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    15 March 2007, Volume 26 Issue 01
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    Preliminary report on the excavation of the Liuhuaishan paleolithic site at Baise, South China Paleolithic Site at Baise, South China
    PEI Shuwen , CHEN FUyou , ZHAN G Yue ,CAO Mingming , HUANG Xin, GAO Xing
    2007, 26(01):  1-15. 
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    The Liuhuaishan Paleolithic site, located on the fourth terrace of the right bank of the Youjiang River, is found near the Jiangfeng village, Youjiang District, Baise City, Guangxi Zhuang Autonomous Region. The site was excavated from October 1 to November 8, 2005, as a salvage archeological project because of the anticipated construction of the Nanning2Baise Expressway. The excavations exposed an area of about 1 000 m2 .
    Four stratigraphic layers were identified at the site, with a total thickness of more than 11 m. Archaeological materials were mainly unearthed from the 2nd and 3rd layer, two layers of latosols and reticular mottled brick2red clay, 510m —610m in thickness and positioned some 55m—60m above the Youjiang water level. A total of 136 stone artifacts and 37 manuble pebbles were unearthed.
    The stone assemblage includes cores (N = 45), flakes (23) , chunks (52) and retouched tools (16) . The general features of these artifacts are summarized as follows :
    1) Lithic raw materials exploited at the site were locally available from ancient riverbeds. More than four kinds of raw materials (silicarenite, quartzite, siltstone and breccia) were utilized in core reduction and tool manufacture , with silicarenite the predominant type.
    2) The principal flaking technique is direct hammer percussion without core preparation.
    3) Most stone artifacts (9017 %) are large and medium in size.
    4) Blanks for tool fabrication are pebbles. Most tools are large in size.
    5) Only two retouched tool classes are identified, namely choppers and picks.
    6) Modified tools appear to be retouched by direct hammer percussion, mostly unificially retouched on the one end of the pebbles.
    This paper is currently the only formal report on any excavated Paleolithic site in the Baise Basin, which contains more than 70 Paleolithic sites. The stone tool assemblage of the Liuhuaishan site shows close associations with the Pebble Tool Industry (Main Industry) in South China. Geomorphological and chronological comparison with other sites of the Baise Basin indicates that the age of the site should be close to the early Middle Pleistocene , which places the Liuhuaishan industry in the Lower Paleolithic in China.
    Paleolithic artifacts found in Changxing County, Zhejiang Province
    XU Xinmin
    2007, 26(01):  16-25. 
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    One hundred and forty-eight Paleolithic artifacts found from eighteen different sites in Changxing county, Zhejiang province are described in this paper. Three of them are from a layer of laterite (reticular mottled red clay) and purple clay. All other artifacts were collected from the ground surface. Polyhedral cores and picks account for a large proportion of this lithic assemblage. The edges of the heavy points tend to be mostly rounded rather than sharp. It should be noted as to whether this is the character of the local Paleolithic industry in this area. Two specimens have been dated to later Lower Paleolithic sequence.
    Knives collected from the open-air sites in Luonan Basin, China
    WANG Shejiang
    2007, 26(01):  26-33. 
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    Similar to handaxes and cleavers, knives made on larger flakes and found in the Luonan Basin, Shaanxi Province, China, challenge many preconceived ideas about the distribution of Acheulian lithic remains. This article focuses on the definition of knives as expressed by Kleindienst[1 ]and Clark & Kleindienst[2 —3 ]. According to these authors, the knife should be a kind of tool having the whole or part of one edge blunted by retouch or naturally backed, with the opposite or cutting edge showing bifacial, unifacial or no retouch. Based on the strict definition that a knife should be made from a larger flake, or should be a kind of retouched flake tool, 24 knives made from larger flakes were identified from 19 open2air sites (or localities) in the Luonan Basin, central China. This work is the first time that knives have been identified in China. The 19 open-air sites that had knives are among 268 open2air sites surveyed between 1995-2004 in the basin.
