the mammalian fossils in the No. 3 tunnel of the Chuanfandong were washed from the Longjingdong. This fauna assemblage, together with the evidence of pollen, suggests that the environment then was tropical-subtropical warm moisture forest-tussock condition.