Abstract: Seventy-seven pieces of cores which amounts for 26 % of the total stone artifacts were collected from Xuetangliangzi, the so-called Yunxian hominid site in Hubei Province. The cores can be grouped into three categories: single platform (46 pieces), double platform (21 pieces)and polyhedral platform (10 pieces).Some features of the cores are observed and summarized as follows:
The cores are mostly made of sandstone and vein quartz. A few of them are made of pyrogenetic rock and chalkstone. The total number of platform is 121, mostly cortical ones. Plain platform and complex platform are observed on a small number of cores. Only one piece with scarred platform is identified. Most cores are flaked on the top or bottom face;some exhibit flake scars on other positions.
Most cores yield one layer of flake scars. Some cores can be observed with two or more than two layers of flake scars. Most cores exhibit 4-5 flake scars, followed by cores with 2 flake scars. Most cores are measured 300-399 mm in platform perimeter;most flake scars are measured less than 99 mm in length;and most platform angles are measured 80-89°. The rates of core platform consumption are calculated most frequently as 20 %-29 %and 40 %-49 %. Cores with different number of platforms are found to be exploited differently.
The technique of flake production from cores at the Yunxian site is principally direct hard hammer percussion without much preparation, which is the basic characteristic of core reduction in China dur-ing the Paleolithic.

Key words: Core; Platform exploitation rate; Yunxian hominid site; Xuetangliangzi