Table of Content

15 March 2014, Volume 33 Issue 01

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A Preliminary Report on the Excavations at Shuidonggou Locality 7 in Ningxia Hui Autonomous Region, North China

PEI Shuwen, NIU Dongwei, GAO Xing, CHEN Fuyou, FENG Xingwu, ZHANG Shuangquan, ZHANG Yue, ZHANG Xiaoling, MA Ning, PENG Fei, ZHOU Zhenyu, GUAN Ying, WANG Huimin

2014, 33(01):  1-16. 

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Shuidonggou Locality 7 (SDG7), as one newly discovered and excavated sites in the Shuidonggou site cluster, is c. 300 m southeast of SDG1. The site is situated 1205 m a.s.l. on the 2th terrace of the left bank of a tributary named the Biangou river of the Yellow river at N 38°17′52″, E 106°30′21″. It was discovered in 2002 and excavated in 2003, 2004, and 2005 as an important research locality of the Shuidonggou multi-disciplinary project directed by Prof. Gao Xing from IVPP. The excavations exposed an area of 25 m2. Twelve stratigraphic layers were identified at the site, with a total thickness of more than 10 m. Archaeological remains including 9,901 lithic artifacts, more than 1,000 animal fossils and ostrich egg shell fragments, as well as two ostrich egg shell beads are limited to the five lowest layers above the basal gravel layer. The three middle cultural layers have yielded OSL dates of c. 25,200 to 27,200 BP. Technologically, the SDG7 lithic assemblage is dominated by debitage (N=9617, 97.13%), followed by retouched pieces (N=121, 1.22%), freehand cores (N=106, 1.07%), bipolar elements (N=52, 0.53%), and percussors (N=5, 0.05%). Lithic raw materials derive from local sources. Silicified limestone, dolomite, and chert dominate, while quartzite, chert, and quartz are less common. Most artifacts are small in size. Freehand flaking is more prominent than bipolar technique at the site. Complete flake types demonstrate that the later stage of core reduction is represented by a high percentage (60.15%) of Type III and VI flakes. Only 6 complete flakes have blade dimensions and with no blade cores unearthed, blade technology was not used by hominins at this site. Scrapers (N=105, 86.78%) dominate retouched pieces, followed by notches, denticulates, and points. Most of the retouched pieces were casually retouched on the dorsal surface by direct hammer percussion. The SDG7 lithic assemblage shows small flake technology in North China. It can be inferred that the coming integrated research of SDG7 will shed light on the study of relationship between blade and flake technology, different technologies through population movements, origin of modern human behavior, and hominin occupation adapted to the environment in the Shuidonggou site or generally North China.

A Study of the Stone Artifacts from the Excavation of the Hongshikan I Site in the Danjiangkou Reservoir

LI Chaorong, LI Feng, LI Hao

2014, 33(01):  17-26. 

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The Hongshikan I Paleolithic site is located in the right bank of Hanshui River’s third terrace, nearby the Hongshikan village, Junxian town, Danjiangkou City, Hubei Province. The site was found in 1994 and an area of 525 m2 was excavated in 2008 by a field team from the Institute of Vertebrate Paleontology and Paleoanthropology, Chinese Academy of Sciences. A total of 136 stone artifacts were unearthed and 22 stone artifacts were collected from the site. The stone artifacts include manuports, chunks, cores, flakes, scrapers, hammerstones, choppingtools and picks, and show the transitional culture characteristics between North and South China. These stone artifacts probably belong to the early Paleolithic of the Middle Pleistocene by the comparative analysis of stratigraphy, and provide important new materials to study the Paleolithic culture of the Danjiangkou Reservoir of China.Some Acheulean-like stone tools, such as hand-axes, cleavers and chopping tools, had been discovered in the survey in 1994, but not in this excavation, so we have more work to conduct on the activity of early humans in the Hanshui river valley.

