Table of Content

15 December 2004, Volume 23 Issue 04

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Biomechanical characteristic of bipedalism and possible locomotion mode of Australopithecus

LI Yu

2004, 23(04):  255-263. 

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The locomotion mode of Australopithecus has long been a hot topic for palaeoanthropologists. The fossil specimen of Lucy (A1288-1) has its most long bones and pelvis preserved, so that researchers may have a detailed study on her body morphology and skeleton structure. Even based on the exact the same morphological data, there is still, oddly, a major and prolonged disagreement. Starting from Lucy' s anthropometric data and aided by the computer simulation technique, this study built a series of dynamic modes, with a combination of lower limb joint moving functions and static characteristics of Lucy. It was shown that had Lucy had walked with a bent-knee, bent-hip (BK-BH) posture, it would have been much more expensive in energy consumption than otherwise if she were walking in a fully erect manner. This suggested that Lucy may have been walking bipedally and erectly just like us today. However, further analysis indicates that the femurs of Australopithecus including Lucy' s are of stronger anti-deformation ability in both sagittal and frontal plans, agreeing the joint torque output for the BKBH model built in this study. This finding suggests a total different conclusion.

A study of stone artifacts found from the Shangmakan Paleolithic site in Anji County, Zhejiang Province

ZHANG Sen-shui; XU Xin-min; QIU Hong-liang; WANG En-lin; LUO Zhi-gang

2004, 23(04):  264-280. 

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One hundred and seven pieces of stone artifacts collected from the Shangmakan paleolithic site in Anji County, Zhejiang Province have been described and analyzed in this paper. On the basis of the characters of these stone artifacts, the assemblage belongs to the Principal Paleolithic Industry of South China. Within the deposition sequence of the site exposed by the tentative excavation, an artifact concentration surface was identified, laid about 311 —315cm underneath the top of the second terrace. Thirteen artifacts were unearthed from this surface. These make up 44.8 %of the total stone artifacts discovered from the excavation pit at the site. The age of the site may be dated ranging from about 0.45 Ma Bp to the Upper Pleistocene according to stratigraphic comparisons with the Chenshan Paleo-lithic site in Xuanzhou County, Anhui province and ESR dates derived from the site.
Shangmakan Paleolithic site is the first Paleolithic site found in Zhejiang Province. Preliminary investigation at the site indicates that it is of significant value to the study of South China' s prehistory, and it may become one of the most important Paleolithic sites in South China if multi-disciplinary stud-ies will be conducted in the future.

Preliminary repoort on the 2002 excavation of Jinpendong site at Wuhu, Anhui Province

JIN Chang-zhu; DONG Wei; GAO Xing; LIU Wu; LIU Jin-yi; ZHENG Long-ting HAN Li-gang; XIE Xiao-cheng; CUI Ning; ZHANG Yin-qi

2004, 23(04):  281-291. 

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Within the framework of the program “The Late Pleistocene human origin and evolution in China and its environmental background”an investigation and excavation were carried out from October 7th to November 12th, 2002 at Jinpendong (31°13.2′N, 118°23′E), 16km north to Wuhu City in Anhui Province of China.The deposits excavated are cave-fissure fillings and composed of four main layers. The fossil bearing layer is the fourth counted from the top to bottom. More than ten pieces of artifacts and more than three thousands pieces of mammal fossil were collected. The latter can be attributed into 8 orders, 18 families, 23 genera and 27 species. The fauna is closest to that from the Longtandong at Hexian associated with Homo erectus and very similar to that from Huludong at Tangshan also associated with Homo erectus. Judging from the fauna as a whole the age of Jinpendong is suggested to be the late stage of the Middle Pleistocene. The investigation revealed stratigraphic details of the site and clarified the distribution of fossil bearing layers for further excavation. The discovery of the artifacts proves that there were human activities at Wuhu during the Middle. It proves that the karstic cave-fissure de-posits along the lower reaches of the Yangtze River bear great potential for prehistory research.

Preliminary study on Ranjialukou Paleolithic site,three gorges region, south China

CHEN Fu-you; GAO Xing; PEI Shu-wen; FENG Xing-wu; WEI Qi; ZHU Song-lin; LI Guo-hong; WU Tian-qing

2004, 23(04):  292-306. 

