人类学学报 ›› 2025, Vol. 44 ›› Issue (02): 255-269.doi: 10.16359/j.1000-3193/AAS.2024.0098cstr: 32091.14.j.1000-3193/AAS.2024.0098

• 研究论文 • 上一篇    下一篇

山西峙峪遗址出土动物骨骼的埋藏学

王颖1,2(), 张乐3, 杨石霞1,2, 张双权1,2()   

  1. 1.中国科学院古脊椎动物与古人类研究所,北京 100044
    2.中国科学院大学,北京 101499
    3.中央民族大学民族学与社会学学院,北京 100081
  • 收稿日期:2024-02-06 接受日期:2024-04-19 出版日期:2025-04-15 发布日期:2025-04-15
  • 通讯作者: 张双权,研究员,主要从事脊椎动物埋藏学与旧石器时代动物考古学研究。E-mail: zhangshuangquan@ivpp.ac.com
  • 作者简介:王颖,博士研究生,主要从事旧石器时代动物考古学和埋藏学研究。E-mail: wangying@ivpp.ac.com
  • 基金资助:
    国家社科基金重大委托项目(21@WTK001)

Taphonomy of the animal remains from the Shiyu site, Shanxi

WANG Ying1,2(), ZHANG Yue3, YANG Shixia1,2, ZHANG Shuangquan1,2()   

  1. 1. Institute of Vertebrate Paleontology and Paleoanthropology, Chinese Academy of Sciences, Beijing 100044
    2. University of Chinese Academy of Sciences, Beijing 101499
    3. School of Ethnology and Sociology, Minzu University of China, Beijing 100081
  • Received:2024-02-06 Accepted:2024-04-19 Online:2025-04-15 Published:2025-04-15

摘要:

峙峪遗址位于山西省朔州市,广义泥河湾盆地的西缘,最新的光释光和14C加速器质谱仪测年结果显示其文化层年代约为45 kaBP。本文系统观察研究了该遗址早年发掘出土的152件动物骨骼的表面痕迹及断裂状态等埋藏学特征,结果显示:1)这批动物遗存受自然营力改造程度低且保留有大量人工痕迹,因此古人类是造成峙峪遗址动物骨骼富集与改造的首要因素;2)峙峪遗址是一处临河的狩猎-屠宰场所,古人类在此对猎物进行了肢解分割及选择性搬运,充分开发利用了这些动物的营养组分;3)峙峪遗址存在一定数量的、被当作骨修饰器(bone retoucher)使用的动物肢骨碎片,但没有发现经过人工有意识打制修整的其他权宜类骨角工具;4)动物骨片上的刻划痕表明,该遗址的古人类存在一定程度的象征行为。

关键词: 峙峪遗址, 动物考古学, 埋藏学, 权宜骨器, 旧石器时代晚期

Abstract:

The Shiyu site, situated on the western edge of the Nihewan basin (sensu lato) is an important Late Pleistocene archaeological location in northern China. From an extensive excavation in the last century, a substantial number of lithics, animal bones, and the traces of human fire use were unearthed, along with a limited number of modern human fossils. Recent Optically Stimulated Luminescence (OSL) and Accelerator Mass Spectrometry (AMS) 14C dating have recalibrated the cultural layer to approximately 44.6±1.2 kaBP. The presence of artifacts with some characteristics of the Initial Upper Paleolithic (IUP) assemblage positions Shiyu as a crucial site for understanding early modern human activities in Northeast Asia.

In this study, 152 faunal bone fragments curated at the Institute of Vertebrate Paleontology and Paleoanthropology (IVPP) were analyzed from a perspective of vertebrate taphonomy, including age profile assessment, skeletal elements frequency quantification, bone breakage pattern analysis and bone surface modification observation. The objective of this study is to evaluate and discuss the subsistence strategies employed by Shiyu hominins in their exploitation of animal resources. Given the limited sample size, the following tentative conclusions were derived from this research.

Most notably, bone surface modifications revealed a relatively high intensity of human activity, evidenced by a significant frequency of human-inflict damages on bones, including cut marks, percussion marks, and percussion notches. In contrast, natural modifications such as carnivore or rodent tooth marks, sedimentary abrasions, and polish were minimal. Even when considering the potential biases in specimen selection, the evidence strongly supported that humans were the predominate agent of bone accumulation and modification at the site. Furthermore, both bone surface modifications and skeletal elements frequency implied that foragers were most probably engaged in primary butchery of animal carcasses at the site, and subsequently transported selected skeletal elements to a base camp for further processing. The Shiyu site thus can be broadly interpreted as a river-adjacent kill-butchery site. Additionally, we identified a selection of limb bone fragments with distinctive percussive marks as a kind of expedient bone tools, known as bone retouchers. However, regarding the bone fragments from the site previously suspected by some scholars to be bone tools due to their successive scars, it is more reasonable to conclude that these were merely unintended by-products of marrow extraction processes. It is also worth mentioning that a few deliberately produced linear marks were discovered, clearly distinguishable from typical butchery cut marks, undoubtedly reflecting symbolic behaviors and the complexity of human activities to a certain degree.

Key words: Shiyu site, zooarchaeology, taphonomy, bone retoucher, Upper Paleolithic

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