Abstract: The Zaoziping Paleolithic site on the second terrace of the right bank of the Yangtze River, is located in the Xinwan village, Sanhe town, Fengdu county, Chongqing. The site was excavated in 2000 and 2002 as part of the salvage archeological project in the Three Gorges Region.
Deposits of the terrace consist of 4 layers, more than 14 metersin thickness. The cultural remains were mainly unearthed from the 4th layer, a layer of fine sands, 1m in thickness, 150 —156m above the sea-level, distributed along the Yangtze River. Over 1000 square meters were unearthed during the two field seasons and 101 stone artifacts were unearthed.
The stone artifact assemblage includes retouched tools (16), cores (19), flakes (56), stone hammers (1) and chunks (9). The general features of these artifacts are summarized as follows:
1) The stone raw materials exploited at the site are locally available on ancient riverbeds. Silicarenite is the predominant raw material used for producing stone artifacts.
2) The principal flaking technique at the site is direct hammer percussion without core preparation.
3) Most of stone artifacts are medium in size.
4) Major blanks for tools retouch are complete flakess (62.5 %), followed by incomplete flakes and pebbles.
5) Most of retouched tools are medium in size.
6) Scrapers are the dominating tool types, followed by choppers and points.
7) Modified tools appear to be retouched by direct hammer percussion mostly unifically retouched on the dorsal surface of a blank.
The stone tool assemblage at the Zaoziping site shows the distinctive character of the Main Indus-try in South China. Geomorphological and stratigraphical similarities between the Zaoziping and Jing-shuiwan site indicate that the two sites can be placed at the same age, i. e. about 80, 000 aBP., which result to the Middle Paleolithic in China.

Key words: Three Gorges region; Zaoziping; Middle Paleolithic