A study of stone tool typology and technology at Zhouloudian Locality 15
GAO Xing
2001, 20(01):
1-18.
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This is the second of a series of reports on the study of lithic artifacts unearthed from Zhoukoudian Locality 15 in mid-1930s.
Retouched stone tools in this assemblage include scrapers, chopper-chopping tools, points, awls, burins, no tches, cleavers, spheroids, and irregularly-modified pieces. The scraper is the large majority of the stone tools, constitutes nearly 93% of the assemblage, and can be further classified into sing le straig ht sidescraper, single convex sidescraper, single concave sidescraper, end scraper, thumbnail-shaped scraper, double-edged scraper, and multi-edged scraper.
Modified tools appear to be retouched by direct hard hammer percussion. Most of the tools w ere retouched unifacially. Pieces made on flakes w ere modified overw helmingly on the do rsal surfaces. Most of the tools are small and irregular. A few large and reg ular pieces are found in the cleaver and chopper-chopping tool categories. Most modification scars are deep, irregular, and variable in size, indicating that modification on these pieces are not normally well-controlled. However, some specimens do ex hibit well-controlled fine retouch, evidenced by even and parallel modification scars and sharp, regular, smooth or denticulate cutting edges, indicating that hominids at the site were capable of making delicate stone tools when raw material permitted and necessity arose.
Statistical analy ses were conducted to examine variability of retouched pieces. There are significant differences in size, edge leng th and retouch invasiveness among different tool ty pes, namely scrapers, cleavers, and chopper-chopping tools.No consistent differences in size, re-touch length and invasiveness, edge ang le and profile can be identified among straig ht, co nvex and concave sidescrapers, implying that such edge variations might occur naturally, probably as a function of the initial morphology of the blanks, and do not necessarily represent discrete functional types.Bivariate examinations of scrapers reveal linear relationships betw een edge leng th and blank length, retouch invasiveness and blank leng th, and edge leng th and retouch invasiveness, implying that the tool size and modification ex tent are closely related to the origi- nal blank size and mo rphology.
The Locality 15 stone-tool assemblage ex hibits close tie w ith Sinanthropus industry at Zhoukoudian Locality 1, althoug h some differences between the tw o are evident.It also shares many similarities in sto ne tool ty pology, technology and stylistic features with many other ma- jor Paleolithic assemblages in North China, indicating that the Locality 15 industry is a member of the co re-flake-scraper techno-complex of North China.
