Abstract: The Dongyingfang Paleolithic site is located in Jixian County in Tianjin. In 2007, it was excavated by a joint team from the Institute of Vertebrate Paleontology and Paleoanthropology, Chinese Academy of Sciences and the Production Center of Cultural Heritage in Tianjin, as part of a salvage archaeological project. The excavation exposed a total area of 200m2, with 90 stone artifacts collected. The excavation area was divided into A and B trenches, which exposed area of 120 m2 and 80 m2, respectively. Four stratigraphic layers of trench A were identified, with the total thickness of more than 170cm. Stone artifacts were mainly unearthed from the third layer. Nine stratigraphic layers of trench B were identified, with the total thickness of more than 550 cm. A total of 90 stone artifacts were unearthed from the cultural layers of A and B trenches. The stone assemblage includes cores, flakes, chunks and retouched tools. The general features of these artifacts are summarized as follows: 1) Lithic raw materials were locally available from ancient riverbeds. Chert is the dominant raw material. 2) The principal flaking technique is direct hammer percussion. 3) Most artifacts are small in size. 4) Stone tools include scrapers and burins, blanks for tool fabrication are flakes. Most retouched tools are small in size. 5) Modified tools appear to be retouched by direct hammer percussion, mostly retouched on the dorsal surface of the blanks. The stone assemblage shows close ties with the Small Tool Industry (Main Industry) in North China. A dating result of 43,500 BP using AMS 14C indicates that it is possibly in the early stage of the Upper Paleolithic or in transition from Middle to Upper Paleolithic.

Key words: Late Pleistocene; Stone artifacts; Dongyingfang; Tianjin