Abstract:

This report presents stone artifacts discovered in several Paleolithic surveys conducted from 2018 to 2022 in the Shuiyangjiang River Basin, Anhui Province. These investigations were done by the Institute of Archaeology and Cultural Relics of Anhui Province. A total of 15 new localities were discovered with six previous sites/localities confirmed. Lithic raw materials were procured from local riverbeds with quartzite as the dominant type of rock. Most stone artifacts were manufactured by freehand hammer percussion, followed by bipolar technique. Typologically, 116 lithic artifacts mainly cores and flakes. On basis of reduction patterns, cores could be separated into casual, chopper, discoidal or polyhedral cores. There were also some large tools such as heavy-duty scrapers and choppers. The whole lithic assemblage was assigned to the Pebble Tool Industry of South China. According to stone artifact location in vermiculated red soil and on the soil surface, it is reasonable to anticipate that early humans occupied these localities in the Middle Pleistocene. The archaeological evidence provides a new challenge in re-examining lithic technology from the Shuiyangjiang River Basin.

Key words: Shuiyangjiang River, Lithics, Pebble tools