Acta Anthropologica Sinica ›› 2004, Vol. 23 ›› Issue (02): 146-151.

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Paleolithic artifacts from Tutang Locality in Taiyuan, Shanxi Province

YU Zhen-long; SHI Jin-ming   

  • Online:2004-06-15 Published:2004-06-15

Abstract: The Tutang Paleolithic locality is situated at the north of Tutang Village, Taiyuan City, Shanxi Province and its geographical position is 38°00′10″N, 112°25′50″E. Stratigraphically, the deposits constist of 11 layers, more than 18 meters in thickness. Twenty stone artifacts were collected from this site in 2000. The original position of the artifacts can be traced to the fifth paleosol layer.
Artifacts consist of flakes, cores, scrapers, chopper chopping tools, spheroids, etc. Hornfel is the most frequently used raw material. The chopper-chopping tools are the majority of the stone tools, and can be further classified into side choppers, side chopping tools and end choppers.
Based on the analysis of geomorphology and stratigraphy, the age of Tutang Site has been estima-ted to be the Middle Pleistocene, i. e. the Lower Paleolithic.
Tutang site is the first Paleolithic site discovered in north of the Taiyuan Basin.

Key words: Palaeolithic; Tutang site; Middle Pleistocene