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Table of Content

    15 March 2016, Volume 35 Issue 01
    The Origin of Modern Humans in China Viewed from the Paleolithic Data and Daoxian Human Fossils
    WU Xinzhi, XU Xin
    2016, 35(01):  1-13. 
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    In the scenario suggested by both Recent Out of Africa and Assimilation hypotheses the Paleolithic prevalent in Levant during the time of inhabitation of the first population of modern humans in Asia was of Mode III. The proponents of ROA believe that it is most reasonable to infer that the descendants of this population arrived in China around 60kyr and thereafter totally replaced the indigenous population. Because Mode I is persisted in China since its occurrence so a sudden big change from Mode I to Mode III or other derived technique would happen in China during the replacement of the indigenous population by the immigrants. The Assimilation Hypothesis is somewhat different only in that the replacement was subtotal instead of total. To test the main hypotheses debating on the origin of modern humans in China, the authors present almost all Paleolithic sites of China with chronometric dates later than 130kyr in Table 1 in which the name, latitude and longitude of sites, dates, techniques of dating and Modes can be easily understood by English speaking people. This Table shows the technique of most of the sites are of Mode I, only a few are of Mode III, Mode IV and Mode V. The Mode III occurred as late as nearly 40kyr ago at Shuidonggou site. This circumstance is in accordance with the Multiregional Evolution hypothesis which predicts the persistence of Mode I in China before and after any date of the postulated replacement of indigenous population in China. In addition, the much fewer existence of Paleolithic sites of Modes other than Mode I supports the hypothesis of “Continuity with Hybridization” for human evolution in China. Other more Paleolithic sites without chronometric date but being attributed to Late Pleistocene based on faunal and stratigraphical correlations and yielding stone artefacts of Mode I further strengthen the conclusions of this paper. The newely published Daoxian human fossil teeth of 120-80 kya provide further evidence that the modern huamn morphology of China is more probably originated in native territory than from immigrants.
    The Temporal Bony Labyrinthine Morphology of Lantian Homo erectus from Gongwangling, Shaanxi Province
    WU Xiujie, ZHANG Yameng
    2016, 35(01):  14-23. 
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    The morphological features of the Lantian skull found in Gongwangling, Lantian, in 1964, is more primitive than the Homo erectus fossils from Zhoukoudian and Java, Indonesia. The extraordinary thickness of the cranial wall and the rather small cranial capacity make Lantian fall into the variation range of early Homo. The newly dated Lantian fossil to ca. 1.63 Ma BP, close to the lower limit of Homo habilis and Australopithecus variation range is significantly older than the previously supposed date of 1.15 Ma BP. This new date now makes the Lantian the earliest fossil hominin in China. In this paper, we extracted and reconstructed the three-dimensional bony labyrinth image of Lantian’s petrous part of the temporal bone using high-resolution computed tomography (CT) technology. Comparison of this area with the Hexian Homo erectus, four Middle European Pleistocene archaic Homo, four early Homo, four Australopithecus africanus, three Paranthropus robustus and 26 modern humans using 21 measurement variables gives the following results. Measurements of the Lantian labyrinth have most in common with Australopithecus africanus, followed by modern humans and the Middle Pleistocene archaic Homo group. The Lantian specimen differs mostly with early Homo and Paranthropus robustus. According to the results of principal component analysis, the Lantian labyrinth overlaps with those of early Homo, the Middle Pleistocene archaic Homo group, Australopithecus africanus and modern humans. By cluster analysis, the nearest specimen to Lantian is Australopithecus Sts 5, followed by the Hexian Homo erectus and Australopithecus Sts 19, and far away from Paranthropus robustus. This study provides new data on the bony labyrinthine morphology of Middle Pleistocene Chinese human fossils, and supplies new references for exploring the Lantian physical features.
    New Discovery of Human Fossils and Associated Mammal Fauna from Mawokou Cave in Bijie, Guizhou Province of Southern China
    ZHAO Lingxia, ZHANG Lizhao, DU Baopu, NIAN Xiaomei, ZHENG Yuanwen, ZHANG Zhongwen, WANG Cuibin, WANG Xinjin, CAI Huiyang
    2016, 35(01):  24-35. 
