Abstract:

From Oldowan hominins to many modern hunter-gatherers, raw materials for making stone tools are essential resources. The identification of lithic raw material and its sources is an important topic in most prehistoric research. In the current paper, we review the research methods used to investigate the quality and distribution of raw materials, along with the applications of these methods. Raw materials not only impact on the form and composition of tools, but they also can be regarded as good measures of cognitive development and behavior patterns. In recent years, the authors worked on the raw materials at several prehistoric sites. In this paper, we take the work in the Nihewan Basin and Taoshan site of Northeast China as examples, to introduce how to explain the relationship of raw materials to cognitive level. The Xiaochangliang site is a key archaeological locality in the Nihewan Basin. Study of the available raw materials and knapping techniques show that, faced with the limits of small clast size and poor quality materials, the Xiaochangliang inhabitants acted with technical flexibility, utilizing freehand and bipolar techniques in variable frequencies. The Taoshan site, dating from the Last Glacial Maximum (LGM) to the mid-Holocene, shows changes in raw material exploitation. Considering the changes in vegetation for this site, we found that the diachronic changes in raw material types and exploitation strategies corresponded with changes in vegetation and human adaptations. As the examples we give in this paper demonstrate, the study of lithic raw material can enrich our knowledge of prehistory.

Key words: Lithic raw material, Quality, Sources, Natural resource, Cognitive level