Acta Anthropologica Sinica ›› 1986, Vol. 5 ›› Issue (03): 259-266.

Previous Articles     Next Articles

Bone artifacts, ornaments from Xiaogushan Site of Haicheng, Liaoning Province

Huang Weiwen, Zhang Zhenhong, Fu Renyi, Chen Baofeng, Lin Jingyu, Zhu Mingye, Wu Hongkuan   

  • Online:1986-09-15 Published:1986-09-15

Abstract: During the excavation of 1983, a number of bone artifacts and ornaments were discovered in company with mammalian fossils, human fossils and stone artifacts from the Paleolithic layers of Xiaogushan site. The brief deseription is given /below:
1. Harpoon
A harpoon with two rows of barbs was probably made of a cannon bone of Artio dactyla. It has a oblate-tapering point and a wedge-shaped base. The shaft is pentagon in cross section. The surface of the shaft shows numerous fine longitudinal striae whieh suggest it had been seraped into shape.
Such a bone harpoon was not known to have oecurred in China before Neolithie time. It is precisely of the same character as some of the harpoons from the late Magdalenian of Europe.
2. Javelin point
A broken javelin point was made of the limb bone of an animal. Its surface is smooth and the eross section is oblatetapering. So far, similar speeimen has never been recorded from Paleolithie China.
3. Bone needles
Three bone needles described here are fine ones. Two of them were probably made of ivory and the third one was made of an animal bone. The surfaces are smooth. The shafts are curved and somewhat elliptical in section. The tips well rounded and sharply pointed. The eyes on two specimens are nearly eircular and made by drilling on two faces. The eye on the third one is not completely made.
In China, such bone needle was only known from Upper Cave of Zhoukoudian. a Late Paleolithic site. The specimen of it is broken just at the eye. Judging from the remains, the eye was not made by drilling but by exeavating or seratehing with a pointed implement.
4. Perforated teeth
Four perforated teeth deseribed in this paper were made of canines of small Carnivora or deer, one of them is only a piece of root. All of the holes are loeated at the root of the teeth and made by three different ways: drilling, seratehing and scratehingdrilling. The root was flated by grinding before making the hole.
Compared with similar specimens of Upper Cave where 125 perforated teeth were found, the perforated teeth from Xiaogushan show a more advanced technique in making the hole. Not a single hole of specimen from Upper Cave might be attributed to drilling.
5. Perforated shell
A broken perforated shell was found fron the site. Its outline looks like a coin if preserved well. A hole in the centre was preduced by drilling on two faces. There is a cirele of radial cutting-fissures in its periphery. The red color is still visible from the fissures.
Among the bone artifacts and ornaments mentioned above, most of them came from Layer 3 of the site, and the remaining came from Layer 2 under Layer 3. The age of the two layers can be attributed to Late Pleistocene based on mammalian fauna. Their absolute dating is from about 40, 000 to 20, 000 y. BP by radiocarbon and thermoluminescence methods.

Key words: Harpoon; Bone needles; Perforated teeth; Late Paleolithic