Abstract:

Shuiyangjiang River system, as an important branch in the right bank of the Yangtze River, has got great attention for discovering “Shuiyangjiang Paleolithic site complex” since 1980-90’s. In 2004, archaeological survey and excavation were carried out by the staffs from the Institute of Archaeology and Cultural Relics of Anhui Province at Macun site, Xuancheng. Seventy-one lithic artifacts were collected from the surface and seventy-eight lithic artifacts were unearthed from the deposit. The site is buried in the red clay of the second terrace of the right bank of the Shuiyangjiang River. Lithic raw materials were procured from the local river beds and quartzite was the dominant type of rocks. Most of the stone artifacts were manufactured by freehand hammer percussion, followed by bipolar technique. Typologically, the lithic artifacts comprise Pounded Pieces, Flaked Pieces, Detached Pieces, and Small retouched pieces etc. The Macun lithic assemblage can be assigned to the Pebble Tool Industry in South China which indicated by the low reduction sequence of core and early stage of flake attributes. Although the lithic technique falling in the scope of ModeI industry, some large flakes (with more than 10cm in maximum length or width) and large cutting tools (big knife and picks) indicate that early hominin bear the ability of making Mode II productions. Judging from the reticulate red clay of the site context, geomorphological and chronological comparison among the regions in the middle to lower reaches of the Yangtze River, the Macun site can be deduced to the late Middle Pleistocene to early Late Pleistocene.

Key words: Macun Site, Shuiyangjiang River, late Middle Pleistocene to early Late Pleistocene, Pebble Tool Industry, Large cutting tools