A Preliminary Report on the Excavation of the Shuiniuwa Paleolithic Site in the Danjiangkou Reservoir Region

CHEN Quanjia, CHEN Xiaoying, FANG Qi

2014, 33(01):  27-38. 

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The Shuiniuwa Paleolithic site, buried in the third terrace of the left bank of the Hanshui River, is located in the Guanmenyan village, Juxian County, Danjiangkou City, Hubei Province. The site was excavated from March to April 2010, with scholars from the Research Center of Chinese Frontier Archaeology, Jilin University, as a salvageable archaeological project due to the construction of the Danjiangkou Reservoir dam. The excavation exposed an area of about 675m2. Four stratigraphic layers of the third terrace were identified at the site, with the total thickness of more than 1.2 meters. Archaeological materials were mainly unearthed from the 2nd and 3rd layers, two layers of brown-yellow clay and red-brown clay. A total of 301 stone artifacts were unearthed. The stone assemblage includes cores (N=13), flakes (N=43), chunks (N=162), pebbles (N=2) and retouched tools (N=83). General features of these artifacts from the two excavation areas are summarized as follows: 1) Lithic raw materials were locally available from ancient riverbeds, including quartz and hornfel. 2) The principal flaking technique was direct hammer percussion without core preparation, followed by bipolar technique. 3) Most stone artifacts were small and medium in size. 4) Most blanks for tool fabrication were flakes. Several retouched tool types were identified, including scrapers, borers, burins, chopper and a polishing tool in the upper cultural layer, and scrapers, hand axes and choppers in the lower cultural layer. 5) Modified tools appeared to be retouched by direct hammer percussion, mostly bificially retouched on one end of the blank. 6) The miniaturization trend of retouched tools was noted. It can be inferred from the excavation that the stone assemblage shows close relationship with the Pebble Tool Industry (Main Industry) in South China, but bears characteristics of the Flake Tool Industry of North China. Geomorphological and chronological comparison of the upper reaches of the Hanshui River valley indicates that the geochronology of the site should be close to the Middle Pleistocene (lower cultural layer) and the late stage of the Late Pleistocene (upper cultural layer). Excavation of the Shuiniuwa site not only enriches the human occupation data from the Hanshui River system, but also bears great significance in studying human occupation behaviors in the Middle Pleistocene. Therefore, it is affirmed that the coming excavation of this Paleolithic locality and Paleolithic research in the Hanshui River system will give more evidence to the study of early human culture, early human migration and clarify the cultural relationship between North and South China during Middle Pleistocene.

A Preliminary Report on the Excavation of Yuzui Paleolithic Locality 2, Yunxian County, Hubei Province

CHEN Shengqian, CHEN Hui, DONG Zhe, YANG Kuan

2014, 33(01):  39-50. 

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Yuzui Paleolithic Locality 2 is located in the back part of the second terrace, north bank of Middle Hanjiang River, which geographically interconnects with South and North China. This excavation unearthed 334 lithic artifacts in an area of 500 square meters. Water-polishing and an unbalanced representation of different types suggest that there was water transportation. Most of the lithic materials distributed along a belt of gravels, which have the optimal size for the manufacture of choppers and chopping tools. The lithic assemblage includes large tools such as choppers (22 pieces), picks (2 pieces), and cleavers (2 pieces) as well as small quartz scrapers (8 pieces) an points (3 pieces). Raw materials analysis indicates that ancient huntergatherers knew the properties of different materials and used them to make different stone tools. Quartz was used to manufacture scrapers and points, while hornfels were used for choppers. Experimental research supports the idea that choppers are a kind of expedient tool, because of a simple manufacturing procedure and apparent lack of strategy in the choice of raw materials. Chert gravels are found near the site and in the layer in which lithic materials were discovered, this raw material was not utilized by ancient hunter-gatherers. Picks are an interesting multifunctional tools with an intentionally retouched point and an edge for chopping. Since there is lack of suitable materials for dating, most sites set their dates according to their position on terraces. That is, the higher terrace, the older the sites. In fact, even on the same terrace, there are sites with several cultural layers, which means ancient people of different periods left lithic materials. A dozen Paleolithic sites around the Danjiangkou reservoir were analyzed in terms of geographical position, altitude, and lithic assemblage. Now we can assuredly know that there are two types of lithic industries in the area. One is earlier, characterized by chopper and chopping tools including picks, proto-handaxes, and cleavers, the other is later, characterized by small flake tools mostly made of quartz. This evidence coincides with lithic industries from the Middle and Lower Yangzi valley. In the Danjiangkou area, the small flake industry probably belongs to the Upper Paleolithic, and the former in the Early Paleolithic. As there is not an obvious phase of Middle Paleolithic, the two-period scheme is adopted to define the dates of those sites. The date of Yuzui Locality 2 is known not earlier than the date of the second terrace of Hanjiang River, most likely in the later stage of the Early Paleolithic.