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    The present paper is a report on the new discovery of fossil human and associated mammal fauna from the limestone Mawokou Cave in Bijie, Guizhou Province in south-western China. Pleistocene mammal was firstly discovered there in 2008. Three human isolated teeth, one upper canine and two upper molars, were discovered during the excavation in 2013, in the sandy-clay layer of fluvial deposit, associated with rich mammal fossils. The human teeth are more comparable to that of anatomically modern Homo sapiens and different from Homo erectus and archaic Homo sapiens both in tooth sizes and morphological traits. More than 4000 associated mammalian fossils teeth were unearthed from Mawokou cave in the excavations of 3 seasons of 2009, 2012 and 2013, and 53 species of mammals, belonging to 8 orders and 20 families and 43 genera, are identified. These species show a typical assemblage of Ailuropoda-Stegodon fauna in Middle-Late Pleistocene in southern China, and a subtropical forest habitat with warm-humid climate. The mammal fauna assemblage and preliminary dating analysis suggest that the geological age of the human fossils from Mawokou Cave is probably late Middle Pleistocene or early Late Pleistocene.
    An Examination of Equatorial Racial Characters in Ancient Human Skulls of China
    ZHANG Yinyun, WU Xiujie, LIU Wu
    2016, 35(01):  36-42. 
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    To test gene exchange between Equatorial and Mongolian populations in ancient continental China, Equatorial racial characters are examined and average frequencies of Equatorial racial characters are calculated for each of 8 cranial sample groups in this study. The results indicate that: 1) Equatorial racial characters can be found in the samples from ancient and modern China , and gene exchange events occurred in ancient continent China as early as 3000~2000 years BP. 2) The average frequencies of Equatorial racial characters decrease in the ancient populations from eastern to western, and appear a reverse pattern when compared with their average frequencies of Eurasian racial characters. An overlapping model, opposite gene flows occurring during the periods of 3000~2000 BP, is proposed.
    Heitugou Paleolithic Site from the Lower Pleistocene in the Nihewan Basin, Northern China
    WEI Qi, PEI Shuwen, JIA Zhenxiu, CHI Zhenqing, WANG Yong
    2016, 35(01):  43-62. 
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    Heitugou is the oldest Paleolithic archaeological site known in the Nihewan basin, North China. According to the magnetostratigraphic data, the site is located in the Olduvai positive subchron of Matsuyama reverse chron, with a minimum age of 1.77Ma-1.95Ma BP. In 2006, an archaeological geology exploration at the site was carried out which indicates that the cultural layer in the test pit is about 1.33 m thick and composed of four natural layers. The unearthed relics total 20585 specimens, including 20489 stone artifacts and 96 fragments of mammalian fossils from about 7.6 m3 of excavated volume. The assemblage of stone artifacts consists of cores (0.36%), flakes (97.9%), chunks (1%) and implements (0.74%); the flakes include 87.74% angular fragments. Most of the stone artifacts are small and well preserved; three sets of refitted flakes were found at the site. There was a dense accumulation of artifacts manufactured with the bipolar technique accounting for at least 19.74 artifacts per cubic meter in the cultural layer. The stone artifacts from Heitugou indicate the fact that humans occupied East Asia when the Dmanisi “little people” emerged in Georgia as the original out of Africa travelers. Judging on the basis of the characteristics of the stone artifacts, it is suggested that Heitugou is not the earliest site with evidence of human activity in the Nihewan basin. In the Nihewan basin the search for the most ancient Paleolithic remains and early human fossils is an important survey subject worthy to continue exploring in the future.
    A Report of the 2009-2010 Field Excavations at the West Section of Zhoukoudian Loc.1
    ZHANG Shuangquan, GAO Xing, CHEN Fuyou, LI Yan, ZHANG Yue, ZHANG Xiaoling, LI Jingshu
    2016, 35(01):  63-75. 
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    Re-excavation of the Peking man site at Zhoukoudian was initiated with an aim mainly to enhance the preservation of the extant West Section of the site on the one hand and to promote our understanding of some key elements of the evolutionary history of Asia Homo erectus on the other. Roughly 800 macro-mammal bones were uncovered from Layer 3, the uppermost stratum during field seasons 2009-2010. A taphonomic analysis of the skeletal remains of Cervus (Sika) grayi, the most dominant species of the fauna strongly negates a role played by hominins in the accumulation and modification of this assemblage. The virtual absence of stone artifacts and human skeletal remains has further strengthened this conclusion. Bearing in mind evidence of a series of cave collapse episodes, we tentatively propose that the cave morphology during the formation of Layer 3 at the West Section was probably inhospitable to Homo erectus pekinensis, which should have been responsible for human habitation patterns within the cave; animals of the time were probably trapped in the cave by accident and eventually preserved in situ in the Quaternary sediments.
