史前石制品的热处理研究

A Study on the Heat Treatment of Lithic Artifact in Prehistory

民族学和考古学研究显示,人类对石制品有意识的热处理现象自史前时代开始就普遍存在于世界各地,主要被用来改善石料的破裂性能,改变石料的外观,并且附加一定的文化价值与社会意义。有关热处理原理、方法和表现特征的实验研究,为辨别考古材料提供了对比依据。目前为止,中国关于热处理的考古学发现和研究很少,希望本文能够引起国内史前考古学界对这一主题的兴趣和关注。

Recent archaeological and ethnographic investigations suggest that intentional heat treatments of lithic artifacts appeared globally in prehistory, with purposes of altering the textures of stones for making tools, for changing appearances, for attaining social-cultural values of the products. The principles and methods of heat treatment have been evaluated through a number of experiments, which provide data in reference to distinguish altered stone artifacts from archaeological assemblages. This paper summarizes most of recent studies on the subject from available English publications, with a concern that similar study has not yet been carried out in China. The authors provided this review in hope that such study should be given sufficient attentions in Chinese study of prehistoric archaeology.