Acheulean Lithic Assemblage In The Early Middle Pleistocene Of The Nanbanshan Site In Baise Basin, Guangxi

Acheulean technology is the longest-standing lithic technology in history of human evolution,covering most regions of Africa,Europe,and Asia.Large Cutting Tools(LCTs)such as handaxes,cleavers and picks are the most characteristic types of stone tools in Acheulean technology,and they are the first tools with a certain degree of standardization in the history of human cultural development extending over millions of years.These LCTs have become important materials for exploring the migration and cultural exchange of ancient humans in the Early and Middle Pleistocene,and they also provide important clues for explaining the behavior and cognitive ability of early hominins.Compared with the study of Acheulean technology on the western side of the Old World,the research of that of in China is still relatively weak,and there are still lots of controversies about the origin of the Acheulean technology in China and even in East Asia.Since the 1970s to the present,scholars have carried out continuous Paleolithic archaeological investigations in the Baise(or Bose)Basin of the Guangxi Zhuang Autonomous Region for many years,resulting in a series of sites were excavated and numerous stone artifacts were collected,including LCTs such as handaxes and picks,and other stone artifacts Therefore,the Baise Basin is well-known for the study of the origin and evolution of early human and the tradition of Paleolithic culture in East Asia.The Nanbanshan Site is located on the fourth terrace of the Youjiang River,about 20 km southeast of the Youjiang District of Baise City.It is an one of the most important lithic site in the early Middle Pleistocene of south China.The excavation of this site revealed for the first time the coexistence of tekties with two handaxes in the same layer,thus providing clear evidence to solve the controversy of the age and provenance the Baise handaxe.However,the study of the stone artifacts found at the site need further analysis.In this dissertation,210 stone artifacts collected from the investigation and excavation in 2005 in the Nanbanshan Site are systematically studied.Quantitative measurements and statistical analysis are employed to analyzes the lithic industrial assemblage and technical characteristics.The results show that the lithic industry at the Nanbanshan Site is a more complex pebble-industry based on the core and flake system,supplemented by the Acheulean technology system.The raw materials were basically come from the large cobbles of the Youjiang River,and direct percussion was used for flaking.The flaking pattern of cores is rich and characteristic,but the utilization rate is not high.The flakes are mainly light stone products with a small average size,but large flakes are also present;in addition,a high percentage of feather-tailed distal forms indicate a high success rate of flaking,showing that early humans were well skilled at flaking.Heavy-duty tools such as large scrapers and choppers are also present at the site,providing a rich selection of tools for the diverse production and life of ancient humans.This dissertation focuses on a comparative study of the LCTs of the Nanbanshan Site,which include three types of handaxe,pick and cleaver.The results show that the raw materials of the LCTs from the Nanbanshan Site mainly consists of quartzite and quartz and conglomerate,showing a high proportion of one-sided modification,a large degree of tip thinning,and a thick body.This dissertation found that the Acheulean technology at the Nanbanshan Site differs greatly from that of the Western Acheulean,implying that it is unlikely that the Acheulean technology at the Baise Basin originated directly from the West on a large scale.The author of this dissertation argue that the Acheulean technology in East Asia does not exclude the influence of migration-cultural exchange of Western Acheulean populations,but it is more likely to be the result of convergent evolution of early humans in the face of environmental pressure or for technological reserve.The early hominins in the Baise Basin and the Luonan Basin,faced with different climates,environments and raw material characteristics of stone tools from the West,developed East Asian Acheulean technologies with their own characteristics and slight internal differences in the process of technological convergence and evolution.