Abstract:

During the 1980s, archaeological excavations at the Bailian Cave site in Liuzhou, Guangxi Zhuang Autonomous Region, unearthed a large number of stone artifacts associated with both the small flake tool tradition and the pebble tool tradition. The former, made from flint and generally small in size, are classified as “miniaturized lithics”. These mainly include scrapers, pointed tools, utilized flakes, and lithic production byproducts like cores, flakes, and debris. The cores are mainly characterized by natural platforms, with no signs of prepared striking platforms. The main reduction technique used was direct hard-hammer percussion, complemented by hammer percussion. Most tools were fabricated on flake blanks through unifacial inverse retouching with hammer percussion, showing minimal secondary edge modification. Scrapers are the predominant tool type, including single straight-edged, curved-edged, and double/multi-edged varieties. Historically, the small flake tool tradition has been seen as emblematic of northern China, while the Lingnan region (represented by Guangxi) has been recognized as the core distribution zone of the pebble tool tradition. The stratigraphic coexistence of miniaturized lithics and pebble tools at Bailian Cave triggered extensive academic discussions about the technological origins of small flake tool industries and their relationship with pebble tools.

Subsequent decades of excavations in the Liujiang River basin (centered on Liuzhou, including sites such as Liyuzui, Fengyan, Maohedong, and Luguling), the Hongshui River basin (Beidaling site), and the Youjiang-Yongjiang River basin (Yahuai Cave, Zhongshan Yansha, and Dingsishan sites) have uncovered more assemblages of small flake artifacts. Despite regional differences in raw material procurement, these artifacts show significant consistency with those from Bailian Cave in both reduction techniques and typological composition, thus justifying their classification as miniaturized lithics. Notably, excavations at Long’an Yahuai Cave and Liuzhou Fengyan confirmed that the small flake tool tradition associated with miniaturized lithics emerged in Guangxi at least 40,000 years ago. Meanwhile, stratigraphic investigations at the Fengyan site clarified the chronological relationship between layers containing miniaturized lithics and those with pebble tools in this region.

A systematic analysis of Guangxi’s sites with miniaturized lithics, combined with chronological data, reveals that such sites from different time phases are concentrated near major river systems originating from the Yunnan-Guizhou Plateau. A comparative evaluation of the distribution patterns of related sites in adjacent regions, along with geoenvironmental considerations, strongly suggests that Guangxi’s miniaturized lithics, as represented by Bailian Cave, likely originated from the Yunnan-Guizhou Plateau since the terminal Late Pleistocene, rather than directly from areas north of the Yangtze River. Additionally, it is hypothesized that different human populations or technological traditions may have migrated into Guangxi from the plateau in successive periods, possibly spreading as far as Guangdong.

Key words: Late Pleistocene, Guangxi, miniaturized lithic