Abstract:

As an important part of the Nihewan Basin (senso lato), the Huailai Basin is also an important area for exploring early human dispersal and technological evolution during the Pleistocene, althoughthe initiation of Paleolithic archaeological work in the Huailai Basin has been relatively late. Several systematic Paleolithic surveys have been conducted since 2014 by a joint team from the Hebei Normal University and the Huailai Museum, and a series of Middle and Late Pleistocene sites were discovered, providing valuable insights into the prehistoric human activities and environmental adaptations in this area. As one important site discovered in 2014, the Zhuwobu site, which was buried in the third terrace of the right bank of the Yongding River, offers a crucial window into the ancient human occupation in the Huailai Basin.

OSL dating indicates that human occupied the site most probably took place during late Middle Pleistocene (280 kaBP), which could be the earliest Paleolithic site in the Huailai Basin. The excavation was conducted in 2014 and 2017, 304 stone artifacts were unearthed. This study analyzes the stone artifacts from three aspects: the exploitation and utilization of raw materials, the strategy of cores reduction as well as the strategy of retouched patterns. The lithic raw materials were procured from the archaeological landscape closed to the site, lava, siliceous dolomite and siliceous limestone dominate the rock types, which reflect the strategy for exploiting and utilizing of locally available raw materials. The flaking technique was the direct hard-hammer percussion. Additionally, an bipolar core demonstrates the use of bipolar techniques. Although absence of core prepared, the high utilization of raw materials during the knapping sequence was identified. The major flaking strategy of core reduction was to select a suitable platform and flaking surface to obtain flakes. The majority of complete flakes obtained are in a secondary stage of reduction. Most of the retouched pieces are scrapers which were made by hard hammer percussion. Complete flakes were mostly be used as blanks for retouching, and there appears to have been an intentional selection of larger-sized blanks for tool production, and all the retouched pieces were modified simply and casually. It can be concluded that the Zhuwobu stone assemblage can be assigned to the core and flake technological tradition in North China.

This study presents a systematic analysis of the raw materials and technology of the lithic artifacts from the Zhuwobu site, showing the characteristics of lithic industry and their technological behavioral patterns. As the first scientifically excavated and chronologically earliest site in the Huailai Basin, the Zhuwobu site enrich the lithic technological feature of Huailai Basin and also make significance for exploring the human adapted behaviors during Middle Pleistocene in the Nihewan Basin.

Key words: Zhuwobu site, late Middle Pleistocene, stone artifacts, core and flake technology, Huailai Basin