泥河湾盆地黑土沟遗址上文化层石制品

Stone Artifacts from the Upper Layer of the Heitugou Site, Nihewan Basin

黑土沟遗址是泥河湾盆地目前发现可以确认的时代最老的一处旧石器时代遗址,其年龄为1.77—1.95Ma较早阶段。在黑土沟遗址文化层露头上面局部覆盖有含粗砂和细砾的灰色粘质粉砂堆积,其中蕴藏石制品,并且富集标志早更新世较早时期哺乳动物的化石。这个含石制品的堆积暂时赋名为黑土沟遗址上文化层,其年龄与黑土沟遗址上部一致或略晚,应该逾180万年。

The Heitugou,based on decades of investigation currently the earliest Paleolithic locality in the Nihewan Basin and East Asia.Paleomagnetic studies indicate an age of between1.77-1.95Ma.The lithostratigraphic sequence consists of a partially exposed outcrop of grey Silt with a clay matrix,coarse sand and small gravels which overlie the cultural layer which has yielded stone artifacts and abundant mammalian fossils belonging to the Early Pleistocene of northern China.Mammalian taxa recovered from the overlying strata andconsistent with an Early Pleistocene age include sp.,and The sediments are tentatively referred to as the Upper Cultural Layer which directly overlies the cultural layers of the Heitugou site.The Heitugou locality has yielded currently that is quite possibly the earliest evidence for human presence in East Asia.It would thus be broadly contemporaneous with in East Africa or earliest in Eurasia.Although no hominid specimens have yet been recovered,it is already clear that this archeological assemblage contrasts markedly fromother early Pleistocene assemblages as they are currently known from localities in Africa and Dmanisi,the earliest locality in Eurasia.These differences include the presence of“prismatic cores”,some long thin flakes which appear to be identical“microblades”in appearance and“thumbnail scrapers”.In extra-Asian localities these characteristics are generally assigned to much later Upper Paleolithic assemblages as they are currently known from Europe and Africa.Because of the well-established lithostratigraphic sequences and the fact that similar assemblages are known fromother early Nihewan sites,we currently interpret the Heitugou assemblages as representative of a distinct and previously unknown Paleolithic culture or activity facies.We propose the use of the term Early Nihewanian Culture to identify and recognize the distinctness of these assemblages.Although still tentative,but increasingly supported by the recovery other broadly contemporaneous assemblages,especially in China,it is nowbecoming apparent that the succession of Paleolithic“stage-ages”in East Asia differs markedly from regional sequences as they are known from other localities in Africa and Europe.