Abstract: This report presents the result of a series of Paleolithic reconnaissance conducted in the Ningxia Hui Autonomous Region in North China by the Institute of Vertebrate Paleontology and Paleo-anthropology (Chinese Academy of Sciences) and the Ningxia Provincial Institute of Archeology in 2002 and 2003. From more than 30 sites lithic artifacts and mammalian fossils were collected and 19 of them were confirmed with clear stratigraphy and archaeological values, distributed in Shuidonggou, Shijiayao and Zhangjiayao in the Lingwu District and Linger in Pengyang County. The majority of the more than 300 pieces of collected stone artifacts are ordinary chipped cores, flakes and retouched ones, along with a few microlithic pieces. Most of the stone artifacts are small and some exhibit close tie with the Shuidonggou industry.
Based on stratigraphic observations, these newly discovered sites represent at least three archaeo-logical periods: 1) pre-Shuidonggou horizon;2) the Shuidonggou horizon, characterized in the presence of blade and Levallois-like technology, and 3) the microblade horizon. At present, technological devel-opmental relationship among these cultural stages remains unclear.
The result of the reconnaissance is a significant breakthrough in Paleolithic archaeological investi-gations in the Ningxia Region and for the research on the Shuidonggou techno-complex. For more than half a century the Shuidonggou site has been the only Paleolithic site in the vast region and the so-called typical Shuidonggou artifacts, namely blades and Levallois-style cores, flakes and retouched pieces, have been unearthed only from a limited area at the Shuidonggou site (i. e. Shuidonggou Loc. 1). The reconnaissance makes it clear that ancient humans put their footsteps in a much larger territory in the region, at least during the Upper Pleistocene, and the Shuidonggou site is not a single site but instead a complex of many similar sites in a big area, indicating that human beings with the “Shui-donggou technology” occupied a much larger area, and their survival and adaptive capabilities are be-yond what we have believed before. The reconnaissance provided valuable clues for tracing the migration and adaptation of Pleistocene humans in the region and the origin and development of the Shui-donggou industry.

Key words: Stone artifacts; Reconnaissance; Paleolithic; Shuidonggou; Ningxia