The paleolithic site at Dachangliang in Nihewan Basin, North China
PEI Shu-wen
2002, 21(02):
116-125.
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The Dachangliang Paleolithic site is situated on the southwest slop of the Dachangliang near the Guanting Village in the Nihewan Basin, Yangyuan County, Hebei Province (40°13′07″N, 114°39′38″E). It was discovered on August 14, 2000, and excavated tentatively in September 2000, and again in July and August 2001.
Stratigraphically, the deposits consist of 29 layers, more than 90 meters in thickness. The cultural remains were unearthed from the “Nihewan Bed”, the typical fluviolacustrine sedimentary sequence in North China. The culture layer, 0.58 m in thickness, 913.06 —913.64m above the sea-level, is 73.62m below the strata section surface.
About seven square meters were unearthed during the two field seasons. The excavation went down at 10cm interval for each spit. The unearthed materials includes 33 stone artifacts and 27 bone and fragments of fresh water bivalva shells. Distribution of the stone artifacts, bone and shell fragments (fig.3) shows that stone artifacts almost symmetrily scattered in spit N102/E98 and N102/E99, as well as in the south part of spit N101/E100 and north part of spit N100/E100, while bone and shell fragments mainly scattered in the central part of the square.Vertical distribution indicates that stone artifacts were concentrated in the lower layer and bone and shell fragments in the upper layer respectively.
The stone artifact assemblage include retouched tool (1), cores (4), flakes (16) and chunks (12). Comparison of abrasion and weathering degree indicates the stone artifacts had not been trans- ported for long distance, and were buried in the site without long time exposure in the air.
The general features of these artifacts are summarized as follows:
1) Six kinds of raw material were utilized in core reduction and tool manufacture at the site :chert, tectonic breccia, siliceous dolomite, lava, vein quartz and chalcedony, which are identical with the bedrock in the vicinity. Chert is the predominant raw material used for producing stone artifacts at the site.
2) Most artifacts are small.
3) Typologically, The cores consist of 1 II2 sample in type and 3 III sample in type, which shows high extent of raw material consumption. The flakes, consisting of 3 I1-3and II3 sample in types, 8 I2-3 sample in type, 1 II1-1 and II4 sample in type, irregular in shape, were produced by simple hammer percussion. Small and plain platform is the predominant flake platform. The flake angle ranges from 90°to 120°.
4) The only retouched tool, a scraper was crudely modified by direct hammer percussion and was re- touched on the dorsal surface of a flake.
Twenty-seven bone and shell fragments were unearthed from the site, including 22 mammalian specimens, and 5 fresh water bivalva shells. Most bone fragments are close to joint, possibly resulted from human consumption of meat and marrow.
The unearthed materials indicate that hominids occupied the site were living in a lagoon shore environment.They exploited locally available raw materials to make stone tools, and used the site as a tool manufactory and consumption place.
Based on stratigraphic data and comparison with Xiaochangliang Site, the age of the Dachangliang Site has been estimated to be the Early Pleistocene, i.e. the Lower Paleolithic.It should be earlier than the Donggutuo Site (107 Ma) and later than the Majuangou Site in the Nihewan Basin. Thus the Nihewan Basin has great potentials for studying early homonid origins and adaptation in North China and great East Asia.
