Abstract:

The Yiduquan paleolithic site, located on the eastern edge of the Nihewan Basin,was discovered by the research team of Hebei Provincial Institute of Cultural Relics and Archaeology in 2019, and excavation was carried out at this site, the area is 20 m². During which 272 stone artifacts and 107 fossils were discovered. The raw materials for stone artifacts are relatively abundant. Chert, quartz and dolomite are the main raw material of the stone artifacts. Hammering is the main method for knapping, and there is also a small amount of stone artifacts is geared to bipolar technology. The types of stone artifacts are relatively diverse, including stone hammers, cores, flakes, tools, stocks and chunks (including fragments), and etc. Flakes and tools are mainly in small size and the tools is relatively low, with a single range of types available. Such as scrapers, points, denticulates, choppers and borers which pertain to the tradition of core-flake technology in northern China. The lithic technology at the Yiduquan site belongs to the core-flake industry tradition, which is a typical representative of the dominant core-flake industry in northern China. It inherits the long-standing lithic technological tradition that has developed in North China over the past million years. The stone artifacts from this site show strong similarities to those from earlier and middle Pleistocene sites in Nihewan basin, such as Majuangou site, Xiaochangliang site and Maliang site. The stone artifacts from Yiduquan site appear relatively simple and primitive, with no evidence of platform preparation. The use of alternating flaking is common, and there is a high proportion of blanks made from cortical pieces as well as pieces with alternate retouch, highlighting a pronounced expedient character. The flakes from Yiduquan site have distinctive features: a considerable number of specimens exhibit miniaturized platforms, some of which are so small as to be point-like or linear. This may suggest that the hominins had achieved a high level of flaking skill, with greater control over the point of percussion—an indicator of technological advancement. The AMS ¹⁴C dating of fossil remains indicates that Yiduquan site dates back to 34000 - 20000 BP, which is in a critical period of lithic technology transformation, human behavior complexity and modernity in North China. It providing important data for exploring the continuous development of the core-flake technology and the diversity of lithic technology in the early modern human stage in North China.

Key words: Nihewan Basin, Yiduquan site, late Paleolithic, core-flake industry, stone artifact