Abstract: Zhoukoudian Locality 15 is one of the most important Paleolithic sites in North China and greater East Asia. Nevertheless, since the conclusion of the excavations in 1937, the abundant unearthed materials from the site have been virtually untouched. This paper examines one aspect of stone tool technology at Zhoukoudian Locality 15: core reduction.
Ananalysis of cores, flakes, flake fragments and debris reveals that the principal flaking technique at Locality 15 is direct hard hammer percussion, which is a huge departure from the bipolar-predominant Zhoukoudian Locality 1. Two core reduction strategies by direct hammer percussion can be inferred from various core forms. One is multi-directional flaking, and the other is alternate flaking. These two flaking strategies are believed to be employed to exploit pebbles with different initial shapes and sizes.
The decline of bipolar flaking at Zhoukoudian from Locality 1 to Locality 15 is believed to be the result of the improvement or sophistication of direct hammer percussion by the Locality 15 hominids, which afforded them to reduce the dependence on the wasteful and inefficient bipolar technique in producing usable tool blanks. The study also reveals that there is no evidence to support a Levallois technology at Locality 15. A single, often illustrated so-called "Levallois point" from the site is in all likelihood an accidental product of alternate flaking of a discoid core.

Key words: Flaking , Direct hammer percussion, Bipolar method, Zhoukoudian Locality 15, Paleolithic