    This article describes knife raw material and provides metrical analysis of this tool type. Early hominids in the Luonan Basin chose four kinds of raw materials with the most common being cream quartzite. Metrical analysis indicates a mean length of 174.17mm, an average width of 118.80mm and a mean thickness of 50.09mm. The mean weight of the knives studied was 1135.33g. Various indices as measured by the following ratios were : (widthΠlength) ×100 equals 72.22 ; (thicknessΠlength) ×100 equals 30.02 ; (thicknessΠwidth) ×100 equals 43.21.
    The open2air sites in the Luonan Basin were not subject to secondary sedimentation. At these sites, lithic artefacts were discarded by early hominids and incorporated into undisturbed natural loess deposits. Artefacts were contained in the loess deposits, and recovered due to loess extraction for brick manufacture. On the higher terraces, lithic artefacts were exposed on the surface of the higher terraces because of long-term land surface erosional processes. Loess stratigraphy of the second terrace belongs to the Lishi Loess, formed in the middle to late Middle Pleistocene (Q2 2 - 3 ) . The TL dates indicates the chronological date of the second terrace is over 250 ka BP. New preliminary OSL chronological dates shows that the loess deposits on the third and fourth terraces are about 90—50kaBP, and this evidence suggests that the loess deposits on these higher terraces formed in the Late Pleistocene.
    Discussion on the paleoenvironment of the Peking Man Site
    ZHANG Yue , TANG Zhuowei
    2007, 26(01):  34-44. 
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    There are many conclusions given about the paleoenvironment of the Peking Man site, which are usually based on three sources of evidence: sporopollen, fauna, and sediment. In this paper, different points of view are analyzed. For example, research on the sporopollen, by Kong Zhaochen is accepted by most scholars. However because of the different methods used for analyses of fauna and sediments, results of these studies are more controversial. A good example is the interpretation of the 7th layer at the Peking Man site. According to the evidence from sedimentation and from sporopollen, this layer is considered alternately wet and dry, however based on the faunal analysis the 7th layer is thought to only represent a wet period. It is believed that the former interpretation is correct because it is derived from sub2layer evidence, while the latter idea comes from the whole stratigraphic layer. Thus the conclusion drawn from the sedimentary layering and the sporopollen is more accurate than the one drawn from the faunal remains. Here is a list of the suggested paleoenvironments for each of the Peking Man site layers:
    Layers 11—10 　　　dry; expanded steppe;
    Layers 9—8 warm and wet; expanded forest;
    Layer 7 alternately dry and wet; dominant shrub steppe;
    Layer 6 warm and wet; dominant forest;
    Layer 5 warm and wet; dominant forest;
    Layer 4 dry and cold; forest shrunk, and expanded steppe;
    Layers 3—1 expanded steppe with climate change from cold and dry to warm and wet frequently.
    A study on the physical characteristics of Khmu
    ZHENG Lianbin, LU Shunhua, CHEN Yuanyuan, YU Huixin, LIU Haiping
    2007, 26(01):  45-53. 
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    The physical characteristics of 285 Khmu adults ( 141 males and 144 females) were investigated. The percentages of 9 somatoscopic measurements, the mean and the standard deviation of 58 anthropometry items, and classification of 31 physical indices were calculated. The comparison was made among the data of Khmu and other 31 populations in China. Physical characteristics of Khmu population were as follows: The frequency of mongoloid fold was low, with 31.21 % for males and 32.64 %for females respectively. The eye fold of the upper eyelid had a high frequency as it was observable in 90.33 % males and 93.75 % females. The nasal root height was medium in the most of males (65.96 %) and females (47.22 %). Most of Khmu adults were medium size in the alae nasi and upper lip height. The lobe type was triangle frequently. The color of hair , eye and skin was black, brown and yellow frequently, respectively. Some types of physical characteristics, including brachycephaly, hypsicephaly type, tapeinocephalic type, leptorrhiny, medium length of trunk and medium chest circumference were observed in the highest frequency. In male, the preference of leptoproscopy, submakroskelic type, broad shoulder breadth and medium distance between iliac crest circumference was high, while in female, the high frequency was appeared in euruprosopy, mesatiskeletal type, medium chest circumference and broad distance between iliac crest circumference. The average stature was 160.2cm for males and 151.5cm for females, which belonged to sub-middle type. Khmu adults had physical characteristics of southern nationalities in China.
