A study of the formation process of Jijiazhuang Paleolithic site in Yuxian Basin

doi:10.16359/j.1000-3193/AAS.2022.0052

Abstract

Abstract:

Owing to low-energy hydraulic agents and fine-grained sediments, the fluvio-lacustrine basin proves to be ideal depositional system for preserving archaeological remains. The typical fluvio-lacustrine sediments in Nihewan Basin of North China are rich sources of Early to Middle Pleistocene archaeological sites, which offer an important opportunity to investigate human evolution and adaptive behaviors in East Asia. Comparing to the advances on the study of site formation processes of Lower Pleistocene sites have been handled in the basin, site formation focus on the Middle Pleistocene sites are yet to be carried out. In this paper, we present a site formation study of a newly discovered Middle Pleistocene archaeological site named Jijiazhuang site (JJZ) in Yuxian Basin (south part of Nihewan Basin). Two typical localities (JJZ-B and JJZ-E) are selected and geoarchaeological as well as archaeological factors are adopted for the site formation research. Through the analysis of geomorphology and deposits features, archaeological remains in JJZ-B were buried in marsh or swamp environment of lake margin deposits when the Nihewan old lake began retreating, while the archaeological sequence of JJZ-E probably belongs to the sand bar sedimentary face of lake margin environment. Multiple proxies from archaeological materials (artifacts spatial distribution, technological composition, weathering and abrasion condition, orientation as well as inclination) demonstrate that JJZ-B belongs to near primary context, the archaeological remains had been disturbed by low-energy sheet wash across the lake shore setting which provides effective information for exploring hominins technology and adaptive behaviors. Meanwhile, JJZ-E was preserved in secondary context where archaeological remains together with cobbles and pebbles were transported to accumulative area by relative high energetic hydraulic flow of lake wave and sheet wash, so that the locality witnessed low integrity of archaeological materials compared to JJZ-B. This study shows that the Nihewan Basin contains extensive information of archaeological remains of Middle Pleistocene. Formation processes of the different sites are strongly affected by the different settings in the archaeological landscape. Study on the site formation processes of JJZ site indicates that archaeological remains were in relative low density, and the formation processes varied from near primary context to secondary context. In addition, this study bears great significance on the study of the adaptive patterns of different localities of Jijiazhuang site complex by hominins during Middle Pleistocene.

Key words: Site formation processes, Lake shore environment, Middle Pleistocene, Jijiazhuang Paleolithic site, Yuxian Basin

CLC Number:

P535.62/K871.11

YE Zhi, DU Yuwei, PEI Shuwen, DING Xin, XU Zhe, MA Dongdong. A study of the formation process of Jijiazhuang Paleolithic site in Yuxian Basin[J]. Acta Anthropologica Sinica, 2023, 42(01): 46-60.

Figures/Tables 8

Fig.1 Geographic and geomorphologic location of Jijiazhuang Paleolithic site

Fig.2 Stratigraphic profiles of JJZ-B and JJZ-E sites

Tab.1 Percentage of the grain size analysis of stratigraphic profile and archaeological layer from JJZ-B site

粒度分级 size classes	遗址剖面 stratigraphic profile	文化层 archaeological layer
中粗砂以上large than granules (d≥0.25 mm)	2.65%	6.70%
细砂fine sand (0.25<d≤0.125 mm)	4.78%	16.10%
极细砂very fine sand (0.125<d≤0.063 mm)	16.85%	26.50%
粉砂silt (0.063<d≤0.002 mm)	75.20%	50.54%
黏土clay (d<0.002mm)	0.52%	0.16%

Fig.3 Results of the grain size analysis of the stratigraphic profile from JJZ-B site

Fig.4 Spatial distributions and k-densities of excavated remains, the 3D distributions of remains, the spatial distributions in different size of lithics from JJZ-B and JJZ-E

Fig.5 The size of debitage distributions pattern, the raw materials of stone remains pie chart, the stages of weathering and abrasion of lithics from JJZ-B and JJZ-E

Fig.6 Rose diagrams showing orientation and inclination of remains, and the diagram showing the dip distributions of remains from JJZ-B and JJZ-E

Tab.2 Size and weight of stone materials from JJZ-B and JJZ-E sites

地点Site	类型Type	个数(n)	长度L(mm)			质量m(g)
地点Site	类型Type	个数(n)	L_min	L_max	平均L(average)	m_min	m_max	平均m(average)	总质量m(Total)
JJZ-B	石制品	162	11	98	37.1	0.4	590	31.6	5116.4
	砾石	62	7.2	121.6	32	0.2	769	36.9	2290.4
	岩块	15	18	85	39.3	1	100	24.9	373
JJZ-E	石制品	59	6.2	102	39.7	0.1	885	51.5	2989.4
	砾石	355	5.9	68.9	14.8	0.1	99.6	2.4	836.5
	岩块	9	13	62.3	27.6	0.9	101.8	15.4	138.9

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