Related Studies On Boat-shaped Cores In Late Paleolithic China

Boat-shaped and wedge-shaped cores are common types of microcores in late Paleolithic sites.Looking back on the century-old research history of microlith,we can see the academia pays the most attention to wedge-shaped cores and studies them the most deeply.However,the boat-shaped cores haven't attracted enough attention from scholars.In order to deepen the understanding of boat-shaped cores,this paper takes the boat-shaped cores found in Late Paleolithic sites as research objects and conducts relevant research on the boatshaped cores from the following three aspects: the classification of boat-shaped cores and the study of the technological process,the rise and fall process of development and the relationship between boatshaped cores and environmental changes.The platform,the height of the core,the retouching method of the core and the bottom shape are the most essential characteristics of boat-shaped cores.The difference of bottom shape reflects the retouching degree and the reduction stage of microcores.Therefore,the difference in bottom morphology is used as the basis for the classification of boat-shaped cores types.According to the different bottom shapes,the boat-shaped cores can be segmented into three forms: flat bottom shape,linear bottom shape and point shape.Taking the operation chain as the guideline,this paper divides the technological process of boat-shaped cores into four stages: lithic raw material preparation,core preparation,flaking and final stage,and compares the technical differences between boat-shaped and wedgeshaped cores from three aspects: lithic raw material selection,preparation methods and flaking process.The boat-shaped cores don't need to prepare biface blank,and are less restricted by the quality and size of the lithic raw materials.The preparation and flaking process are relatively simple,which saves time and cost and improves the flaking efficiency to some degree.Therefore,this paper considers that boat-shaped core is an important means to obtain microblade efficiently by exploiting small high-quality lithic raw materials.In order to understand the development process of boat-shaped cores,according to the relative number and absolute chronology data of boat-shaped cores in various sites,this paper divides the development process of boat-shaped cores into three periods: germination period(27~26 ka B.P.),prosperity period(26~15 ka B.P.)and decline period(15~10 ka B.P.),and the technical and distribution characteristics of boat-shaped cores in each period are discussed.According to the technical characteristics,the technological differences of boat-shaped cores at each stage are very small.The processing concepts reflected by the platform type,retouching method and the height of the core are similar,which shows the stability of boat-shaped cores technology development.Three bottom shape of boat-shaped cores are found in each period,but the boat-shaped cores with linear bottom are mainly used.The function of the linear bottom is similar to the keel edge of wedge-shaped cores,which can control the terminal shape of microblade and adjust the platform angle.According to the distribution characteristics,the boat-shaped cores are first discovered in the southern Shanxi region,and center on the southern Shanxi region,spreading radially in all directions,reaching the northwest and northeast regions of Hebei in the north,developing to the north Jiangsu and south Shandong province in the east,reaching Ganning region in the west,and reaching the inner land of Central Plains in the south.By comparing the spatio-temporal distribution characteristics of wedge-shaped cores,it can be seen that wedgeshaped cores are mainly distributed in Northeast China and Northwest Hebei.They are distributed in stripe along the northeast-southwest trend according to chronology.The main epidemic time of wedgeshaped cores is between 17 and 12 ka B.P.This paper suggests that cultural origin,climatic environment and differences in ancient human groups are the main reasons for the differences in the spatialtemporal distribution of the two types of microcores.Finally,the rise and fall of boat-shaped cores is closely related to the changes in climate and environment.Understanding the reasons for the rise and fall of boat-shaped cores before and after the LGM and the adaptive behaviors reflected by other cultural relics which coexist with boatshaped cores can enhance our understanding of ancient human survival strategies and behavior patterns.