Acta Anthropologica Sinica ›› 1993, Vol. 12 ›› Issue (03): 195-213.

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A study on the stone artifacts from 54:100 site in Dingcun region

Zhang Senshui   

  • Online:1993-09-15 Published:1993-09-15

Abstract: This baper describes main results of the study on the stone artifacts form 54 : 100 site at.Dingcun region of Xiangfen County, Shanxi Province found in 1954.The 255 pieces stone artifacts are mainly found from layer 8 of the site. These specimens make up S5.69% of the as-semblage (see table 1).The detailed classification of the artifacts is shown in table 2 and 5.
On the basis of measurements and statistic analysis of theartifacts, some main characters of the assemblage are as follows:
1. Most artifacts are small or medium in size,small artifacts of them make up higher percentage. Small flakes (lengty,width and thickness less than 1 10mm)make up 65.38 %of the total flakes and small tools (length ,width and thickness less than 90mm)make up 41.02% of the total tools (see table 3 and 6).
2. Direct percussion was used in flaking and trimming. The core was not prepared before producing flake and was handled in the hand for producing flake by hard hammer stone inmost cases.
3. Triangular and trapezoid flake and flake- -biade are more common and their dorsal surfaces usually show one longitudinal ridge or y ridge. Though there are some flakes with mulit--ridges and multi--scars on the dorsal surface, most of them are planed on the dorsal surface .These indicate that flaking was done according to certain procedure and the flaking technique approached contemporaneous level in North China.
4. The used flakes without retouching are rare.
5. The blanks of the tool were heterogencous (see table 5)and were mainly made on the flake (make up 71.79% of the total tool). The long tools of higher percentage (74.36% )indicatethe selectivity in manufacturing tools.
6. The tools include scrapers ,pointed tools and graver .Single edged ,side edged and con-vex edged scrapers constitute the main type of tools.
7.Though the tools are trimmed by some mode of direct percussion, the main mode for trimming tool is on the dorsal surface (see table 5).The tools are crudely retouched .The edgesare more obtuse and edge angle is commonly between 60- -75 degrees. The edges of most specimens are in good condition and are not damaged by usage, so they seemed to be not used.
According to the general characters of artifacts the assemblage is closely related to thosefound in Dali Man site, xujiayao site and Banjingzi site as well as "Sinanthro pus Culture" and Shuyu Culture thus they should belong to the same cultural traditon.The assemblage found in54 : 100 site in Dingcun region is an important member of the paleolithic main industry and isone of the links in the paleolithic development of North China.

Key words: Artifacts; 54:100 site; Dingcun