    A Preliminary Research on Retouched Tools and Retouch Technology at Wulanmulun Site in Ordos, Inner Mongolia
    LIU Yang, HOU Yamei, YANG Zemeng
    2016, 35(01):  76-88. 
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    In the stone artifacts from the 2nd trial excavation in 2010 and formal ones in 2011-2012, 136 retouched tools are chosen to be studied in the present paper. Denticulates, notches and scrapers are the majority types of them. Borers, points, projectile point, backed knives, burins and becs are parts of minority. Raw material is dominant by high quality quartzite (92%). Tool fabrication are based on flakes (99%), which are mostly complete flakes (74%). Most of the tools were retouched unifacially (91%) by direct hammer percussion and are medium size. Pieces made on flakes were modified overwhelmingly on the dorsal surfaces(80%). It is observed that many retouched edges are straight. Most tools are displayed single layer of modification scars with index of short retouch-invasiveness and high retouch-length. The retouched angles of the edge became larger than the original ones of the blank. Tanged type were specially retouched for hafting needs of the tools. All these phenomenon presents some positive behavior of ancient tool maker’s adaptation for their life environment at period of 50-65Ka in Middle Paleolithic times.
    3D Geometric Morphometric Comparison of Midfacial Morphology among Modern Major Populations
    CUI Yaming
    2016, 35(01):  89-100. 
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    Metrical and non-metrical analyses of the midfacial region of the genus Homo reveal distinct geographical differences in mid-face morphology. This study analyzes the surface morphology of mid-face of recent East Asian, European, Southeast Asian, Australian, American Indian and African populations using 3-D geometric morphometric methods, to quantify characters that are otherwise difficult to capture by traditional craniometric methods. The results show that the morphology of midface efficiently separates different populations. The midfacial morphology of East Asian population is significantly different from all the other groups but American Indians, confirming the proposed direct affinity between the two. East Asian population shows the most different midfacial morphology to the African and Australian modern humans, but partially overlapping the European population, suggesting gene flow between the East and West sides of the Eurasia. The midface morphology of the East Asian population shows extinct features: the features along the midsagittal plane show little forward projection and lateral features expand laterally, i.e. facial flatness in the coronal direction. These characters are observed frequently in the East Asian fossil humans, suggesting a successive series in the human evolution in China.
    Perikymata Counts and Crown Formation Time of Anterior Teeth of Lufengpithecus lufengensis
    WANG Cuibin, ZHAO Lingxia
    2016, 35(01):  101-108. 
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    Perikymata counts can provide helpful information on dental development. Here, we observed perikymata counts of 30 anterior teeth of Lufengpithecus lufengensis from China by a scanning electron microscopy (SEM Hitachi S-3700) and a Keyence VHX-600EOS digital microscope, and estimated crown formation times of incisors and canines respectively using seven and nine day periodicity of the Retzius line. The results can be generally concluded as following: When using period of seven days, the crown formation time of I1, I2 and C were about 3.6-4.1 years, 2.7-3.7 years and 4.2-7.0 years respectively; when using period of nine days, the crown formation time of the three tooth types were 4.4-5.2 years, 3.4-4.7 years and 5.2-8.8 years. In order to investigate whether there is significantly difference in tooth type and sexual dimorphism, we applied statistical tests on crown formation times of incisors and canines. The results are as follows: 1) there is no significant difference in crown formation time between upper and lower teeth of both incisors and canines; 2) significant sexual dimorphism in the crown formation time exists for lateral incisors and canines, but not for central incisors; 3) crown formation time of canines is significantly longer than both central and lateral incisors; 4) there is a highly significant positive correlation between crown height with crown formation time of anterior teeth. Finally, compared with some fossil large apes, Australopithecus, Paranthropus, early Homo, Homo sapiens and extant great apes, crown formation time of Lufengpithecus lufengensis is much longer than Proconsul, Australopithecus, Paranthropus and Homo, but shorter than Pan, Pongo and fossil Pongo from south China, and closer to Lufengpithecus hudienensis and Gorilla..
