Comprehensive Study On The Paleolithic Site Of Liwagnjian In Datong

The Liwangjian site is an open-air wilderness site located at the western end of the Nihewan Basin-northeast of the Datong Basin,0.7km southwest of Liwangjian Village,Yunzhou District,Datong City,Shanxi Province.The site was first discovered in 2016.After investigation and discovery,the site was re-examined several times,and the geological section was excavated from June to August 2017.In view of the large number of stone products and animal fossils found in this trial excavation,as well as the relatively continuous stratigraphic accumulation,the site was officially excavated in July to October 2018.Archaeological trials and excavations in 2017 and 2018 revealed a total of 4 cultural layers,and abundant stone artifacts and animal fossils were obtained.The guiding ideology of this paper is the theory of "chain operation".This paper conducts a brief comprehensive analysis and research on stone artifacts and animal fossils in the liwangjian site by using a variety of research methods,such as souring the lithic products,taphonomy research,typological,lithic fragments resembling study and zooarchaeological study:First of all,the background of the topic and research are summarized,the content,purpose and methods of the research are clarified,and the classification and observation items of stone artifacts and animal fossils are described in detail.Subsequently,the results of archaeological surveys and trial excavations in the Datong Basin in recent years are summarized.Statistics and analysis show that the Paleolithic sites and fossil sites in the Datong Basin are mainly concentrated on the northern bank of the Sanggan River,with only a small amount on the southern bank.Combining the water system and administrative divisions,the investigation area is divided into four small areas: the northern bank of the upper reaches of the Sanggan River,the northern bank of the middle reaches of the Sanggan River,the southern bank of the middle reaches of the Sanggan River,and the upper reaches of the Yanghe River.The cultural relics found in the survey are mostly river-lake sediments and Malan loess layers,and are concentrated in the Grade II and III terraces on both sides of the Sanggan River and its tributaries.The newly discovered sites are all open-air wilderness sites.Second,the discovered lithic and fossil materials were analyzed using stratigraphy,typological,taphonomy,statistical analysis from different aspects,such as raw materials,lithic assemblage,knapping technology,and tool retouching techniques.The results show that most of the raw material in the site are local materials,mostly from the beach gravel near the site or the mountain bedrock exposed area within 20 km from the northwest of the site.There are six types of lithic assemblage in the site,including cores,flakes,chunks,debris,tools and unprocessed workers.There only scrapers,points,choppers,burin,end scrapers are found.In the tool assemblage,the scrapers are found to be the main retouched tools which include a small number of notches.The other types are found less and no spheroids are found.In the liwangjian site,the direct hard hammer percussion was the principal method used for knapping,while the bipolar technique,were also used for producing flakes.No soft hammer processing,indirect or pressing methods have been found.The knapping technology is still based on simple core knapping technology,but it also has the application of Prefabrication Technology.Most of the retouched tools were made by flakes,and retouched by hard hammer.The processing direction is mainly positive.The number of blade edges is mainly single.Most of the scars were small and medium size,with continuous monolayer distribution.The ratio of the processing length to the edge length indicates that the development of a single edge by hominids was quite thorough.Trimming is relatively simple,non-qualitative,expedient tools are more,and it tends to develop and utilize a single edge,and is proficient in using simple processing technology.However,there are a certain number of potential edge edges in the site,which are not exploited and utilized.Thirdly,a large number of animal fossils have been found in liwangjian site.The species preliminarily identified include Lupus,Bovidae,Equus caballus,Dicerorhinus,among which fossils of Equus teeth were found more often.The medium-sized and larger animals provided better meat resources for the ancient humans.The animal fossil preservation site in the Liwangjian site is mainly limb bones.Most of the long bone fossils of the limb bones are less than 1/4.No bones with joint parts at both ends are found.Most of the fossils are broken long bones,mainly in the shape of cusp and tongue,reflecting that ancient humans may have done the behavior of knocking on the bone marrow.Combined with the information analysis of bone fragments,teeth,bone products and stone artifacts in the site,the ancient people in liwangjian site have certain ability to hunt and deal with food.In addition,there are some artificial bone products and bone fossils with use traces in the site of liwangjian,indicating the utilization of bone fossils by ancient humans.Fourth,Compared with the contemporaneous sites at Nihewan Basin and the northern region,the lithic industry of Liwangjian site still belongs to the flake-flake tool industry.Liwangjian site is highly consistent with the stone products industry in Nihewan Basin,which belongs to the same line.The simple Prefabrication Technology found in the site reflects the advancement of technology.The discovery and study of the Liwangzhang site provides important clues for studying the cultural outlook of the transition from the middle to Upper Paleolithic in the Datong Basin and the cultural exchange between the East and the West.In addition,the geological geography,lithology,stratigraphic accumulation,geomorphological evolution background,and environmental background in the Datong Basin were systematically explained.Based on the 14 C and OSL dating methods,the recent verified data indicated that the age of the cultural layers of Liwangjian site is about 50-30 ka BP.The OSL dating data of some samples show that the age of the lower cultural layer is earlier than 50 ka BP,and the age of the upper cultural layer is not later than 30 ka BP.The 14 C dating data show that the site is 45 ka BP(after correction).The Liwangjian site is in the late period of middle Paleolithic,and its cultural appearance is based on the inheritance of the early and middle Paleolithic culture in China.The rich and unique cultural characteristics of Liwangjian site will provide important materials for the human activities during the transition of Middle-Upper Paleolithic period in China.