Acta Anthropologica Sinica ›› 1990, Vol. 9 ›› Issue (01): 8-15、98.

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Paleolithic artifacts found in Daqiaotun site of Yushu County Jilin Province

Jiang Peng   

  • Online:1990-03-15 Published:1990-03-15

Abstract: During September and November of 1988, archaeologists of Jilin Province found cultural remains and a fair number of mammalian fossils near Daqiaotun village in Yushu county. These were laid in the fine and course sand layers, black and greygreen silt, in the first terrace of the Lalin River tributary. We found 17 stone artifacts, including cores, flakes and manufactured scrapers, points (or pointed tools) and chopper. Among these artifacts 47% were tools. Of these tools 62.5% were scrapers. The tools were usually retouched by direct percussion; it was mainly trimmed on the dorsal surface, which was the tradition way for retouching stone tools in northern part of China. Apart from these, two bone artifacts were also found. Of these, one was a scraper made of a fragment of the incisor of a mammoth, which is described in the paleolithic materials of China for the first time. Mammalian fossils found in the same level with the cultural remains totaled. 15 types, belonged to 8 orders, 10 families and 13 genera. While the majority of the fossil remains are of existing species, a small percentage of the animal species in the assemblage are now extinct. In the process of examining these animal fossils, we discovered many artificial traces and animal markings on the fossil surface. Observing the strata, from which came the cultural remains and animal fossils, we realized that Daqiaotun site was not a human settlement in the Paleolithic, but the concentration of all these varities and the large number of fossils point out a relation with fransitional redepost.
The cultural remains' and animal fossils of Daqiaotun site were all found in the first terrace, and should belong to the Holocene. But based on the characteristics of the stone, bone artifacts and the nature of the animal fossils, they are probably related to the Late Paleolithic age. They may, therefore, be redeposited from Guxiangtun formation of the Late Pleistocene here.

Key words: Palaeoliths; Daqiaotun; Late Pleistocene