宁夏鸽子山遗址第10地点出土动物骨骼的埋藏学初步观察

Taphonomic observation of faunal remains from the Gezishan Locality 10 in Ningxia Hui Autonomous Region

宁夏鸽子山遗址第10地点(QG10)位于青铜峡市西北约20km的贺兰山南麓。2014-2017年,中国科学院古脊椎动物与古人类研究所与宁夏文物考古研究所联合组队对该遗址进行了发掘,出土大量动物化石、近万件石制品以及装饰品、骨制品、结构性火塘等。本项研究基于遗址第4层出土动物化石的埋藏学初步观察认为:晚更新世末期的古人类是遗址中动物骨骼的富集者和改造者;QG10的狩猎-采集人群采取狩猎而非主动食腐的方式获取了遗址附近的大中型食草类动物,并将其完整搬运至遗址内进行后续的肢解、食肉与敲骨取髓等营养性处理过程。相对于上述动物种类而言,遗址内的小型动物则是在其营养物质之外,古人类还利用了它们的骨骼材料以制作器型规整的骨角类工具。

Located in the foothills of Helan Mountain,roughly 20 km to the northwest of Qingtongxia City,locality 10(QG10) of the Gezishan site was systematically excavated in 2014- 2017. Along with thousands of lithic tools of microblade technology and dozens of perforated beads and bone artifacts,a large number of faunal remains was recovered from the site. Based on preliminary observations of taphonomic features of the animal bones identifiable to a specific taxon and/or skeletal element from the site,it could be argued that humans are the main agent responsible for the accumulation and modification of the faunal remains at QG10,and they procured the main prey animals through active hunting rather than aggressive scavenging. In addition,hunter-gatherers transported complete carcasses to the site to be processed,butchering the middle/large-sized animals and breaking open their bones mainly for nutritional purposes. However,it seems clear that in addition to their nutritional value,small animals at the site were probably exploited to manufacture bone artifacts as well.