Abstract:

Yahuai Cave site is located near the Bolang village, Longan county, Guangxi Zhuang Autonomous Region in South China. The site has been dated to between 43000 and 4000 years ago, with both Paleolithic and Neolithic cultural remains. This study presents a preliminary technological and typological analysis of shell tools found from Yahuai Cave. The type of shell tools from Yahuai Cave includes shell knives, shell shovels and perforated shells, with shell knives being the most representative. The type of shells was dominated by Lamprotula mansuyi. Technologically, shell tools at Yahuai Cave were mainly made by direct bifacial percussion. Bifacial knapping and battering of the hinge portion indicate the deliberate shaping of the handling edge to improve its ergonomic properties. Simple retouching is also recorded from the dorsal to ventral aspects along the lip margin, suggesting an attempt to sharpen the functional edge.

Based on the morphological and technological characteristics, shell tools at Yahuai Cave can be categorized into four phases, covering the whole cultural sequences of the site. Comparative analysis with shell artifact assemblages from surrounding sites reveals both shared and distinctive traits. These edged knives bear a close resemblance in form and production technology, suggesting that they were optimized for cutting softer organic materials and may also have functioned in the cutting and sawing food resources. And comparative analysis with other sites also reveals the distinctive features, notably the presence or absence of perforation. These similarities and divergences might reflect the transmission and evolution of prehistoric shell-working traditions across successive cultural phases.

Importantly, the temporal span of shell tool production at Yahuai Cave represents the longest documented record of shell artifact utilization in any prehistoric Chinese site to date. This continuous sequence supplies invaluable data for charting the beginning and development of shell-based technologies in southern China and facilitates further studies with contemporaneous Southeast Asian shell artifact traditions. These organic tools provide a crucial insight into the complex cultural adaptations of Homo sapiens groups. By integrating technological analysis with stratigraphic context, the shell tool assemblage from Yahuai Cave significantly advances our understanding of human-environment interactions, freshwater resources exploitation strategies, and the broader evolutionary trajectory of non-lithic tool manufacture in Pleistocene-Holocene prehistoric societies.

Key words: Yahuai Cave site, Shell tools, Upper Paleolithic, Late Neolithic