Abstract: The Lingfengdong Lower Paleolithic cave site (117°29′37″., 26°16′13″N. )is situated on the Wanshouyan Hills, 17 km west of Sanming City, Fujian Province in South China. The cave developed within a limestone mountain and is currently 37 m above the local ground level. It is open to the southwest, 16 m long, 20 m wide, and 15 m high. The deposit inside the cave consists of light-gray and yellow coarse sands and limestone blocks, with thin and horizontal beddings.Its thickness varies from 25 to 60 cm.
The site was partially destroyed in the 1980s due to limestone kilning. It was discovered in September 1999 and was excavated from September 1999 to January 2000. Mammalian bones of 8 species and a total of 75 lithic artifacts (Table 1) have been unearthed from an area of 13 m2. Faunal remains include two distinct species, namely Rhinoceros sinensis and Megatapirus augustus. An absolute age of 185000+13000-11000 BP has been obtained for the cultural level at the site using uranium series dating on travertine, which places the lithic assemblage at this site to the late stage of the Lower Paleolithic.
The overwhelming majority of the stone artifacts are large and medium ones. Direct hammer flaking was the main technique for core reduction, and bipolar flaking with a ridged hammer was employed occasionally. Most cores and flakes exhibit cortical platforms, and most of them are irregular in shape. Nine retouched tools were identified from the assemblage, including 6 scrapers, 2 chopper-chopping tools, and 1 possible burin. Five of them were made on flakes, and the other 4 used pebbles as blanks. Samples with retouch scars on dorsal surfaces are slightly more than those with retouch scars on ventral surfaces. Retouches on these specimens are irregular and casual, indicated by single-layered deep and wide scars and uneven edges. Most of the cutting edges are blunt, exceeding 70°.
The Lingfengdong industry shares similarities with many industries of the pebble-tool tradition in South China in regarding to the size of stone artifacts. However, the large proportion of flake-tools and scrapers in the Lingfengdong assemblage makes it distinct within the pebble-tool industry, which is basically a domain of chopper-chopping tools and pebble tools. The Lingfengdong industry differs greatly from the Lianhuachishan industry in the Zhangzhou district, Fujian Province, which is dominated by small artifacts and multi-directional retouch on lithic tools. There are some similarities between the Lingfengdong industry and the “Changbin Culture” in Taiwan, in that they both yield flakes produced by ridged-hammer bipolar flaking. Thus, the Lingfengdong site provides some clues for the roots of prehistoric cultures in the Taiwan island.

Key words: Lithic artifacts; Lingfengdong site; Sanming; The Lower Paleolithic