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Table of Content

    15 March 2004, Volume 23 Issue 01
    A study of the cores from the Yunxian Hominid site
    FENG Xiao-bo
    2004, 23(01):  1-12. 
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    Seventy-seven pieces of cores which amounts for 26 % of the total stone artifacts were collected from Xuetangliangzi, the so-called Yunxian hominid site in Hubei Province. The cores can be grouped into three categories: single platform (46 pieces), double platform (21 pieces)and polyhedral platform (10 pieces).Some features of the cores are observed and summarized as follows:
    The cores are mostly made of sandstone and vein quartz. A few of them are made of pyrogenetic rock and chalkstone. The total number of platform is 121, mostly cortical ones. Plain platform and complex platform are observed on a small number of cores. Only one piece with scarred platform is identified. Most cores are flaked on the top or bottom face;some exhibit flake scars on other positions.
    Most cores yield one layer of flake scars. Some cores can be observed with two or more than two layers of flake scars. Most cores exhibit 4-5 flake scars, followed by cores with 2 flake scars. Most cores are measured 300-399 mm in platform perimeter;most flake scars are measured less than 99 mm in length;and most platform angles are measured 80-89°. The rates of core platform consumption are calculated most frequently as 20 %-29 %and 40 %-49 %. Cores with different number of platforms are found to be exploited differently.
    The technique of flake production from cores at the Yunxian site is principally direct hard hammer percussion without much preparation, which is the basic characteristic of core reduction in China dur-ing the Paleolithic.
    Bone artifacts from Dongfang Plaza site of Wangfujing,Beijing
    LI Chao-rong; FENG Xing-wu; YU Jin-cheng; ZHAO Ling-xia
    2004, 23(01):  13-33. 
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    This is a special study on the artifacts unearthed from Dongfang Plaza Paleolithic site of Wangfujing, Beijing. Among 2000-odd pieces animal fossils discovered in situ, 411 pieces are identified as bone artifacts. A total of 245 pieces were found from the Lower Cultural Horizon and are classified as 23 bone chunks, 23 bone cores, 133 flakes, 22 chips and 44 bone tools including 10 scrap-ers, 26 points, 6 burins and 2 shavers; 166 pieces from the Upper Cultural Horizon are classified as 1 bone chunks, 3 bone cores, 5 flakes, 7 chips and 4 bone tools including 2 points, 1 burin and 1 shav-er; 146 pieces are without definite positions and are classified as 31 bone chunks, 56 flakes, 43 chips and 16 bone tools including 8 scrapers, 5 points and 3 burins.
    Based on detailed examinations of these bone artifacts, general characteristics of the bone materials can be summarized as:
    1) The bone artifacts were preserved well without suffering serious weathering or abrasion;
    2) Bone tools were made mainly on some animal' s femur when they had been dried in the sun for some time, instead of being fresh
    3) Bone flakes are dominant in this bone assemblage.
    4) Most bone artifacts are irregular in shape.
    5) Stone hammers are used to flake from exterior surface to cavity surface or from cavity surface to exterior surface, and to retouch in an alternating fashion or the way to cavity surface.
    6) A total of 79 pieces of them are spliced into 33 bigger pieces.
    7) 45 pieces of them have stone cutting, chopping, or scoring marks.
    8) Some bones dyed by hematite powder reflect human' s religious ideology.
    The characteristics of cultural remains show that the site was a primary deposit and a temporary camp. Cutting and chopping marks on some bone artifacts reflect the life style of butchering and eating animals;Scoring marks reflect exquisite human craftsmanship.
    Dongfang Plaza site shares certain common characteristics in bone artifacts with some other similar Paleolithic sites such as the Upper Cave, Shiyu. In general, this further indicates that it has close affiliation to those sites discovered in North China in history.
    A styudy on the physical characteristics of Uzbek nationality
    ZHENG Lian-bin; CUI Jing; LU Shun-hua; LI Shu-yuan; GuLibanong
    2004, 23(01):  35-45. 
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    The physical characteristics on 194 adults (106 males and 88 females) of Uzbek nationality were investigated. The mean and the standard deviation of 58 items of anthropometry, 31 items of the physical indices and 6 items of somatoscopy percentages were calculated. Physical characteristics of Uzbek nationality were summarized. The comparison were made among the data of Uzbek and some other nationalities in China. The results show that Uzbek nationality have main characteristics as follows.