    A study on the physical anthropology of the Miao nationality of Wangka in Guizhou
    YU Yuesheng, LU Yujiong, LUO Zaigang, RONG Juquan, QIU Xiangzhi, MO Yongan
    2007, 26(01):  54-63. 
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    An assessment of the somatoscopy and anthropometry of 374 Miao nationality adults (196 males and 178 females) living in Wangka village of Fuquan city in Guizhou was carried out in July 2004. These individuals were aged between 20 and 55 years, and included parents, and paternal and maternal grandparents. Twenty-eight observations and sixty-four measurements were made.
    The results of the assessment are summarized as follows:
    1. The average stature of males is 1 542.13mm, and of females is 1 443.91mm, both considered to be of the short type. Arm span is longer than that of stature in both sexes. Most of the individuals were characterized by brachycephaly, hyperleptoproscopy, and mesorrhiny. The Miao nationality in this sample belongs to the South Asian type of Mongoloid race.
    2. Comparing the Miao in Wangka village with 18 other minorities living in southern China, the physical character of the Miao is most closely related to the Baiku Yao living in Libo County of Guizhou and Nandan county of Guangxi, and is remotely related to those of the Maonan in Guizhou, Dong in Hunan.
    Fluctuating asymmetry of dermatoglyphic a-b ridge count in individuals with schizophrenia
    DANG Jie, HUO Zhenghao, PENG Liang, CHEN Yintao, JIAO Haiyan, LU Hong, ZHONG Hui jun, ZHAO Wei
    2007, 26(01):  64-69. 
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    The purpose of this paper is to analyze the fluctuating asymmetry ( FA) of dermatoglyphic a-b ridge counts in individuals with schizophrenia from Ningxia, China. Fluctuating asymmetry refers to small random deviations from perfect symmetry in bilaterally paired structures. It is the result from interactions between developmental disturbance and developmental stability, and it has a low heritability. Fluctuating asymmetry can be as a measure of individual quality and also an indicator of developmental stability. Computing FA was done using the absolute differences between bilateral measurements ( calculated as FA = | R - L | ) . Inked dermatoglyphic samples were collected from individuals who gave their informed consent, and the required parameters for this research were analyzed. A random sample was taken from 134 people with schizophrenia ( 70 male and 64 female)and compared with 331 healthy controls ( 170 male and 161 female) . The results were that Individuals with schizophrenia had a reduced mean a-b ridge counts compared to the control group( P < 0.01); There was a significant difference between groups in FA of a-b ridge counts ( t= 2.668, P< 0.01) with individuals with schizophrenia having a significantly higher fluctuating asymmetry of a-b ridge counts; In a distribution of a-b ridge count, schizophrenia was significant different in the group of FA ≥10.It may indicate that people with schizophrenia had a higher developmental instability in their earlier fetation. These results may indicate that during the course of fetal development, the schizophrenia fetus is much more sensitized to a variety of external environments.
    Genetic polymorphisms of 15 STR Loci in Naqu Tibetan population
    LI Ning, SU Yuhong, XI Huanjiu, REN Fu, ZHU Baoqin, WEN Youfeng
    2007, 26(01):  70-76. 
