The Paleolithic Industry In Heilongjiang Valley And Its Nearby Eastern Area

In the area from Heilongjiang valley to the west coast of the Japan Sea, a large number of Paleolithic remains have been found, of which the stone tools are the most important part. A full and systematic arrangement of these materials, will give us a base for exploring the history of humankind during the Paleolithic Age in this area, and will bring a extremely important reference value to the relating study in its adjacent areas. Our current research is directed to investigate the relationship of the remains according to their years and technologies. Furthermore, an attempt has been made to discuss the interaction of the stone industry in this area and its surroundings. Here, this article is composed of eight chapters.Chapter 1 This chapter describes the geographic scope, the subject choosing, the research purposes, the research ideas and methods, as well as the definition of basic concepts and relating instructions for this study. The Heilongjiang Valley includes the main stream area, the branch area and the upstream area in Heilongjiang, and the nearby eastern area means the waterfront region from the east of Heilongjiang Valley to the west coast of the Japan Sea. According to the physical geography, the site distribution of remains and the integrated characteristics of stone tools, Heilongjiang River Valley and its nearby eastern area can be divided into seven zones. From west to east are the Heilongjiang River area, Songnen areas, the upper and middle reaches of the Heilongjiang area, Tumenjiang, Wusuli River area, the southern area of Tin Holt Hill and the eastern area of Tin Holt Hill. The author's life and learning experiences, as well as our reflection on the Paleolithic archeology in China, have well explained the choice for this geographical scope. After systematically organizing the similarities and differences of the Paleolithic stone industry in this area and understanding their Paleolithic stone industry relationship in this area and its surroundings, for the main purpose of this article, the internal and external characteristics of the Paleolithic stone industry in this region have been highly summarized and an establishment has been made for the future study in the Paleolithic stone industry in this area and its related areas. In this sense, the main method has been set up for determining the stratigraphic age and comparing the types of stone tools, and then a few key concepts and observation system have been described for the classification of stone tools. The initial effort has been made to establish a proper observation system for Paleolithic materials in this area, which should provide an operable standard for a detailed comparison in the types of stone from this area and its surroundings, and also brought an important reference value to the establishment and improvement of the observation system for Paleolithic materials in other areas.Chapter 2 < Brief History of Discovery and Research > In this chapter, the course of discovering Paleolithic materials in this region is divided into three phases ( the embryonic period, the birth period and the development period), which have shown a kind of the development trend from a point to a face and from a slow to a fast model. According to the difference in research content, this course can also be divided into three aspects, including the research in the age sequence and region tradition, the research in the production process and the features of certain types of utensils, and the comparative study for different regions. On this basis, the important outcomes of the Paleolithic study and some shortcomings in this region have been summarized. To establish the spatial and temporal framework, to explore the relationship of the surrounding areas in Paleolithic stone industries, and to integrate the lack of the existing researches from different countries and the disciplines related, are the focus of this article.Chapter 3 < Stratigraphy, age and phase > Considering the changing curves of the global and regional climate and the climate characteristics reflected by remains, the wilderness and caves are studied as two main Paleolithic remain. By using an absolute age scale, the Paleolithic remains in this area are divided into five phases, as follows, the first one is about 53kaBP, the second one is about 53～21kaBP, the third one is about 21～14kaBP; the fourth one is about 14～11kaBP, and the fifth one is about 11～8kaBP.Chapter 4 < The first and second phases of the stone industry >According to the raw materials of stone tools, peel-chip technology and the types of tools, three stone industrial types (Peddle Tool Industry, the Flake Tool Industry, the Blade-based Tool Industry) have been distinguished. The Peddle Tool Industry can be found at the upper reaches of Heilongjiang River, featured with gravel tools simply repaired. The Flake Tool Industry, mainly in the Songnen Plain and the surrounding mountains, can be further divided into A and B of two stone industries. The Blade-based Tool Industry are mainly distributed in Heilongjiang along, the upper reaches of the Mountains and to a small but long strip of the northwestern shore of the Japan Sea, and can be further divided into A and B of two stone leave industries.Chapter 5 Only the Microblade-based Micro-tool Industry was present in this period, mainly featured with the Microblade-based Micro-tool technology and a large number of stone tools shaped. According to the raw materials of stone tools, peel-chip technologies and the types of tools, the development of the the Microblade-based Micro-tool Industry in Heilongjiang Valley and its Nearby Eastern Area has been investigated, which can be divided into early, middle and late phase, respectively. The regional differences in this period have been analyzed based on the understanding of the total characteristics in the Microblade-based Micro-tool Industry. It is found that the Microblade-based Micro-tool Industry similar in Heilongjiang, the upper reaches of the River District, mainly give materials produced by gravel technology, the Microblade-based Micro-tool Industry similar in Changbai Mountains, Tin Holt Hill , Xingkai Lake around, contain more stone technology, and the Microblade-based Micro-tool Industry similar in Songnen Plain include more stone technology.Chapter 6 < Overall features of Paleolithic industries > On the basis of studies in the stratigraphic age sequence and in the Paleolithic stone industry, the regional differences and the process of Paleolithic industrial development in this region have been summarized. There exist two technical leaps in technology and three kinds of traditional technologies during the development of the Paleolithic stone industry. In the first technical leap (53～21kaBP), it was the emergency of the stereotypes-stone industry and the Microblade-based Micro-tool Industry, which can be seen as the beginnings of the late Paleolithic time. In the second technical leap (～21kaBP), the Microblade-based Micro-tool technology appeared, a large number of stone stereotypes were produced, and the number of the remains and stone artifacts also increased intensively. The time of this leap could be associated with the late glacial period. The three traditional technologies include the Peddle Tool technology, which appeared in the remains of Peddle Tool industry, Flake Tool and Blade-based Tool technology. The above three technologies have distributed in the certain cores of some regions, but the distributions are intertwined with each other, which form the colorful combination of stone industries in Heilongjiang Valley and its nearby eastern area. The different models in using raw materials might be related with the reason why the three traditional technologies keep lasted for a long period of time.Chapter 7 < Industrial relations with the surrounding areas > Based on the sequence of the stratum and types of the stone industry, those types of the stone industry in the Heilongjiang valley and nearby eastern area have been compared with the North China, the Korean Peninsula and Siberia. Finally, the article points out that the features of the paleolithic stone industry in the region are marginal and Synchronized. Synchronization means that two technical leaps in Heilongjiang Valley and its nearby eastern area can also be found in its surroundings. Marginality means that this area is the criss-crossing region of many types of industries.Chapter 8 < Conclusion > The research results obtained from chapter 1～7 have been overviewed. Meanwhile, the inadequacy has been pointed out.