Acta Anthropologica Sinica ›› 1988, Vol. 7 ›› Issue (04): 306-313.

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The reobservation of stone artifacts in Dingcun

Liu yuan   

  • Online:1988-12-15 Published:1988-12-15

Abstract: The Dingcun site is located at Xiangfen county, Shanxi Province. It was found in 1953 and excavated the following year. The excavation yielded many vertebrate and human fossils, and over 2,000 stone artifacts. The preliminary report was published in 1955, and a book was published three years later.
Based on the past works, this author tried to use statistical analysis to reobserve all the materials. The study concentrated on the industry of the assemblages. There are 1,932 stone artifacts from 9 localities of Dingcun. They c2n be divided into core, flake, and tool. The raw material is mostly hornfel gravel (Table 1) which emerges on the hill 7 km to the east.
All cores are of multi-striking platforms. Flakes, whose width is longer than the length, are more than those whose length is longer than width. 50 percent of the lengths of flakes are from 51 to 100 mm, 33 percent of them less than 50 mm. Flaking angles of 110°to 120° account for 34.5 percent, those less than 110°are 32.2 percent. The striking platforms are mostly flaking, and only a few are natural and ridgy. Most flakes with flaking angle of more than 120 show flaking striking platforms.
A closer observation indicated clear points and bulbs of percussion, but not fissures and ripples. These features show that the main technology used was direct blow with hammer-stones. Of course, bipolar and block on block methods might also be used. Whether they were used widely or not should be resoveled by more experiments.
The group of tools is as follows: 55.7 percent scrapers, 16.1 percent chopper-chopping tools, 10.7 percent handaxes and points, and a few stone balls, hammerstones. The majority of the tools are of 5l-100 mm. This suggests that the technique of retouching the larger flakes into the big points and chopper-chopping tools was used frequently.

Key words: Dingcun; Industry