Acta Anthropologica Sinica ›› 1994, Vol. 13 ›› Issue (03): 223-238.

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Banshan Paleolithic Site from the Lower Pleistocene in the Nihewan Basin in Northern China

Wei Qi   

  • Online:1994-09-15 Published:1994-09-15

Abstract: Banshan Paleolithic site discovered in the Nihewan Formation in a Lower Pleistocene context in 1990 is located northwest of the Donggutuo site in the Nihewan Basin in northern China. The site is situated over 70 meters below the Donggutuo site and located in the hanging wall of a normal fault named the Brown Fault where the vertical displacement is about 75 meters. The cultural assemblage includes 95 stone artifacts and some fossil bone fragments with cut marks. The artifacts are excavated from a 2 square meter trench and are found in silty and sandy gravel 70 cm thick. The field survey suggests that the cultural Horizon at the Banshan site would be stratigraphically equivalent to the layer A of the Donggutuo horizon formed within the Matuyama Reversed Chron below the Jaramillo Subchron. So the Banshan site may extend back to the late Early Pleistocene as well, that is about 1 million years ago.

Key words: Paleolithic site; Lower Pleistocene; Banshan; Nihewan Basin