Abstract:

The Donggou (DG) Paleolithic site is situated near the Changshengtuan village, Huangmei Town, Yu County of Hebei Province. Paleolithic remains are generally buried in the second terrace of the right bank of the Dingan River (a tributary of the Huliu River). This site was excavated from September to November 2017 with an exposed area of 25 m², and a total of2892 labeled specimens incorporating stones and mammalian fossils. The AMS Carbon-14 dating results show that the site is dated to the Upper Paleolithic(45,065-38,049 Cal BP ).

The lithic assemblage (N=2030) includes hammerstones (N=4, 0.20%), cores (N=77, 3.79%), debitage (N=1828, 90.05%), tools (N=110, 5.42%) and bipolar evidence (N=11, 0.54%). Dominated by siliceous dolomite, chert and andesite, raw materials for stone knapping were mainly collected as pebbles from nearby river beds. A few high-quality raw materials (such as chalcedony) may have been transported from a distance away. Most artifacts were small in size, followed by medium-sized and micro-sized pieces. The principal flakingtechnique was direct hard hammer percussion, and bipolar technique was mainly used to exploit small chert materials with high quality. Simple cores produced by hard hammer percussion were mainly flaked from a single platform, showing a certain degree ofexpedient flaking traits. Dominated by scrapers, the toolkit also included points, denticulates andnotches. Adopting a direct hard hammer percussion technique, most lithics were slightly retouched from flake blanks. The typological andtechnologicalcharacteristics of stone artifacts show that they belong to the “Flake-Tool” technological system of North China. Most mammalian were fragments cantbeidentified. The current identified species were dominated by steppe ungulates, such as deer,horses, bovids and rhinoceros. Although there was no hearth found, many charcoal chips and burned bones indicate the presence of fire use behavior.

The Yuxian basin is an important area and channel for human migration and technological communication during the Pleistocene. The discovery and excavation of the Donggou Paleolithic site is not only a link for the sequence of technological evolution during the Late Pleistocene, but also provides valuable information for the study on human migration and adaptation behavior in the Huliu River drainage area.

Key words: Donggou Site, Flake-Tool Technology, Yuxian Basin, Upper Paleolithic