Abstract: The Xujiacheng site is a significant Paleolithic site yielding plenty of archeological materials, buried in the Malan Loess overlying the second terrace of the Shuiluo River in Zhuanglang County, Gansu Province. AMS14C dating and comparing climate events with other sites indicate that the entire suite of assemblages span a period from roughly 46,000 to 23,000 calibrated radiocarbon years BP. Refitting analysis shows that the distribution of stone artifacts in the main archaeological layers (4B, 4C) resulted from stone flaking and retouch, probably combined with intentional artifact movements by ancient occupants. The sparse distribution in the upper layer(4A) may demonstrate that the site was located at the edge of the main occupied area during the time span of 4A. Hard hammer percussion is the main technique for flaking, and cores are always rotated to exploit the stone on several flaking surfaces. Ancient occupants may have moved the broken stone tools to other places and reused them. Distribution of refitted pieces revealed that there were two main flaking areas, and occupants made the tools in the same area. Limited by raw materials and the small excavated area, this research does not show the potential of refitting analysis. Future studies should combine more research strategies together, such as use wear, lithic technology, and minimum analytical nodule analysis, to understand site formation and human behavior.

Key words: Xujiacheng; Paleolithic; Refitting; Site formation; Technology; Spatial utilization