Lithic analysis of the Xiaochangliang industry
CHEN Chun; SHEN Chen; CHEN Wan-yong ; TANG Ying-jun
2002, 21(01):
23-40.
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Since the discovery of the Xiaochangliang site in 1978, there have been some disputes regarding the developmental stages of lithic technology in palaeolithic China. For example, on the basis of the small size of lithics artifact and nice appearance, Pei Wen-zhong felt that the attributes of the Xiaochangliang industry was so advanced that it looked likie the products of the Upper Paleolithic period. From a typological perspective, Huang Wei-wen concluded that the Xiaochangliang hominid might have mastered some advanced techniques such as platform preparation, blade detachment, and the skills of making burins and end scrapers. Other scholars, such as You Yu-zhu, Li Yan-xian, and some western archaeologists argued that the Xiaochangliang industry was quite primitive in nature, and that some misleading impression might have been caused by the quality of raw materials.
In 1998 excavation at the Xaiochangliang site was conducted to learn hominid behavior and the dynamics of the site formation. This paper is trying to make an overall examination of the Xiaochangliang industry with respects to raw material procurement, reduction techniques, second retouch, debitage analysis, usewear, or tool function and subsistence pattern. Wynn' s approach of cognitive archaeology is also applied to observe the intelligence of the Xiaochangliang hominid. Then, the concept of chaine operatoire is used to make a synthetic discussion.
A total of 2159 lithic remains are analyzed in the report, including 901 collected in 1998 and 1258 between 1990 and 1997. The assemblage was classified into the categories of nodule, core, formal type, debitage and debris.
Raw materials from the Xiaochangliang site consist of Archaean gneiss, Sinian dolomite, Jurassic andesite, tuff gravel etc.These were available at the vicinity of the site and might have been collected by hominid either from the ancient river beds or near outcrops. About 9.7 %artifacts contain cortex in varying degrees. It is obvious that abundant but poor quality raw materials were available for Xiaochan- gliang hominid around their base camp.
The analysis indicates that raw materials exerted significant impact on reduction procedure.Due to the poor quality of raw materials with developed crack, the lithic industry is dominated by large amount of debitage and debris. A few specimens show second retouch but no use-wear has been ascer- tained on them. The lithic assemblage reflects an expedient technology and simple stone chipping activ- ities. Little attention was paid to second retouch and curation.
Direct free hand direct percussion and bipolar method were two chipping techniques used by early hominid. Large gravels and chunks were shattered by hammer stones. Then some chunks and flakes were selected and disintegrated further by direct and bipolar percussion. It seems that any chunks un- suitable for direct percussion could have been used for bipolar percussion during the reduction process. Little attention was paid to the selection of platform edge angle. Statistically, reduction sequence re- veals a random process and very few cores were successively reduced to yield multiple flakes. Some small pieces of chert were flaked by bipolar method, appearing very similar to piece esquillees. A few blade-like flakes produced by direct percussion were found, but are indicative of accidental products. Debitage analysis indicated that the lithic industry contains extremely high percentage of debris and very low percentage of complete flakes. The result reveals that Xiaochangliang hominid mainly focused on primary core reduction activity at the site and that the poor quality of lithic products was heavily constrained by raw materials.
A total of 174 specimens were selected for use-wear examination and 22 flakes were ascertained with use-wear.From these utilized flakes, we found 25 employed units and 4 patterns of tool motion. They are cutting sawing, slicing, scraping, and drilling. The percentages of cutting sawing and scraping activities account for 32 %and 48 % respectively. A quarter of employed units show traces of soft material processing, such as meat and skin. About 20 %employed units show traces of fresh and dried wood processing. One artifact contains trace of weed or root processing. In terms of worked materials,most (52 %) belong to animal materials. Use-wear analysis reveals that scavenging might have been the principal activity conducted by hominid within the site, and that flakes without any trimming were selected and directly used for various purposes. These utilized flakes usually contain either a natural sharp edge or a dull point. Xiaochangliang hominid emphasized entirely on edge configuration end paid little attention to tool shape and formal standard.
According to Wynn' s criteria, only topological spatial concepts such as “nearbyness” and “pair” were used by Xiaochangliang hominid during stone chipping. No projective geometry spatial concepts such as asymmetry and cross-section have been identified. In the other words, the lithic industry only exhibits pre-operational and preliminary operational intelligence in terms of Piaget' s model, equivalent to children around 5 to 8 years old. It is argued that some spatial concepts of hominid might have been heavily constrained by abundance and poor quality of raw materials during the stone chipping process. Therefore, spatial concepts reflected on lithic artifacts may not reveal the total intelligence of Xiaochangliang hominid. They might have been simply a reflection of expedient adaptation toward their environment. Xiaochangliang hominid could have obtained sufficient cutting edges so long as they kept chipping. It could be imagined when quality of stone tools could be satisfied by abundant raw material reduction, hominid might have behaved very differently in comparison with the condition in which they had to curate stone otols by using limited raw materials available to them.
Up to present, no burials have been found during the period of Homo erectus around the world. Children psychologists found that until 12 years old, human beings start to fully realize the concept of death. Based on Piaget model, this is just the age when the formally operational concept and abstract thought appears. Therefore, we could certainly ascertain that intelligence of the Xiaochangliang hominid might not have exceeded children of 12 years old, even though the spatial concepts observed from the lithic assemblage didn' t reflect their most complex ability and wisdom.
According to chaine operatoire, three levels of discussion were made.In terms of artifacts themselves, the Xiaochangliang industry was characterized by random chipping. No shared standard could be observed from second retouch. Primary flakes were selected for expedient use. In terms of gestures or technology, free hand direct, and bipolar percussions were alternatively employed to produce flakes. Constrained by poor quality of raw materials, early hominid was unable to predict end products, reflecting low level of decision-making strategy. In terms of abstract level, only very simple topological spatial concept were used in lithic reduction, which is consistent to pre-operational intelligence of Homo erectus during the early Pleistocene.
