旧石器技术研究法之应用--以观音洞石核为例

Methodological Application of the Paleolithic Technological Research,a Case Study of a Core from the Guanyindong Site

中国旧石器材料数量众多,表现出一定的地域特色,在世界旧石器考古学领域占有重要地位。研究表明,类型学在解读与提取石器所包含的人类技术行为信息方面的能力有较大的局限性,而且中国旧石器时代的一些石制品的形态和组合与欧洲和近东常常难以直接对比,对器物的分类定名也存在交流上的困难。由法国学者开创发展起来的史前石器技术研究理论和方法在分析形态特征的同时,通过关注支配石器工业生产体系的技术机制和逻辑规则,对深入细致地探讨史前人类的认知特征和技术行为可以发挥重要作用,也能为石器工业甚至跨地域文化之间的比较提供基础。本文对贵州观音洞遗址的石核标本为例进行了技术分析,说明其在研究中国旧石器材料上的可行性,特别是信息提取上的优势。

Numerous prehistoric lithic industries have been unearthed in China, many of which have yielded quite different characteristics from those artifacts found in Europe and Africa. Past research has shown that typology itself is not very capable of decoding and interpreting technological behaviors of prehistoric humans. Moreover, the morphology and composition of stone assemblages are sometimes so different from those in Europe and the Near East that the problem of scientific dialogue among researchers in all of these regions remains for long time. In order to study more deeply the culture and behavior of prehistory French prehistorians have proposed and developed a new methodology called ＂lithic technological study,＂ which focuses on analyzing the intra- and inter-cultural relationships between stone artifacts. This method enabled us to explore the specific techniques and rules that operate in a system of lithic production, which reveals the cognitive character and technological behavior used by prehistoric humans. By applying the method of ＂lithic technological study＂, this paper reflects a partial research result of the first author＇s dissertation on the stone assemblage of the Guanyindong site, Qianxi County, Guizhou Province. It focuses on a single platform core and shows how this ＂lithic technological study＂ can determine different series of debitage and the pattern of flake removal based on the negative characteristics left on the core. As part of this integral analysis, a comparison was made between the core＇s reconstructed flake removals and those flakes unearthed from the site. The purpose of this work was to reconstruct as accurately as possible the core＇s chaine operatoire of manufacture/use. This study clearly reveals the feasibility of applying this method to Chinese prehistoric materials especially to stone artifacts.