Acta Anthropologica Sinica ›› 2009, Vol. 28 ›› Issue (03): 262-275.

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A preliminary report on the excavation of the Chibaling Paleolithic Site in the Three Gorges Region

MA Ning; PEI Shu-wen; PENG Fei; GAO Xing; LI Guo-hong   

  • Online:2009-09-15 Published:2009-09-15

Abstract: The Chibaling Paleolithic site, buried in the third terrace of the left bank of the Yangtze River in the Guanshitan village, Zhenjiang town, Fengdu County, Chongqing, was excavated from November to December, 2007 by the staff of Institute of Vertebrate Paleontology and Paleoanthropology (Chinese Academy of Sciences), as part of the salvage archeological project in the Three Gorges Region. 514㎡ was exposed during the excativions.
Five stratigraphic layers of the third terrace were identified at the site , with the total thickness of more than 10 meters. Archaeological materials were mainly unearthed from the 5th layer, a layer of alluvial pebbles, 2.0m —5.0m in thickness. A total of 213 stone artifacts were unearthed.
The stone assemblage includes cores (66), flakes (57), chunks (70) and retouched tools (20). The general features of these artifacts are summarized as follows:
1) Lithic raw materials exploited at the site were locally available from ancient riverbeds. More than five kinds of raw materials were utilized in core reduction and tool manufacture. They are silicarenite, quartzite, lava, volcanic breccia and hypabyssal intrusive rocks. Silicarenite is the dominant raw material used for producing stone artifacts at the site.
2) The principal flaking technique is direct hammer percussion without core preparation, followed by the anvil-chipping and throwing against anvil techniques ( Yangtze flaking technique).
3) Most stone artifacts (95.8 %) are large and medium in size.
4) Most blanks for tool fabrication are flakes. Most retouched tools are large in size.
5) Only four retouched tool classes are identified , namely scrapers , choppers, heavy-duty scrapers and cleaver.
6) Major blanks for tools retouch are complete flakes (40.0 %), followed by cores, incomplete flakes, pebbles and chunks.
7) Modified tools appear to be retouched by direct hammer percussion, mostly unificially retouched on the one end of the blanks.
The stone tool assemblage of the site shows close tie with the Pebble Tool Industry (Main Industry) in South China. Geomorphological and chronological comparison among the sites in the Three Gorges region indicates that the age of the site should be close to late Middle Pleistocene, which places the Chibaling industry to the Middle Paleolithic in China.

Key words: Late Middle Pleistocene; Stone artifacts; Throwing against anvil technique; Chibaling; Three Gorges Region