蔚县盆地吉家庄旧石器遗址发掘报告

A preliminary report on excavation of the Jijiazhuang Paleolithic site in the Yuxian Basin, North China

蔚县盆地地处泥河湾盆地(广义)东南部,其河湖相地层内保留丰富的早期人类活动信息,在研究中国北方更新世人类演化和生存行为领域具有重要意义。吉家庄遗址是近年来新发现和发掘的旧石器遗址,埋藏于吉家庄镇以北的河湖相地层内。遗址发现于2003年,中国科学院古脊椎动物与古人类研究所于2016年对其四个地点(JJZ-A、JJZ-B、JJZ-C和JJZ-D)进行考古发掘,揭露面积76m^2,出土190件石质标本和178件动物化石。遗址剖面堆积物以棕灰-棕黄-灰绿-灰黑色细砂、粉砂和黏土为主,文化遗物出自棕灰色-棕黄色细砂和粉砂层内。对代表性地点JJZ-B遗址成因(标本风化磨蚀状况、个体大小和空间聚集特征等)分析表明,遗址形成过程中仅受到湖泊片流改造且程度较弱。石制品原料均来自遗址东北约6km外的玉皇山,岩性以中基性火山岩为主。锤击法剥片和修理石器,剥片和修理相对较为彻底和精致,部分石片显示小台面且保留唇的特点,显示早期人类的石器技术相对泥河湾盆地早更新世模式1(Oldowan-like)工业较为进步。哺乳动物化石较破碎,地层对比显示古人类在该遗址活动的时间大致为中更新世。该遗址的发掘对研究古人类在蔚县盆地的生活方式以及探求泥河湾盆地古人类在早-中更新世石器技术演变及适应策略具有重要意义。

The Nihewan basin(senso lato),which has the most concentrated evidence for the earliest human dispersal to East Asia,is the key region for study of the relationship between early hominin evolution and environment in North China.However,research in past decades was concentrated in the eastern part of the basin.Yuxian basin,which preserves fluvio-lacustrine deposits and early human cultural remains,is located in the southeastern part of the Nihewan basin.From 2015,a systematic investigation was conducted by a team from the Institute of Vertebrate Paleontology and Paleoanthropology,Chinese Academy of Sciences,Hebei Provincial Institute of Cultural Relics,and Yuzhou Museum.Many Paleolithic sites and archaeological remains were discovered from Jijiazhuang town,Yuxian basin.This paper gives a preliminary report on the Jijiazhuang site(JJZ)complex which was excavated in 2016.The newly discovered Jijiazhuang site complex(JJZ-A,JJZ-B,JJZ-C,and JJZ-D)is located in the north part of Jijiazhuang town in the Yuxian basin.It was discovered in 2003 and was excavated in 2016.A total of 76 m2 was exposed,with 190 stone artifacts and 178 fossil fragments recovered from the site.The stratigraphic profile comprises fluvio-lacustrine deposits of browngrey,brown-yellow,grey-green,and grey-black fine sand,silt,and clay,which is capped by loess.The archaeological materials were unearthed from the brown-grey and brown-yellow fine sands and silt.Study of the multiple evidence from archaeological materials(particularly the artifact conditions,debitage size distribution,orientation analysis,and inclination)from JJZ-B site indicates that the archaeological deposits were buried rapidly in shallow lake margin deposits of fine sands and silts that were minimally disturbed and subjected only to relatively low energy sheet wash.Lithic raw materials were procured ca.6 km north of the site,with volcanic lava dominating the rock types,and siliceous dolomite and chert less common.Artifacts in the assemblage are relatively small to medium in size.The flaking technique is direct hard hammer percussion,although many small flake butts display a lip that suggests soft hammer flaking was probably used by the early humans.Modified pieces appear to be casually retouched by direct hammer percussion.The JJZ lithic assemblage shows relatively advanced technology compared with the Mode 1 industries in the Early Pleistocene assemblages in the Nihewan basin.The broken nature of the fossil fragments hinders an unambiguous identification of the species.Preliminary comparison with the stratigraphy in the Nihewan basin indicates that early humans colonized the site probably in the Middle Pleistocene.It can be inferred that the study of the Jijiazhuang site complex bears great significance on the research of human adaptive behavior and technological exchange in the Nihewan basin during the Middle Pleistocene.