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The Ranjialukou site (29°55′14″N, 107°44′45″E) is situated at Fengdu County, Three Gorges Region of South China, it was discovered in 1994 and excavated in 2001. The site was buried in the third terrace of the Yangtze River.The sediment can be delaminated into two parts: the upper part is fine sands, and the lower part is gravel. All the stone artifacts were buried in the lower part. The abrasion on the stone artifacts' surface indicated that they had been carried for a short distance.
A total of 680 pieces of stone artifacts were unearthed from the site.These include retouched tools (87), cores (207), flakes (336) and chunks (50). The raw materials exploited at the site were all pebbles selected from the ancient riverbeds. More than 80 percent of the raw materials were silicarenite.
The main flaking technique at the site is direct hammer percussion without core preparation. Most cores are single-platform ones with cortical surfaces and most of the flakes have cortical surface on the back. Cores were flaked simply and casually, indicating low extent of consumption.
The retouched tools include choppers, scrapers, notches, picks, cleavers, biface and stone ball. Choppers and scrapers are the dominatve tool types. More than 81 percent of the implements are flake tools, the others were mainly made from pebbles. Simple unifacial retouch is the main means of tools modification. Several implements were retouched by alternating retouch or bifacial retouch.
The stone tool assemblage of Ranjialukou site shows close tie with the Pebble Tool Industry in South China, but it has its own characters such as that most of the implements were made from flake blanks. Optically stimulated lumininescene dating on sand samples from the artifact-bearing layer yielded an age of 142.9 ±11.6Ka, which place the Ranjialukou industry to the Middle Paleolithic in China.

A report on paleolithic reconnaissance in Ningxia,North China

GAO Xing; PEI Shu-wen; WANG Hui-min; ZHONG Kan

2004, 23(04):  307-325. 

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This report presents the result of a series of Paleolithic reconnaissance conducted in the Ningxia Hui Autonomous Region in North China by the Institute of Vertebrate Paleontology and Paleo-anthropology (Chinese Academy of Sciences) and the Ningxia Provincial Institute of Archeology in 2002 and 2003. From more than 30 sites lithic artifacts and mammalian fossils were collected and 19 of them were confirmed with clear stratigraphy and archaeological values, distributed in Shuidonggou, Shijiayao and Zhangjiayao in the Lingwu District and Linger in Pengyang County. The majority of the more than 300 pieces of collected stone artifacts are ordinary chipped cores, flakes and retouched ones, along with a few microlithic pieces. Most of the stone artifacts are small and some exhibit close tie with the Shuidonggou industry.
Based on stratigraphic observations, these newly discovered sites represent at least three archaeo-logical periods: 1) pre-Shuidonggou horizon;2) the Shuidonggou horizon, characterized in the presence of blade and Levallois-like technology, and 3) the microblade horizon. At present, technological devel-opmental relationship among these cultural stages remains unclear.
The result of the reconnaissance is a significant breakthrough in Paleolithic archaeological investi-gations in the Ningxia Region and for the research on the Shuidonggou techno-complex. For more than half a century the Shuidonggou site has been the only Paleolithic site in the vast region and the so-called typical Shuidonggou artifacts, namely blades and Levallois-style cores, flakes and retouched pieces, have been unearthed only from a limited area at the Shuidonggou site (i. e. Shuidonggou Loc. 1). The reconnaissance makes it clear that ancient humans put their footsteps in a much larger territory in the region, at least during the Upper Pleistocene, and the Shuidonggou site is not a single site but instead a complex of many similar sites in a big area, indicating that human beings with the “Shui-donggou technology” occupied a much larger area, and their survival and adaptive capabilities are be-yond what we have believed before. The reconnaissance provided valuable clues for tracing the migration and adaptation of Pleistocene humans in the region and the origin and development of the Shui-donggou industry.

Genetic polymorphisms of dys19 and dys390 in an “insulated” population in the lower reaches of Keriyan river

DUAN Ran-hui; LIU Wei-qiang; ZHOU Hui; ZHU Hong

2004, 23(04):  326-330. 

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Two Y-linked short-tandem-repeat polymorphisms (DYS19 and DYS390) were analyzed by Genescan in an “insulated” population in the center of the Taklamakan desert of Xinjiang province. And 51 unrelated male individuals were also studied. The allelic distribution of DYS19 in this Keriyan population shows “M” shape. DYS19 ＊14 and DYS19 ＊16 are the most common allele, frequencies of which are 0.353 and 0.510, respectively. As DYS390 ＊21 owns the least repeat number and DYS390 ＊24 are the most common allele.This study suggeststhat the ancestor of Keriyan population is derived from two distinct origins.

Influencing fators, functions and benefit analysis of allogrooming in primates

LI Yin-hua; LI Bao-guo

2004, 23(04):  334-342. 

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Grooming behavior is one of the main contents in animal behavior research. According to its objects, the grooming consists of autogrooming and allogrooming. Nowadays, it is believed that it is important social behavior in primates, and related to social parameters (such as sex, age, kinship and reproduction). Meanwhile, it is found that allogrooming serves a number of social functions. In order to study allogrooming behavior deeply, this review expands the classification of grooming, the influencing factors, the functional hypothesis and the cost-benefit analysis of allogrooming behavior.