Abstract:

The Heyaozhuang site is located on the western edge of Nihewan Basin. In 2013, the Hebei Provincial Institute of Cultural Relics and Archaeology carried out excavations at the Heyaozhuang site, covering an area of 30 m². A total of more than 1000 stone artifacts and animal fossils were founded at this site. The raw materials for stone artifacts are relatively abundant. Quartz is the main raw material of the stone artifacts, a certain quantity of high-quality lithic raw materials including flint and agate was recovered, indicative of local sourcing. Hammering is the main method for stripping,,with a relatively high proportion of artifacts using the bipolar percussion technique. But the presence of prismatic cores suggest some efficiency of organization in the reduction sequence, reflecting a progressive aspect of core-flake industry. The artifacts were predominantly small, followed by micro and medium ones; large ones were extremely rare, and giant ones were absent. The artifacts include gravels, hammers, stone cores, flakes, tools, fragments and chunks. There is a low proportion of tools. Scraper was the dominant tool type, along with a small number of denticulates, points, notches, borers and spheriods, which pertain to the tradition of core-flake technology in northern China. The age of Heyaozhuang site is 120~140 ka before present, which fills the gap in the Paleoanthropological cultural record of the Nihewan Basin during the transition from the late Middle Pleistocene period to the Late Pleistocene period, and further enriches and improves the cultural sequence of Paleoanthropological activities within the basin. The Heyaozhuang and Houjiayao sites are located in the same region but differ in age. Their lithic assemblages and stone tool technologies share broad similarities while displaying distinct characteristics, providing key materials for exploring the technological inheritance and development, the evolution of subsistence patterns, and the interrelationships among human groups during the Middle Paleolithic period. The Heyaozhuang site and the Houjiayao site share similar main characteristics but also exhibit some differences. Although the Heyaozhuang site is younger in age, it lacks the more advanced short-bodied end scrapers, burins, and other stone tool types found at the Houjiayao site. Meanwhile, Heyaozhuang site contains relatively abundant denticulate tools and notched scrapers that are absent at Houjiayao site. Whether these differences are attributed to the chronological sequence of the sites or to variations in human groups and subsistence strategies constitutes a highly intriguing research topic. It shares considerable similarities with the Houjiayao site, also located on the western margin of the Nihewan Basin, in terms of lithic raw material selection, stripping methods, lithic artifact dimensions, tool categories and retouching techniques. Notably, spheriods are abundant at both sites, which provides a typical case for investigating the development and evolution of lithic technology, the production and function of spheriods, and the subsistence strategies of Paleoanthropologists.

Key words: Nihewan, Heyaozhuang site, Paleolithic, core-flake industry, spheriods