Abstract: The Gaojiazhen Paleolithic site, buried in the third terrace of the right bank of the Yangtze River, is located in the Guihuacun village, Gaojiazhen town, Fengdu county, Chongqing. The site was excavated in 1995 and 1998, exposing an area of about 456m2 , as past of the salvage archeological project in the Three Gorges Region.
Four stratigraphic layers were identified at the site, with the total thickness of more than 9 meters. Archaeological materials were mainly unearthed from the 4th layer, a layer of alluvial pebbles, 210 ) 215m in thickness, 174 ) 178m above the sea-level. A total of 719 stone artifacts were unearthed.
The stone assemblage includes cores ( 340) , flakes ( 192) , chunks ( 102) and retouched tools ( 85) . The general features of these artifacts are summarized as follows:
1) Stone raw materials exploited at the site were locally available from ancient riverbeds. More than 5 kinds of raw material were utilized in core reduction and tool manufacture: silicarenite, quartzite, hypabyssal irruptive rock, volcanic breccia rock and lava. Silicarenite is the predominant raw material used for producing stone artifacts at the site.
2) The principal flaking technique at the site is direct hammer percussion without core preparation.
3) About 813 percent of flakes could have been utilized directly without modification.
4) Major blanks for tool fabrication are cores and pebbles ( 1518% ) , followed by complete flakes and incomplete flakes.
5) Most tools are large in size.
6) Chopper is the dominating tool type, followed by scraper, pick and notch.
7) Modified tools appear to be retouched by direct hammer percussion, mostly unifically retouched on the vental surface of blanks.
The Gaojiazhen stone tool assemblage shows close tie with the Main Industry in South China. Geomorphological comparison has yielded an age close to upper Middle Pleistocene. Comparative studies indicated that the lithic technology of the Three Gorges Region might serve as a technological link between Paleolithic industries from the Sichuan Basin and that from the lower reach of the Yangtze River.

Key words: Stone Artifacts; Upper Middle Pleistocene; Gaojiazhen; Three Gorges Region