Eight new Palaeolithic open-air sites were identified and 770 stone artefacts were collected from 2009 to 2011 in the Lantian area of the Bahe River valley, central China. Because the famous Homo erectus fossils were ...Eight new Palaeolithic open-air sites were identified and 770 stone artefacts were collected from 2009 to 2011 in the Lantian area of the Bahe River valley, central China. Because the famous Homo erectus fossils were unearthed at the Gongwangling and Chenjiawo localities, and more than 30 Palaeolithic open-air sites were investigated in the 1960s in this region, the catchment of Bahe River is regarded as one of the most important hominin sites from the late early Pleistocene to the middle Pleistocene. These eight newly discovered open-air sites are located at the second(n = 6), third(n = 1) or higher terraces(n = 1) of the Bahe River. The Diaozhai section on the second terrace was sampled in detail. Two samples were collected for optically stimulated luminescence dating(OSL). The OSL results suggest that a buried lithic artefact layer at the Diaozhai site spans approximately 70–30 ka. The lithic assemblage analysis suggests that the stone artefacts were made of local pebbles/cobbles such as greywacke, quartz, sandstone and igneous rocks. The main percussion techniques that were used were direct hard hammer percussion and bi-polar techniques. The lithic artefacts comprise hammer stones, cores, flakes, retouched tools and flaking debris. Acheulian-type large cutting tools(LCTs) such as hand-axes, picks and cleavers were indentified in the Lantian region as well. This is the first time Acheulian-type LCTs from the late Pleistocene have been identified in this region. This study distinguishes age gaps between Western world and East Asian Acheulian-type tools.展开更多
基金supported by the One Hundred Talent Person Project of the Chinese Academy of Sciences(KZCX2-YW-BR-24)the Strategic Priority Research Program of the Chinese Academy of Sciences(XDA05130201 and XDA05120704)the National Natural Science Foundation of China(41072122 and 41202127)
文摘Eight new Palaeolithic open-air sites were identified and 770 stone artefacts were collected from 2009 to 2011 in the Lantian area of the Bahe River valley, central China. Because the famous Homo erectus fossils were unearthed at the Gongwangling and Chenjiawo localities, and more than 30 Palaeolithic open-air sites were investigated in the 1960s in this region, the catchment of Bahe River is regarded as one of the most important hominin sites from the late early Pleistocene to the middle Pleistocene. These eight newly discovered open-air sites are located at the second(n = 6), third(n = 1) or higher terraces(n = 1) of the Bahe River. The Diaozhai section on the second terrace was sampled in detail. Two samples were collected for optically stimulated luminescence dating(OSL). The OSL results suggest that a buried lithic artefact layer at the Diaozhai site spans approximately 70–30 ka. The lithic assemblage analysis suggests that the stone artefacts were made of local pebbles/cobbles such as greywacke, quartz, sandstone and igneous rocks. The main percussion techniques that were used were direct hard hammer percussion and bi-polar techniques. The lithic artefacts comprise hammer stones, cores, flakes, retouched tools and flaking debris. Acheulian-type large cutting tools(LCTs) such as hand-axes, picks and cleavers were indentified in the Lantian region as well. This is the first time Acheulian-type LCTs from the late Pleistocene have been identified in this region. This study distinguishes age gaps between Western world and East Asian Acheulian-type tools.
