Abstract:

The Longya site, buried in the front margin of the first terrace on the bank of the Kangjiahe River, is located in Longya village, Jiancheng town, Jianyang County, Sichuan Province. It is excavated from July to September 2010 by the Sichuan Province Institute of Cultural Relics and Archaeology as a salvageable archaeological project. The excavation exposed an area of 87 m². Four stratigraphic layers were identified at the site. A total of 559 stone artifacts were unearthed from the bottom of third and fourth layers, including cores, flakes, bifaces, knives, cleavers, heavy-duty scrapers, choppers, scrapers, points, etc. Three groups of artifacts were refitted. It is revealed that the lithic raw materials were locally available from ancient riverbeds, and quartzite is the predominant raw material. Direct hard hammer percussion without core preparation is the principal flaking technique. Heavy-duty tools including the handaxes, knives, cleavers, heavy-duty scrapers and choppers are the main types. Most whole flakes were produced with a natural platform. Basing on technological characters, the lithic assemblage could be considered as a Chinese variant of an Acheulean-like (Mode 2) industry. Preliminary OSL dating and technological comparisons between lithic artifacts collected from the Hanzhong Basin, Luonan Basin, Lantian Basin, and Danjiang Reservoir Region, human occupation of the site was not late than the Middle Paleolithic Age. The excavation gives us more evidence to the study of early human culture, early human migration and clarify the cultural relationship between Sichuan Basin and surrounding area.

Key words: Longya site, Sichuan Basin, Pebble tool industry, Acheulean-like