    The eye fold of the upper eyelid is 99.06 %in males and 100 %in females. The Mongoloid fold is observable in 82.08 % and 72.73 % for males and females respectively. The nasal root height is high. The alae nasi is medium size. The ear lobe type is round frequently. Some types of physical characteristics, including hyperbrachycephaly, hypsicephaly, euruprosopy, leptorrhiny, long length of trunk, mesatiskelic type, broad chest circumference and narrow breadth of shoulder are observed in high percentage. Tapeinocephaly and broad distance between iliac crests in males, metriocephaly and medium distance between iliaccrests in females are also shown in high ratio. The average stature is 1 685mm for males and 1 555mm for females.
    Anthropological survery on Tatar nationality in Xinjiang Uygur Antonomous Regions
    CUI Jing; ZHENG Lian-bin; SHEN Xin-sheng
    2004, 23(01):  47-54. 
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    Object An anthropological study of 102 males and 84 females was made on Tatar nationality aged 20 to 58 in Qitai county, Xinjiang Uygur Autonomous Region in May, 1999. The informa-tion can provide reference to anthropology. Methods The morphological investigation is based on Wu Rukang' s method of anthropometry. Results The physical characters of Tatar nationality: The ce-phalic index belongs to hyperbrachycephaly, hypsicephaly and tapeinocephaly. The morphological facial index belongs to euryprosopy. The breadth of eye aperture belongs to middle type. The nose breadth is larger than interocular breadth between endocanthions. Nasal root height is high. The nasal index belongs to leptorrhiny. The armstretch is long. Conclusion Tatar nationality is most closely related to Kirgiz, Kazak nationalities living in Xinjiang, and it is remotely related to the Miao, Man, Li nationalities.
    Study on geographical differnce of male youth somatatypes among different areas in China
    SHANG Lei; XU Yong-yong; DU Xiao-han
    2004, 23(01):  55-60. 
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    The present status and geographic difference of somatotypes in Chinese male youth in different areas were studied in present article. The data were collected from 100 districts in 31 provinces in China.Totally 72000 subjects aged 17—21 years were measured, according to Martin-Saller's method chest circumference index, shoulder breadth index, sitting height index, Manouvrier's skelic index, Pig-net-Vervaeck index of all the subjects were classified into different somatotype' s groups according to Mantin-Saller' s standard. The results were compared among different areas, all the analysis were carried out by using SPSS11. 0 program. There were significant differences in the five indexes mean and different somatotype detecting rate among different areas (P <0.01). Narrow thorax occurred in 78.5 % cases of male Chinese youth, thorax of male youth in north-China was broader, those of south-middle and south-west were narrower compared with others. Broad shoulder was present in 68.3 % cases of male Chinese youth, shoulder of male youth in east-China was broader, north-west was narrower. Long truck was 70.8 %, male youth' struck length in east-China was the longest, but in north-east was the shortest among six areas. Fregueucies of occurence of submakroskelic type and makroakelic type were 35.9 % and 45.7 % respectively. Relative to other areas, leg length of male youth in east-China was shorter, north-China' s was longer.Frequencies of occurrence of gangling type, medium type and stocky type were 50.3 %、42.9 % and 6.8 % respectively, youth in south was thinner than those in north, rural youth was thinner than urban' s, Frequency of occurrence of gangling type in south-west was 60.1 %, stocky type in north-China was 2.9 %, these were the highest among different areas. Frequence of oc-currence of broad shoulder and narrow thorax type was 50.9 %, that of long truck and subbrachyskelic type was 32.5 %, that of long truck and brachyskelic type was 28.0 %. In sum, we found that the basic characteristics of male youth' s body type in China were the type of broad shoulder, narrow thorax, subbrachyskelic or brachyskelic type and gangling or medium type of body. There were significant differences in male youth's somatotypes, youth in south were thinner than those in north, rural youth were thinner than urban's. Influence of geographical environment, climate, economic status on adolescents' somatotypes should be further studied.
    Study on physical development for students in Dalian
    XU Fei; CHEN Yao-wu
    2004, 23(01):  61-72. 
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    The purpose of this study is to know the status and rule of growth and development in Dalian urban and rural students. According to the anthropometric method, we measured twenty-three items of 3 834 (boys of urban 630, girls of urban 645;boys of rural 1285, girls of rural 1274) Han nationality students aged 7—18 who live in area of Dalian. Based on the data published before, we researched the rule and trend of growth and development, the sexual differences and the regional differences of chief morphological indices of these students.The results showed as follows: 1.Characteristics of growth and development: With age increase, the average value of measuring items gradually increased, the growth curves of boys and girls appeared rising tendency and were crossed each other.2. Sex differences: there were obvious sex differences in all the measuring items in Dalian students. Among all the age groups the data showed that values of boys were larger than those of girls appeared notably significant differences except the group of female puberty (aged 10—12). 3.Secular growth change: during 26 years, the stature, body weight, girth of chest of boys and girls in Dalian aged 7—17 increased with a large extent, the average increased values every 10 years were 2.52 cm and 1.92 cm, 4.05 kg and 2.93 kg, 1.77 cm and 1.38 cm, respectively. 4.Differences between urban and ru-ral: differences remained between Dalian urban and rural boys and girls in stature, body weight and girth of chest.
