A Study On The Stone Artifacts From The Dahe Paleolithic Site In Fuyuan,Yunnan Province

The Fuyuan Dahe site is an important paleolithic cave site in eastern Yunnan Province.This site was continuously excavated for three times in 2001,2002 and 2006,since it was discovered in 1998.The unearthed hominid teeth,kinds of animal fossils,abundant stone artifacts,artificial pebble floors,hearths,and ochre were found in the lower and upper cultural layers.In the present study,the discovered 5239 lithic materials were analyzed using typological,chain operation and statistical analysis from different aspects,such as raw materials,lithic assemblage,knapping technology,and tool retouching techniques.The results show that the pebbles from the Kuaize River terrace at a distance of about 300m were chosen as the raw material and only a small part of materials was from the bedrock of mountains around the site.The type of lithic assemblage discovered in this site includes cores,flakes,tools,chunks,debris and pebbles.The scrapers and points are found to be the main retouched tools which include endscrapers,crescent scrapers,notches,denticulated scrapers,drills,choppers and spheroids.The direct hard hammer percussion was the principal method used for knapping,while the bipolar technique,Levalloisian-like technology,blade-like and microblade-like technology were also used for producing flakes.Most of the retouched tools were made by flakes,and retouched by hard hammer.Almost all of the crescent scrappers and notches retouched by "stepped retouch" possess the general character of Middle/Upper Paleolithic.Compared with the contemporaneous sites at home and abroad,the lithic industry of Dahe site still belongs to the flake-flake tool industry.Besides,some "western elements"were found in in the industry,which could provide the important evidences for the West-East cultural exchanges and relevant migration route of modern human.Based on the AMS and OSL dating methods,the recent verified data indicated that the age of the cultural layers of Dahe site is about 50-30ka BP.The rich and unique cultural characteristics of Dahe site will provide important materials for the human activities during the transition of Middle-Upper Paleolithic period in China.