    Preliminary Report on the Late Pleistocene Mammalian Fauna from Shangli County, Pingxiang, Jiangxi Province
    ZOU Songlin, CHEN Xi, ZHANG Bei, ZHAO Keliang, WEN Jun, DENG Li, TONG Haowen
    2016, 35(01):  109-120. 
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    The newly discovered mammalian fauna from Changping of Shangli County in Pingxiang in 2014-2015 is the richest site among the few Pleistocene fossil localities in Jiangxi Province. Up to now, thousands of mammalian teeth have been unearthed from the Yangjiawan Cave 1, which can be referred to 40 species (including undetermined species). Among the taxa, Sus scrofa is the dominant species, other important taxa include cervids, Hystrix, Ursus thibetanus, small carnivores, Capricornis, Bubalus, Rhinoceros and primates, but elephant and tapir are rare. Among the contemporary fossil sites of Central China, angjiawan Cave 1 bears the richest monkey fossils, and the carnivores are also much more diversified. The extinct taxa include Ailuropoda baconi, Crocuta ultima, Felis teilhardi, Stegodon orientalis and Megatapirus augustus. In faunal composition, the Yangjiawan Cave 1 is very similar to the Fuyan Cave in Hunan Province, which is a human site of early Late Pleistocene, i.e. 80 ka-120 ka BP.
    Three Bio-Events of the Early Pleistocene in Chongzuo, Guangxi
    XU Qinqi, JIN Changzhu, ZHANG Yingqi, WANG Yuan, ZHU Min1, YAN Yaling, WANG Naiwen, HE Xixian, LI Suping
    2016, 35(01):  121-124. 
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    There are four mammalian faunas of the Early Pleistocene in the Chongzuo, Guangxi: the Baikong fauna (2.00 Ma); the Juyuan fauna (1.80 Ma); the Sanhe fauna (1.20 Ma); the Queque fauna (1.00 Ma). Event 6 (2.60 Ma) was earlier than the Baikong fauna, and named the Gigantopithecus blacki LSD. Event 7 (1.90 Ma) was between the Baikong and the Juyuan fauna, corresponds to the Ailuropoda wulingshanensis LSD. Event 8 (1.00 Ma) was latter than the Queque fauna, called the Sinomastodon HSD. The bio-events apparently occurred near the ends of the cold period or at the beginning of the warm period.
    Genetic Diversity of Seventeen Y-STR Loci among the People with the Surname Kong from Qufu Prefecture
    HOU Weiguang, WANG Chuanchao, JIANG Shihong, LIU Haidong, LI Hui
    2016, 35(01):  125-131. 
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    Blood samples were collected from 1118 male individuals of Kong clans in the Qufu Prefecture of Shandong Province. Seventeen Y- chromosomal short tandem repeats (STR) loci were amplified in one tube by using the AmpFLSTR? Y-filerTM PCR Amplification Kit for each person, and then the frequency of alleles and genotypes of group was obtained. The results show that, except DYS385a/b locus was detected 51 haplotypes, the rest loci were detected from 4 to 11 alleles, the allele frequency distribute from 0.0009 to 0.8265. Totally, 206 haplotypes were detected in the YH haplotype system consisting of 17 loci. According to the Y-STR haplotypes, we inferred the Y-SNP haplogroups. We found three high frequency haplogroups among the Kong clans, i.e., C3, Q1a1, and O3. Both C3 and Q1a1 exhibited a mono-ancestor diffusion structure, indicating that either of them may be the haplogroup of Confucius. By investigating the 17 Y- STR loci among the Kong clans from Qufu Prefecture, we recorded the basic date of Kongpopulation.
    Paleolithic Personal Ornaments: A Review of the Evidence
    WEI Yi, Francesco d’ERRICO,GAO Xing
    2016, 35(01):  132-148. 