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    Using multiplex amplification and five fluorescent techniques ( 6FAM, VIC, NED, PET and LIZ) , polymorphism distributions of 15 STR loci ( D8S1179, D21S11, D7S820, CSF1PO, D3S1358, TH01, D13S317, D16S539, D2S1338, D19S433, VWA, TPOX, D18S51, D5S818 and FGA) were investigated in the Naqu Tibetan population. Gene frequency, power of discrimination (DP) , heterozygosity ( H) , polymorphism information content ( PIC ) and probability of paternity exclusion ( EPP) were determined. In addition, HardyWeinberg equilibrium of the frequencies were also tested for all loci. Our results indicate the following:
    1) Allele frequencies in the 15 STR loci meet the HardyWeinberg equilibrium.
    2) The power of discrimination of the 15 STR loci is 0.7588-0.9604, heterozygosity of the 15 STR loci is 0.4762-08620, the polymorphism information content of the 15 STR loci is 0.4464-0.8615, and the probability of paternity exclusion of the 15 STR loci is 0.3850-0.8560.
    3) The cumulative power of discrimination of the 15 STR is 0.999999 999 and the cumulative probability of paternity exclusion is 0.999999 998. On the basis of these results, the 15 STR loci could be used as the genetic markers for the Naqu Tibetan population in studies of anthropology, linkage analysis of genetic disease, individual identification and paternity test in forensic medicine.
    Stable isotopic analysis on human bones of the Lamadong site, Beipiao, Liaoning Province
    DONG Yu, HU Yaowu, ZHANG Quanchao, CUI Yaping, GUAN Li, WANG Changsui, WAN Xin
    2007, 26(01):  77-84. 
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    The Lamadong site is a large necropolis belonging to Sanyan Culture in North China, which dates to the Western and Eastern Jin dynasties ( 265AD-420AD). In this research, we used carbon and nitrogen stable isotopes to explore the palaeodiet and get to know the living style of the people of this site. A broard perspective of thisstudy was to examine the historic relationship between the Sanyan and Han cultures. The contents of carbon, nitrogen, and the ratio of carbone/nitrogen of 20 human bones from this site indicated that all samples were uncontaminated, which is an important criteria for palaeodiet analysis. The values of 13C and 15N of the collagen showed that these ancestors mainly relied on C4 plants and were essentially vegetarians. We interpret this result with the advent of agriculture. It is noted that the lifestyle of Xianbei was strongly influenced by the Han culture at the Lamadong site, since they were changing from a nomadic phase to a settled farming phase. We also carried out ttest statistical analysis on different genders, and found there were no distinct sexual differences in their diet. Sample BLM63 and BLM99 have comparative higher values of 15 N, indicating that some meat was included in their diet.
    Food sharing in Non-human primates
    ZHANG Zhen, SU Yanjie
    2007, 26(01):  85-94. 
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    Food sharing , defined as allowing others to eat part or all of oneπs own monopolizable food items, is one of the important social interactions in non2human primates. It happens mostly between adults and immatures but rarely among adults, with a common pattern of passive food sharing. Researches on food sharing in non-human primates were reviewed along this two age categories focusing on their characteristics and functional explanations. Food sharing between adults and immatures typically happens between mothers and their offspring, and ecological factors including age of the immatures and the quality and quantity of food, influence the frequency of food sharing. As an important part of infant care, the functional significance of food sharing was usually explained with foraging assistance hypothesis and food learning hypothesis. The mechanism of food sharing is more complex among adults than between adults and immatures, for that it is influenced not only by ecological factors but also by social factors, such as affinitive relationship and social dominance between individuals , as well as social tolerance in the group. As two of the popular explanations for non-kin food sharing among adults, reciprocity explanation and harassment explanation were compared. Reciprocity explanation focuses on the alternation of donor and recipient roles in repeated food interactions and states that an individual may benefits another by relinquishing part of its own food if the recipient returns the favor later. On the other hand, according to harassment model, the owner may allow the beggar to consume a fraction of the food, since the beggarπs harassment is costly. It is suggested that reciprocity requires complex cognitive skills , while harassment has very few constraints and thus should be a better model. In the end, it was proposed that food sharing could be taken as an ideal context in further studies on the social cognition of non-human primates, and researches on food sharing could provide insights into the understanding of the evolution of human cooperation.
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