Acta Anthropologica Sinica ›› 2017, Vol. 36 ›› Issue (01): 17-25.

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A Preliminary Report on the Excavation of the Fangjiagou Paleolithic Site, Dengfeng, Henan

LIN Yi, GU Wanfa, WANG Songzhi, HE Jianing, LIU Tuo, CHEN Youcheng, ZHAO Chao, WANG Youping   

  • Online:2017-03-15 Published:2017-03-15

Abstract: Fangjiagou Paleolithic site is located in Fangjiagou Village, Dengfeng City, Henan Province and belongs to the eastern area of Songshan Mountain. The site was excavated from 2014~2015 by the School of Archaeology and Museology in Peking University and the Institute of Cultural Relics and Archaeology of Zhengzhou City. Abundant stone artifacts, fossils and cultural remains were unearthed. The lithic assemblage consists ofmanuports, cores, flakes, chunks, chips, hammer stones, anvil stones, and retouched tools. Raw materials included vein quartz, quartz sandstone and quartzite. Primary reduction was hard hammer percussion, followed by bipolar technique. Tools were mainly small and modified by flakes. In general, the stone industry can be classified to small flake tools tradition of North China. The artifacts and fossils are mainly buried in a feature we called G1 but few from other stratigraphic units. The plane and profile shapes of this feature like a ditch or a groove. Its northern margin was destroyed; the remants had 7.60m in length, 0.45~1.60m in width and 1.10m in depth. Because the space distribution of artifacts consistent with groove concaves degree, the bottom may represent a living floor in shallow depressions. In addition to great different artifact density inside and outside the groove,there are four concentrations of artifacts can be identified in the center of G1,this uneven distribution pattern suggests heterogeneous space utilization methods. G1 was superposed by Layer 6, according to OSL dating, it should be occupied about 50ka BP. The site show great significance in further studying human activities and behaviors during MIS3 stage.

Key words: Songshan Mountain; MIS3 stage; Fangjiagou Site; Remains; Flake tool