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    Personal ornaments are playing a growing role in Paleolithic Archaeology. Considered for long as a minor source of information, they have attracted considerable attention in the last two decades. This is due to the fact that they are now considered by most researchers as a convincing hallmark of modern behavior and the emergence of cultures comparable to ours, to discoveries demonstrating that they were produced and worn much earlier than previously thought, and to theoretical and methodological developments proving that they can provide hitherto underestimated clues to document the emergence, organization, and spread of modern human cultures. Many archaeologists consider that the use of personal ornaments reflects modern cognition, abstract thinking, and the use of complex communication systems. Scholars conducting research on prehistoric art see personal ornaments, together with rock art, carvings and other types of artifacts, as a form of information technology instrumental for sharing, reinforcing and transmitting symbolic codes. Thousands of beads and pendants have been found at Paleolithic sites from Africa and Eurasia. In spite of the critical information provided this category of the material culture, which cannot be given by other artifacts such as lithic or bone tools, the in-depth study of Paleolithic ornaments is still at an early stage in China. This is due to the relative shortage of discoveries and loss of key collections during WWII. However, key recent discoveries, and the acquisition of up to date research facilities make now cutting edge research in this field possible and promising. Ornaments consist of 94 circular ostrich eggshell beads, found at Shuidonggou, Ningxia Province, at the localities 1, 2, 7 and 8 of this site. The layers from which the beads come are dated to 31 ka-25 ka cal BP. The site of Xiaogushan, Liaoning Province yielded 4 perforated teeth and 1 bone “decorated disc”, discovered in layers dated from 60 ka to 20 ka BP. The most abundant collection of personal ornaments was found during the excavation conducted by Pei, at Zhoukoudian Upper Cave, Beijing. This collection includes 141 beads, among which 1 perforated pebble, 7 stone beads, 125 perforated mammal teeth, 1 perforated supra-orbital bone of fish, 3 perforated shells and 4 bone tubes. The age of the layers that have yielded these objects range from (29.1±0.52) ka BP to (10.47±3.6) ka BP by 14C dating. An equally rich collection, comprising 85 personal ornaments, was found at the site of Shizitan, Shanxi Province. The 49 clam shells, 35 ostrich eggshells and 1 bone tube found at this site are dated from cal. 24950 BP to 11350 BP. Hutouliang site, Hebei Province, dated to c. 11 ka BP has yielded 3 perforated shells, 8 ostrich eggshell beads, 1 stone bead, and 1 bone bead. In addition, one perforated stone bead made of graphite from Shiyu site, Shanxi Province, and one perforated stone bead from Xiaonanhai site, Henan Province, with an age of 28ka BP and 24 ka-11 ka BP respectively, should also be mentioned. Ornaments have been regarded for long as art items witnessing the aesthetic inclinations of their makers and users. Modern research focuses instead on the reconstruction of manufacture processes, length of use, and evaluation of results in terms of cognition, social complexity, and identification of cultural boundaries at regional scale. Although still limited in number when one considers the size of the country, discoveries of personal ornaments from well excavated and dated Paleolithic Chinese sites are increasing gradually. This paper provides an overview of current evidence on the origin of personal ornaments and recent progresses of personal ornament research. It summarizes what we do know, and don’t know on the earliest beads, the possible mechanisms that stimulated their emergence in our lineage, the theories underlying the interpretation of personal ornaments, and the methods allowing their analysis. It proposes the paths that Chinese archaeology may follow to fruitfully explore its rich and rapidly growing archaeological potential in this field of study.
    Methodology in Fossil Charcoal Analysis
    SUN Nan, LI Xiaoqiang
    2016, 35(01):  149-160. 
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    Fossil charcoal results from incomplete burning, and retains the anatomic character of the original wood, has distinct advantages and significant potential for reconstructing terrestrial vegetation, paleoclimate and human activity. Nevertheless, fossil charcoal is information rich but yet is an under-utilized resource because of a lack of systematic research method in this discipline. Understanding of how charcoal might be recognized in the field and obtaining representative sample are crucial for the charcoal study; and proper research method will expand the application range of the proxy. Recently, quantitative analysis of fossil charcoal has made outstanding achievements in exploring the vegetation type and its succession history; also, the observation of some special construction such as fungi, radial cracks and reflectance within the fossil charcoal can get more information. The aim of this paper is to present the state of the discipline today, systematic review the procedure of fossil charcoal analysis (from identification to statistics analysis), and introduce the method of charcoal recognition and sampling in the filed; in addition to this, we point out the questions that remain to be studied.