A Preliminary Report of the Stone Artifacts from the 27th Cave of the Dayao Site

WANG Yinghua, LIU Jiaxu, SHAN Mingchao, LI Feng, CHEN Fuyou

2014, 33(01):  51-59. 

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The 27th Cave is one of the localities of the Dayao site that was excavated in 1986. It contains four depositional layers, with a total thickness of nearly 2 meters, three of which yielded chipped stone. All of the 520 stone artifacts were manufactured from local chert coming from the outcrops around the site. In terms of the retouched tool inventory, all assemblages from the 27th Cave are clearly flake-based, and there is little variation among the various layers except for two prepared microblade cores in layer 1. Hard-hammer percussion seems to have been the dominant technique for detaching flakes, and the blanks are irregular in shape and size. Retouched tools are typologically and technologically characteristic of the northern Chinese Late Paleolithic. The most abundant retouched tools are side scrapers, most of which are manufactured on relatively flat flakes. Denticulates are the second most common artifact class. Other tool forms, including choppers, spheroids, points, notches, and endscrapers, occur in small numbers. Based on the typology and nature of the sediment, the 27th Cave is suggested to be dated to not earlier than Late Paleolithic.

The Vegetation and Environment at the Wulamulun Site in the Ordos Plateau, Inner Mongolia During MIS 3 Period

LI Xiaoqiang, GAO Qiang, HOU Yamei, ZHAO Keliang, SUN Nan, YANG Zemeng, ZHEN Ziming, LIU Yang, ZHOU Xinying

2014, 33(01):  60-69. 

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The Ordos Plateau showed the famous Salawusu and Shuidongou Paleolithic sites discovered firstly in China and is the key area for studying human evolution in eastern Asia. The Wulanmulun site is located at the bank of the Wulamulun River in the Kangbashi New District of Ordos city. Many stone artifacts, mammalian fossils, and charred woods was obtained from the site. The 14C ages of the remains are 41.4~33.1 cal ka BP corresponding to the MIS 3 period. The evidence from pollen and charcoal fossil indicates that the shrub-steppe appeared in the early period and the typical steppe grew in the late period. The climate is dry and cool but warmer and wetter than today. Shrubs and small trees such as Elaeagus and Zygophyllum are used as fuelwood by ancient people. The relatively warm and humid climate in MIS 3 period was conductive to human reproduction, diffusion and exchange, which is probably an important reason of “The upper Paleolithic revolution” in North China.

A Preliminary Analysis of Starch Grains on the Surface of Stone Artifacts from the Kengnan Site

LI Wencheng, SONG Guoding, WU Yan

2014, 33(01):  70-81. 

