许昌灵井旧石器时代遗址2006年发掘报告

2006 EXCAVATION ON THE PALEOLITHIC LINGJING SITE IN XUCHANG

The Lingjing site lies on the western side of Lingjing Town 15 km northwest of Xuchang City in Henan Province,at longitude 113°41’ E.by latitude 34°04’ N and a height of 117 m above sea level.The present exploration is the second year of excavation following the 2005 work.The stratigraphic section of the site exceeds 9 m in depth(not reaching the bottom),with a calcic plate as the demarcation between the Paleolithic remains and the Neolithic ones.The 2006 excavation was carried out beneath the calcic plate,covering an area of 218 sq m,and brought to light 5,690 stone artifacts,several hundred identifiable animal fossil specimens,over one hundred bone implements and nearly ten thousand broken animal bones.The stone artifacts are products of white vein quartz pebbles and various quartzite blocks,which came from the boulder bed of the ancient river running through about seven km northwest of the site.In type there are stone implements,stone-working tools such as hammers and anvils,and stone cores,flakes,fragments and bits.The vein quartz implements are largely small in size,while the quartzite ones are mainly large-and medium-sized.Some flakes and tools bear traces of using.Flaking was chiefly by hammering,and the block-on-block technique was used to produce a few vein quartz flakes.The stone implements are shaped by hammering and trimmed principally toward the dorsum and partly towards the surface of fracture.Most of the specimens are crudely retouched,and fine trimmed were encountered occasionally.The unearthed disc-shaped stone cores are great in number and typical in form,which constitutes a distinct feature of the Lingjing stone industry.The finds belong mainly to the stone industry of North China,but the occurrence of large-sized pebble implements reflects certain kinship with southern stone-tool making.The bone articles fall into scrapers,points,pointed and edged tools,and burins,with the first type coming first in number.The material came generally from long bones of herbivorous animals.It was wrought largely by hammering similar to the technique for the stone implements on the site.Tail retouching was quite often used.Both the bone artifacts with traces of working and those with traces of using occurred quite frequently.Is that means a change in the mode of tools? It is a problem waiting for research in the future.The site was a working camp near a small lake supplied by springs,a base for ancient people’s hunting in the vicinity,making stone and bone implements,butchering their preys and processing animal skins,and must have been rather different from the dwelling camp.A comparison in fauna indicates the date of the Lingjing site to be close to the Xujiayao period and to belong to the earlier late Pleistocene.As the uranium-series age of the Xujiayao fauna is 100—120 ka,the absolute age of the Lingjing fauna can be inferred to be about 100 ka.

The Lingjing site lies on the western side of Lingjing Town 15 km northwest of Xuchang City in Henan Province, at longitude 113041, E. by latitude 34°04′N and a height of 117 m above sea level. The present exploration is the second year of excavation following the 2005 work. The stratigraphic section of the site exceeds 9 m in depth （not reaching the bottom）, with a calcic plate as the demarcation between the Paleolithic remains and the Neolithic ones. The 2006 excavation was carried out beneath the calcic plate, covering an area of 218 sq m, and brought to light 5, 690 stone artifacts, several hundred identifiable animal fossil specimens, over one hundred bone implements and nearly ten thousand broken animal bones. The stone artifacts are products of white vein quartz pebbles and various quartzite blocks, which came from the boulder bed of the ancient river running through about seven km northwest of the site. In type there are stone implements, stone-working tools such as hammers and anvils, and stone cores, flakes, fragments and bits. The vein quartz implements are largely small in size, while the quartzite ones are mainly large- and mediumsized. Some flakes and tools bear traces of using. Flaking was chiefly by hammering, and the block-on-block technique was used to produce a few vein quartz flakes. The stone implements are shaped by hammering and trimmed principally toward the dorsum and partly towards the surface of fracture. Most of the specimens are crudely retouched, and fine trimmed were encountered occasionally. The unearthed disc-shaped stone cores are great in number and typical in form, which constitutes a distinct feature of the Lingjing stone industry. The finds belong mainly to the stone industry of North China, but the occurrence of large-sized pebble implements reflects certain kinship with southern stone-tool making. The bone articles fall into scrapers, points, pointed and edged tools, and burins, with the first type coming first in number. The material came generally from long bones of herbivorous animals. It was wrought largely by hammering similar to the technique for the stone implements on the site. Tail retouching was quite often used. Both the bone artifacts with traces of working and those with traces of using occurred quite frequently. Is that means a change in the mode of tools？ It is a problem waiting for research in the future. The site was a working camp near a small lake supplied by springs, a base for ancient people＇s hunting in the vicinity, making stone and bone implements, butchering their preys and processing animal skins, and must have been rather different from the dwelling camp. A comparison in fauna indicates the date of the Lingjing site to be close to the Xujiayao period and to belong to the earlier late Pleistocene. As the uranium-series age of the Xujiayao fauna is 100--120 ka, the absolute age of the Lingjing fauna can be inferred to be about 100 ka.