Report on the excavation of Zhijiddong Cave site
ZHANG Song-lin; LIU Yan-feng
2003, 22(01):
1-17.
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The Zhijidong Cave site(34°38′N, 113°13′E) is situated on an isolated hill north to the Wangzong dian Village, Xingyang City, Henan Province (Figure 1). It was discovered in 1985 and excavated in 1990 at the first time.
The deposit inside the cave consists of 23 layers. Layers 19—23 are Holocene deposists. Layers 1—18 are Pleistocene units,which can be delaminated into two parts: the lower part (layers 1—12) and the upper part (layers 13—18). The materials reported in the paper all came from layers 1—18. Several ash layers with the abundant burned materials were uncovered at the site. More than 6000 stone artifacts, some bone artifacts, and about 10, 000 pieces of vertebrate fossils, mostly mammalian, were found in the deposits. Eight species can be identified, including Myospalax tingi, Rhinoceros cf. sinensis, Megaloceros pachyosteus, and possibiy Hyaena sinensis, which indicate that the site' s age is tentatively dated to be Middle Paleolithic. Layer 18 is dated to be 79+1.0-0.9 ka by uranium serie method. The bottom layer may be slightly older than the Middle Paleolithic. The absence of abrasion on these culturnl materials indicate that they came from primmy context. This site should be a living place and a spot for producing stone artifacts, occupied by human being for a long time.
The artifacts from the Paleolithic deposits (layers 1—18) exhibit 7 characters: 1) The main raw material is quartz ;flint, qurtzite, sandstone and agate were also used. From the lower layer to the upper layer, the quantity of quartz increased, but the quantity of flint was dereased noticeably. 2) Direct hammer flaking was main technique for core reduction, and bipolar flaking was employed occasionally. Most flakes and cores are irregular in shape. 3) Many flakes were used directly without modification. 4) Most (74. 15 %) tools were made on flakes. 5) Retouched tools include scraper, point, awl, chopper-chopping tool and burin. Scrapers are the main type. The single straight scrapers account for 39. 24 %of the scrapers and 26.17% of the retouched tools. 6) Tools were retouched by hammer percussion method. The retouched scars are mainly on the dorsal surface, and mostly irregular. Most of the tools yield deep and wide single layer scars. A few of samples were delicately retouched, possibly using the Mousterian technique. 7) The overwhelming majority of the stone artifacts are small-medium ones. In addition, there are some bone artifacts in the assemblage of the cave site.
The stone artifact assemblage of the Zhijidong Cave sites is very similar to those of Zhoukoudian Sites, and the technological influence from Zhoukoudian Sites is evident. Therefore, The Zhijidong Cave site can be attributed to the main industry of Paleolithic tradition in North China, represented by small artifacts, the predominance of scarpers, and the occurrence of modification scars mainly on the dorsal surfaces.
