烟墩堡遗址研究

A STUDY ON YANDUNBAO SITE, FENGDU, THREE GORGES REGION

烟墩堡遗址位于三峡地区重庆市丰都县 ,地处长江干流的第四级阶地 ,出土 130 0余件石制品。遗址底部的似网纹红土层是石制品的原生层位 ;上部的粘土层和粉砂层是流水等从高处搬运、二次堆积形成的 ,除石制品外 ,还混入新石器时代的陶片。石制品应为一套文化组合 ,以磨圆度较高的河床砾石为原料 ,类型包括石锤、断块、碎屑、石核、石片和石器 ,以大型和中型者为主 ;石片占大多数 ;石器以刮削器和砍砸器为主 ,加工简单 ,属中国南方旧石器时代早期砾石石器工业。零台面石片的出现对“摔碰法”

The Yandunbao Paleolithic site, situated at the fourth terrace of the Yangtze River, was discovered in 1994 and later excavated for four times. More than 1300 pieces of stone artifacts and some pieces of pottery were collected from the site. Some lithic artifacts were unearthed from primary context in a layer of Laterite-like clay at the bottom of the deposits, estimated to be the late Lower Pleistocene, while some stone artifacts and ceramics were found in secondary context in a layer of fine sands and a layer of sandy clays on top of the primary cultural level. Analyses on sediments and artifacts indicate that stone artifacts encountered from these three levels belong to the same cultural horizon. The general characteristics of the stone assemblage are summarized as follows: 1) The stone assemblage is mainly composed of medium and large ones in size. 2) The main raw materials used for stone tool manufactory are quartzite and sandstone cobbles locally available on the river bed. 3) Artifact types include hammers, cores, flakes, retouched tools and chunks. More than half of them are flakes. 4) Most cores are single-platform ones with cortical surfaces. Flaking is accomplished by hammer percussion. Cores were flaked simply and casually, indicating low extent of consumption. 5) More than seven percent of the stone artifacts are retouched tools, mainly scrapers and chopper-chopping-tools. Some notches, end scrapers, points and burins are also present. Retouches on these tools are overwhelmingly unidirectional. The paper points out that local paleoecological system played an important role in shaping the characteristics of the stone assemblages at the Yandunbao site. The site lies on the bank of the Yangtze River and its surroundings are rich in animal and plant food resources, and the abundant rounded large cobbles on the river bed provide handy raw materials for stone tool making. This stone assemblage exhibits the main characteristics of the Pebble-tool industry in South China. Therefore, the Yandunbao industry provides new data for the study of hominid adaptation patterns and the development of the Lower Paleolithic pebble-tool tradition in China.