Abstract:

The Yahuai Cave site in Long’an, Guangxi, preserves stratified deposits dated to 43~14 kaBP cal, yielding a significant collection of lithic artifacts predominantly reflecting a simple core-flake reduction strategy. The lithic raw materials include quartz sandstone, sandstone, tektite, quartz, and flint. Hard-hammer percussion and bipolar techniques were primarily employed for flake production, with cores predominantly exhibiting single-platform, unidirectional reduction. Some cores show minimal preparation of platform edges prior to flaking. Retouched tools, primarily on flake blanks, were modified via unifacial hard-hammer percussion, with small portions of marginal edge retouch. The tool kit is dominated by scrapers (mostly <5 cm in size), alongside choppers and points, collectively representing a miniaturized lithic industry characteristic of the Late Paleolithic in the Lingnan region.

Similar miniaturized lithic industries have been documented at contemporaneous sites in Lingnan, the middle-lower reaches of the Yangtze River, the Yunnan-Guizhou Plateau, and Southeast Asia. Comparative analyses reveal that these small flake tool industries in Yahuai Cave and adjacent areas predominantly utilized flint, supplemented by lower-quality quartz, crystal, and other fine-grained raw materials. The preferential selection of flint and other fine-grained raw materials marks a distinctive feature of late Late Pleistocene small flake tool industries in South China. Notably, certain sites, such as the Bailian Cave in Liuzhou, Xianrendong and Diaotonghuan Cave sites in Jiangxi, and some others in the Lishui River valley of Hunan, sourced flint from distant outcrops up to 20 km away. In contrast, other sites in Guizhou, including the Da’erwo rockshelter site in Kaiyang, Laoyadong Cave site in Bijie, and Qingshuiyuan Dadong Cave site, utilized locally available materials such as flint, crystal, basalt, and siliceous limestone from nearby bedrock sources. It should also be noted that the early deposits of Yahuai Cave contain both small flint tools and retouched flakes detached from quartz sandstone cobbles. The use of small cobble flakes was also observed at the Nguom rockshelter site in northern Vietnam.

Technologically, small flake industries across Lingnan and neighbouring regions during the late Late Pleistocene are characterized by hard-hammer direct percussion, unidirectional retouch, and short, shallow, and overlapping retouch scars. Some micro-sized lithics may reflect bipolar reduction, with no evidence of prepared core technologies. At the Yahuai Cave site, cobble cores with steep edge angles exhibit unidirectional flake removal surfaces resulting from intensive, hierarchical reduction. The shared types of raw materials and technological patterns, combined with the small dimensions of retouched tools, correspond to the global trend of lithic miniaturization during the Late Pleistocene.

Although these miniaturized lithic artefacts in South China and Southeast Asia represent simple core-flake technologies, they may have functioned as composite tool components, as well demonstrated by examples from the Ille Cave site in northern Palawan, Philippines. Moreover, the Xiamabei site in the Nihewan Basin (North China) provides evidence of composite tool use associated with early modern human behavioural complexity. The presence of ochre at the Yahuai Cave site further supports the emergence of complex cultural behaviours.

Scholars have debated the origins of these small flake industries in South China-Southeast Asia. While some attribute their appearance to north-to-south migration driven by Late Pleistocene climatic cooling events, others emphasize indigenous adaptation to local arid-cool conditions, as seen in the long-standing small flake tool traditions in Southwest China since the late Middle Pleistocene. Notably, the early emergence of Yahuai Cave’s miniaturized lithic artefacts (43 kaBP cal) predates comparable assemblages in northern Jiangxi (26 kaBP), northern Vietnam, and southern Thailand. Geographically, these sites form a descending gradient from mid-altitude mountainous regions (e.g., Guizhou, Guangxi) to low-altitude hilly areas, suggesting a potential southward and eastward diffusion of modern human populations from the hinterland of East Asia. However, the relationship between climatic fluctuations and human behavioural evolution remains complex, requiring further interdisciplinary investigations.

The discoveries at the Yahuai Cave site underscore that the subtropical-tropical zones of South China and Southeast Asia witnessed the development of complex cultural behaviours among modern humans since 40 kaBP. Detailed technological comparisons of these miniaturized lithic industries will advance our understanding of population dynamics and cultural trajectories during the Late Pleistocene in eastern Eurasia.

Key words: Yahuai Cave site, Late Late Pleistocene, miniaturized lithic artefacts, modern human disperal, behavioural complexity