Abstract: The Chuandong site is situated about 4km west of the city of Puding County, Guizhou Province. It was discovered in the spring of 1978 and excavated from April to May 1979. More than 200 bone tools were excavated in this site, so it is a very important prehistoric one in southwestern China, especially in Guizhou Province. Polished bone tools described preliminarily here are the dominant ones among the bone artifacts, and their possible functions and fabrication processes are also discussed. Polished bone tools include awls(n=155), spades(n=116), forks(n=6), slubs(n=3) and a needle(n=1), and awls and spades are the main types in polished bone? artifacts.? These? tools? are? made? of? bone? splinters,? but? it? is? now? difficult? to? determine? what? animal? bones? were? used? in? tool-making.? However,? These? finely? manufactured? bone? tools? show? that they had been used widely at that time, and they have important clues for researching the cultural diversity of the Upper Paleolithic in China.
In addition, the division of cultural stages and the period of the site are also discussed. The industry found in the Chuandong prehistoric site can be subdivided into two stages, namely the early and the late stages. The layers from 5 to 10 represent the early stage, while the layers from 2 to 4 represent the late stage. All the polished bone tools in this study were excavated from the late stage.
According to the 14C dating, the early stage is dated to about 16000 BP, while the late stage is dated to 8080±100 BP (Layer 3), 8670±100 BP (Layer 4). Therefore, the early stage belongs to the upper Pleistocene or late Paleolithic and the late stage belongs to early Holocene or to early Neolithic in China. There is no evidence to show that these bone artifacts belong to early Neolithic culture, it is inferred that these polished bone tools represent the late Paleolithic culture relics. We hope that there are more dating data to support our conclusions in the future.

Key words: Guizhou; Chuandong site; Polished bone tool; Late Paleolithic