Abstract: The Baidu site is located in the Bose Basin, Guangxi Province, south China. Because of the construction of an expressway, a rescue excavation of this site was carried out by the Guangxi Institute of Cultural Relics and Archaeology in autumn 2002.
This site is about 10000㎡ in size, of which 700㎡was excavated. The excavated area was divided into two parts. Three stratigraphic layers were identified with no sharp boundary between layer 1 and layer 2 (from the surface), indicating that they were of the same age. Layer 3 represented weathered basal rock. Stone artifacts were recovered from layers 1 and 2.
There were about 1500 stone artifacts unearthed from this site, with raw materials being cobbles of sandstone, quartzite, quartz and silicified rock, which were available from the basal conglomerate of the high terrace located near the site. The principal flaking technique was direct hard hammer percussion. Anvil technique was rare. Specimens with single cortical platforms and double cortical platforms were common, with no preparation of the striking platform found. Apart from one piece, all flakes were less than 10cm in length. The dorsal of surfaces of the flakes, especially the smaller ones, normally had flake scars, which were usually struck from the same direction as the flake itself. Used flakes were rare. Tools were “simply” made with most of them flaked unifacially and with cortex. Tool types included choppers, scrapers and picks, with choppers being the dominant form.
Geomorphological comparison of the stone artifacts of the Baidu site with those found at other sites in the Baise Basin indicate that the age of this site is about 300-400ka BP.

Key words: Bose Basin; Baidu; Stone artifacts; Early Palaeolithic