燧石原料的高比例开发利用是湖南道水流域晚更新世早中期旧石器遗址的一个显著特征。对条头岗遗址周边基岩、现代及古代河流砾石的岩性调查结果表明，道水上游流域燧石原料资源较为丰富，优质燧石的可获性较好。生活在条头岗遗址的古人群对燧石原料的开发利用具有明显的倾向性和组织性，石料主要近距离来源于1~2 km范围内河滩砾石上，但其中少部分质量等级最高的优质燧石可能开采于距遗址约10 km的古老阶地砾石层中。打制实验表明，道水流域的优质燧石原料并不影响勒瓦娄哇技术、石叶技术等预制石核技术的发挥，复杂剥片技术的应用在这一区域并没有原料上的瓶颈；原料并非“石核-石片”非预制简单剥片策略在中国南方地区旧石器遗址中长期流行的决定性因素，这为重新认识以往关于优质原料缺乏导致中国旧石器文化发展缓慢的传统观点提供了新的考古材料。

The prominent utilization of chert raw material constitutes a defining characteristic of Early-to-Middle Late Pleistocene Paleolithic sites in the Daoshui River Basin, Hunan Province, Central South China. At the Tiaotougang site, for example, chert predominates, comprising 69.96% of the assemblage, followed by quartz sandstone (21.83%) and quartzite (7.92%). These chert materials exhibit diverse coloration, predominantly brown, yellow, and cyan, with secondary occurrences of white and red varieties. Quantitative quality assessment based on grain fineness, internal fissure density, and surface luster characteristics revealed three distinct grades of the chert in this site: good (grade 1, 9.54%), medium (grade 2, 47.28%), and poor (grade 3, 43.18%).

As all raw materials at Tiaotougang originated as river cobbles, this study prioritized gravel source tracing to investigate chert provenance. Comprehensive lithological surveys of bedrock, modern river gravels, and ancient fluvial gravels near the site indicate that the upper Daoshui River Basin contains relatively abundant and accessible chert resources. However, available chert consists predominantly comprises grade 2 and grade 3 cobbles, indicating medium-to-poor quality. Notably, while chert constitutes only 20%-30% of gravels in local riverbeds comparing with other lithologies, it dominates the assemblage of the Tiaotougang site. This significant discrepancy demonstrates that the site’s ancient inhabitants exhibited marked selectivity and organizational sophistication in exploiting chert resources, reflecting their sophisticated understanding of its superior flaking properties. Furthermore, lithic analysis reveals that medium-to-large tools were manufactured primarily from quartz sandstone and quartzite, whereas small tools were predominantly produced using chert. This pattern indicates hominins’ comprehensive understanding of the lithology-specific characteristics of different cobble types. Based on the spatial distribution of surveyed chert sources, we infer that most chert materials were procured locally from river gravels within a 1-2 km radius of the site. Critically, however, a small quantity of the highest-quality chert appears to have been intentionally procured from ancient terrace gravel deposits located approximately 10 km from the site.

Preliminary knapping experiments confirm that high-quality chert resources within the Daoshui Basin present no impediment to implementing sophisticated core preparation technologies, including Levallois reduction strategies and bladelet production techniques. The application of complex flaking methods in this region faced no raw material constraints and the persistent dominance of simplistic core-and-flake reduction sequences throughout the southern Chinese Paleolithic record cannot be attributed to limitations in raw material quality or availability. Consequently, this study provides new regional evidence challenging the long-standing paradigm that attributes the gradual trajectory of Chinese Paleolithic cultural evolution to deficiencies in high-quality lithic resources.