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The Kengnan site is located at Xichuan County, Henan Province. From this site, a series of layers from Paleolithic to early Neolithic ages with abundant artifacts are found including lithics, pottery, which show the importance of this site in the area of the Hanjiang river. In this paper, starch grains extracted from the surface of 35 stone artifacts from two early Neolithic layers of the Kengnan site are analyzed. Among them, 150 starch grains have been found on the surface of 17 artifacts. The starch grains are identified as seeds of Paniceae (including Panicum miliaceum and Panicum bisulcatum or Setaria italica) , Coix sp., stems from Triticeae dumor and root and tuber plants, all of which indicate the utilization of plant resources by the ancient inhabitants. A substantial increase of the quantity and typology of starch grains is found from the second to third layer. This observation may be related to three important factors. First, it may be related to the different buried ages between the two layers since artifacts can be influenced by climate and other forces of nature. Second, it may be related to increasing temperature in the early stages of the Holocene, as well as increasing the kinds of plants from which ancient people acquired. Third, such difference can also be influenced by the ability of absorption caused by different hardness, cavities and pores of stones, and the different functions of these stone artifacts. The abundant starch grains from Gramineae found on chopping tools provide us with a new vision on the functions of stone tools

Dietary Differences in Humans with Similar Social Hierarchies: Example from the Niedian Site, Shanxi

WANG Yang, NAN Puheng, WANG Xiaoyi, WEI Dong, HU Yaowu, WANG Changsui

2014, 33(01):  82-89. 

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In general, humans of different social status probably had different diets, but this type of variation of human diets in archaeological sites remains poorly understood. In this paper, carbon and nitrogen stable isotopes of human bones and also a few burial objects from Niedian site, Shanxi, are analyzed. The carbon and nitrogen ratios show that ancestors in Niedian had a typical agricultural economy of northern China, i.e., relying on millet agriculture and domestic animals. Although humans at Niedian had similar social hierarchies, they still showed substantial dietary differences. These differences were not significantly related to sex, age or social status of humans. Therefore, in early human society without a definite social hierarchy, the ancestors’ access to food were more likely influenced by populations of different cultures, habits or other factors, and may have nothing to do with their social hierarchy.

Five Tongue Moving Types of the Hakka Peoples from Meizhou, Guangdong

ZHENG Lianbin, LU Shunhua, Bao Jinping, XUE Hong, RONG Wenguo, WANG Yang, ZHANG Xiaorui

2014, 33(01):  109-117. 

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A sample of 203 Hakka students (68 males, 135 females) was investigated in terms of 5 tongue moving types, including rolling, folding, twisting, pointed tongue and clover-leaf tongue. The results were as follows: 1) The frequencies of rolling, folding, twisting, pointed tongue and cloverleaf tongue were 63.05%, 6.90%, 34.48%, 67.98% and 3.45% respectively. Compared to other nationalities, the Hakka had lower frequencies of rolling, pointed tongue and clover-leaf tongue. The frequencies of folding were intermediate, while the frequencies of twisting were higher. 2) The results of cluster analysis showed that the tongue moving types of the Hakka were similar to those of the Han in Qianglai. 3) The genes for rolling has an interactive relationship with the genes for folding. The genes of rolling and folding are independent of each other.

Genetic Structure of Y Chromosome and Paternal Origin of the Population Speaking Chadong in Guangxi, China

DENG Qiongying, WANG Xiaoqing, WANG Chuanchao, LI Hui

2014, 33(01):  118-124. 

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There are about 20000 individuals speaking a special dialect of Chadong living in Northeastern Guangxi. The origin of the population has been a controversial research subject. In order to study the paternal origin of Chadong people, this research aims to investigate the genetic structure of Y chromosome by studying Y-STR and Y-SNP from 21 male Chadong individuals (unrelated) in Lingui County and by comparing the data of Chadong people with those of the surrounding populations. The multiplex detection of 17 Y-STR loci revealed a highly polymorphic genetic distribution, showing powerful potential for the loci to be used for population genetics and forensic research. High frequencies of haplogroup O2*-P31 and O2a1*-M95 suggested that Chadong people have prominent Daic genetic background while N-J tree and principal component analysis indicated that Chadong people are closer to Mulam than to Maonan and Han peoples. These results provide genetic evidence for the origin of Chadong people.