Abstract:

Shanxi Province in China is abundant with Paleolithic sites. In the southwestern part of the province where most of early finds were located, Pinglu is an area lacking researches compared to its vicinities. This report presents the result of a series of Paleolithic fieldwork in Pinglu, conducted by Shanxi University in 2018. Stone artefacts were collected from 10 localities, 6 of which were confirmed with clear stratigraphy and the other 4 found in uncertain contexts. Stone artefacts included cores (n=9), flakes (n=5), chunks (n=16), chips (n=7) and retouched items (n=8). Raw material was primarily quartz probably collected by ancient humans from the riverbed. Hard hammer percussion and bipolar flaking were the main flaking technique. The scraper was the only type of retouched items found, which were modified mostly on chunks by hard hammer flaking percussion bifacially. Through these technological characteristics of flake tools, it exhibits close ties with sites such as Xishi, Dongshi, Xuchang and Fangjiagou, which were with evidence of both flake tool tradition and microlithic technology, demonstrating some clues of these two technologies. Stratigraphic observation suggests that 5 of 6 localities with stratigraphy were formed in Late Pleistocene, the other one formed in Late Middle Pleistocene.
The southwestern part of Shanxi Province is an important area near the Yellow River, abundant with sites from Early Paleolithic to Late Paleolithic. It is a key region of human occupation and dispersal in north China, and of the emergence and dispersal of the microlithic, which will provide clues for interpreting human adaptive behaviour, migration and interaction during Late Pleistocene.

Key words: Pinglu of Shanxi, Stone artefacts, Late Pleistocene, Paleolithic survey