    Somatotype of Dong nationality adult studied with the heath-carter anthropometry method
    HUANG Shi-ning; PU Hong-qin; PANG Zu-yin
    2004, 23(01):  73-78. 
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    The Heath-Carter method was used to study the somatotype of 515 aboriginal Dong adult in-dividuals (254 males and 261 females) aged 20 to 60 in Sanjiang County of Guangxi. The results were: 1) The mean somatotypes in male 2.2—4.5—2.4 and female 4.3 —4.2 —1.5 are balanced mesomorph and endomorph-mesomorph, respectively. 2) Very significant sexual difference is found in adult' s somatotype of Dong nationality (P <0.001) while SAD and T are 2.33 and 11.9 respectively. 3) Com-pared with the data home and abroad, the somatotype ratings of Dong males and females are medium in the endomorphy, ectomorphy and mesomorphy component except those of Dong females are low in the ectomorphy.
    Effects of long-term high-flourine environment on dermatoglyphics
    LI Wen-chun; HUANG Tie-zhu; GUO Guo-rong
    2004, 23(01):  79-83. 
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    The dermatoglyphic features of 322 cases in high-fluorine area were analysed. The acquired data were compared with that of the control group and that of the people of serious iodine deficiency area. The results showed some statistical differences in the dermatoglyphic parameters between the people of high-fluorine area and control group. The ulnar loop (Lu ), variation type of palmar creases in the people of high-fluorine area are more abundant than those in control group (P <0.01). The whorl (W), TFRC, and percent frequencies of true patterns in TH/ I1 and I4 in the people of high-fluorine area are less than control group (P <0.01). The dermatoglyphic parameters of the people in high-fluorine area were similar to those of the people of iodine deficiency area in frequencies of Lr, TFRC, variation type of palmar creases and percent frequencies of true pattern in palm.We suggested that long-term high-fluorine environment has an effect on the genetic characteristics of the people in such area. The difference of hereditary features of the people in the same area might have relation to the amount of intake of the micro-elements of external environment.
    Study of the contents of the microelemrnts in the hair of the Kazak nationality children
    YAN Chao; XIN Li; WU Yan
    2004, 23(01):  84-87. 
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    The contents of 5 elements (Zn, Fe, Cu, Mn, Ca) in the hair of children of 31 individuals Kazak nationality aged 12—15 living in Yili county, Xinjiang were determined with spectrum absorption methoed. The T test showed that there is no significant difference in contents of elements among the Kazak, Uygur and Kirgirz nationalities except that of Mn and Ca in Kazak and Kirgirz.
    U-series dating on fossil teeth from Xianren Cave in Xichou, Yunnan Province
    ZHANG Xin-feng; JI Xue-ping; SHEN Guan-jun
    2004, 23(01):  88-92. 
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    Xianren Cave, located ca. 300 m southeast to the town of Xichou County, Yunnan Province, is one of the numerous modern Homo sapiens cave sites in southern China. From the deposits inside the cavern, 5 hominid teeth together with an abundance of mammalian fossils representing 32 species have been recovered. We have tried to date the flowstone layers covering the fossiliferous deposits, but failed to obtain meaningful results because of their mediocre quality and low uranium contents. Then 4 fossil teeth were selected from the museum collection. Judging by the adhered matrix deposits, 3 of them (XRD-1, 2, 3) should come from the Middle Layer, from which the hominid teeth were be-lieved to come, while another one (XRD-4) may come from the Upper Layer. 230 Th/ 234U dating was carried out on all the 4 samples, yielding resultsin the range of 47 Ka and 105 ka. Independent 227Th/230Th determinations on XRD-2 and 4 gave results consistent within errors with those from 230Th /234U. It seems thus plausible to attribute the hominid teeth in a range of 47 —105 ka. However, compared with the well established U-series dating of speleothem calcites, the U-series dates on fossil materials tend to be much younger. So it is highly possible for the above dates to be underestimated. In any case, the present results are in line with those from other modern Homo sapiens sites we have previously studied, indicating that the appearance of modern humans in southern China may be an event as early as in West Asia and South Africa.