A Study Of The Stoneatrifacts From The Beitaishanmiao2Paleolithic Site In The Danjiang Reservoir Region

In order to assist Middle Route of South-to-North Water Transfer Project, asalvage excavation had been carried out by Research Center of Chinese FrontierArchaeology of Jilin University on the Beitaishanmiao2Paleolithic site in theDanjiangkou Reservior Region, March-May,2010. With the introduction of theexcavation in terms of the surrounding environment, the geology geomorphology,unearthed stone artifacts and the chronology, this paper aims at providing significantinformation on the discussion of cultural features of the Paleolithic sites in Hanshuiregion and Changjiang River and of the relationship with its surrounding areas as wellby revealing the whole picture of Beitaishanmiao2Paleolithic site and analyzing thetypes of stone artifacts.1) PrefaceThis part mainly introduces the excavation of Beitaishanmiao2Paleolithic site.The site with lower and upper Paleolithic cultural layers has transitionalcharacteristics of Paleolithic stone industries both from southern and northern, easternand western China. Therefore, the research on this site can facilitate the further studyof southern and northern stone industries by providing necessary information on thereconstruction of the site and the discussion of environmental change, origins ofancient people, lifestyle and cultural development in Hanshui region and ChangjiangRiver.2) The geographical location and the excavation survey, the GeologyGeomorphology and the stratum.The Beitaishanmiao2Paleolithic site is located in the Guanmenyan village,Junxian town, and Danjiangkou City, Hubei province, about30km southeast ofDanjiangkou city,20km north of Wudang Xian, and almost60km west of Shiyancity. Its northern latitude is32°40＇53＂ and eastern latitude is110°09＇09＂. Thealtitude of the site is166m. In April,2010, a formal excavation was carried out byResearch Center of Chinese Frontier Archaeology of Jilin University. The excavationexposed an area of500㎡with two cultural layers. The upper cultural layer is in thelate period of Paleolithic, and the lower is in the lower Paleolithic period.3) Classification of the stone artifacts.In this section, the writer tries to identify the stone industry type of artifacts fromtwo cultural layers by describing their classification, analyzing statistics and raw material and so forth.Characteristics of the upper cultural layer are as followings:The upper layer yielded21stone artifacts. The stone assemblage includes cores,flakes, chunks, the second type tools and the third type tools. Quartz is the dominantraw material. And quartzite, quartz sandstone, hornstone as well as gneiss are used too.Besides, most of the tools are small in size and based on the blanks. Some of the stoneartifacts are trimmed by retouch in two opposite directions freely. And others areretouched on the dorsal side when producing one edge and on the ventral side whenproducing the other edge. Tools are few, and only3scrapers are identified; half of thestone artifacts are chunks.Characteristics of the lower cultural layer are as followings:The total of48stone artifacts were unearthed. The stone assemblage includescores, flakes, chunks, the second type tools and the third type tools. Dominant rawmaterial is quartz, following by quartzite, quartz sandstone, hornstone, rhyolite,phyllite and dioritite. All of the stone artifacts are small in size. Some of the stoneartifacts are trimmed by retouch on the dorsal side and some are on ventral side.Others are retouched along one edge from either the dorsal or ventral side irregularly.Tool types are rich, including scrapers,burins, choppers, hand-axes, and picks and soforth.4）Explorations onto problems concerning the siteIn this section, it mainly discussed the difference and relationship between thetwo cultural layers of the Beitaishanmiao2site by introducing the stone artifactsdistribution on the three dementional coordinate system coordinates. Meanwhile,considering other Paleolithic sites around Hanshui region and Changjiang River, theauther tries to find out how Paleolithic stone industries of Northern and SouthernChina interacted with each other.According to the exsiting chronological records, the writer suggests that theupper layer of Beitaishanmiao2site is probably dated13490±150BP, and the lowerlayer is probably dated830000—870000BP.5）ConclusionsIn this part, the significance of this Paleolithic site will be illustrated in threeaspects. And its important meanings for studying the production of stone artifacts anddevelopment of stone industry in Hanshui Region and recovering the living condition and mode of production of ancient people in this area will be discussed.