Acta Anthropologica Sinica ›› 1984, Vol. 3 ›› Issue (03): 234-308.

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Discovery of paleolithic artifacts at Angangxi of Jijihaer, Heilongjiang

Huang Weiwen, Zhang Zhenhong, Liao Zhendi, Yu Hairning, Chu Benjun, Gao Zhencao   

  • Online:1984-09-15 Published:1984-09-15

Abstract: The materials described in this paper eame from Daxingtuin leoality. (47°2' N, 123°53'E) near Angangxi of Jijihaer, Heilongjiang Province in Northeast China. This locality had been investigated in 1981 and 1982. The collection includes^stone artifacts^ burned bones, ash from cooking fire and mammal fossils. All of them were unearthed from the river-lake deposit of Late Pleistocene. Above Pleistocene layer, tifeie are river and lake deposits as well as aeolian dune in succession of strata within the Holocene. The lake deposit consists of black subsand soil which yielded microliths, polished tools, pot- terys, bone and horn artifacts as well as ornaments all of Neolithic Age. This layer was dated to be 7500—4800 B. P. by C".
The mammal fossils associated with paleoliths included Lepus sp., Ochotona dau- ricaf Citelh^s ef. mongolici^s, Cricetulus cf. griseus} Mierotus epiratticeps, Equus prze- ualskyi, ^Equus sp., Bison (P.) exiquns and fBos sp., totaling 9 species. They were common members of ^Mammuthus-Coelodonta Fauna" of Northeast China of Late Pleistocene. Among them, Equus przewalskyi, Bison (P.) exiguns and Bos sp. are extinct species. Artemisia, Chenopodiaceae, Humulus, Gramineae, Compositae and Betulaceae were also identified by spore-pollen analysis in the same layer. The. fauna and 'flora mentioned above represent an environment mainly of steppe under dry-cold climade.
The stone artifacts, totaling 68, mainly made of jasper, agate and. chert, which came from the gravel bed of old river nearby. They contain cores, flakes and tools. The methods of direct percussion by mobil hammer and bipolar were used in flaking and toolmaking, Besides, indirect percussion and pressure, were also used on rare occasion. The striking platform can be classified to three kin(fe: corkex, unfaceted and faceted. The blades are dominant among flakes and a lot of them were knocked on one or .two ends in order to insert into wood, bone or antler as the edge of a knife. The tools consist of scrapers, burins and a piece oT chopper. The scrapers and burins are various in types, including single side scraper, double side scraper, multiside scraper, backed scraper, end scraper, nosed end scraper, burin on break, 4>urin on retouched edge, di- hedrajd -burin, burin double on trueation and burin-seraper.
The dimensions of Angangxi artilacts are very small. On the technical style, the Angangxi assemblage very like those of North China's small-tools tradition represented by Pekinig Man Culture. It sugg^sta that Angangxi assemblage is a developed culture of this tradition towards the northeast of Asia.

Key words: Angangxi; The culture of the end of Paleolithic Age