Abstract: The Huangniliang site located in Rizhao City, Shandong Province was discovered in 2006 and excavated from April to June, 2013 by staff from the Institute of Vertebrate Paleontology and Paleoanthropology and the Shandong Provincial Institute of Cultural Relics and Archaeology. The excavated area reaches nearly 50 m2. Three stratigraphic layers were identified , with a total thickness of 6 m. The section at the base is weathered granite crust; this is overlain by 1.2 m of silty aeolian sediment which yielded flaked lithic artifacts, and then by 3-4 m of a loess-like deposit with granite breccia. The OSL dating method was applied to the site, and results bracket the archaeological layer between 59 and 54 ka BP. A total number of 3516 stone artifacts was excavated from the site, including 1876 pieces plotted in three-dimensions and 1640 pieces of debitage smaller than 1cm. The stone artifact assemblage includes hammerstones (n=7), cores (n=62), flakes (n=533), chunks (n=592), debris (n=658) and retouched tools (n=24) which were mainly manufactured from vein quartz and andesite available from outcrops and the valley near to the site. The retouched tools are dominated by scrapers, mainly made on flakes and chunks. Worthy of special mention is the discovery of seven heavily-used hammerstones, some of which are well-rounded pebbles. This implies that they may have been transported into the site because no gravel layers have been identified nearby. The low frequency of retouched tools and the relatively high percentage of cores demonstrate that blank production was probably the primary activity practiced at the site. The artifact assemblage shows that the principle flaking technique was direct hard-hammer percussion, and little core preparation is present. According to the characteristics of the assemblage and the fact that the site is close to the raw material sources in the region, it is possible that the site was used as a manufacturing locus for stone blanks.

Key words: Shandong Province; Huangniliang site; Paleolithic; stone artifacts; early stage of Marine Isotope Stage 3