A preliminary research on the bone, antler and tooth artifacts from the Yumidong site in Chongqing

  • Cunding HE
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  • Chongqing China Three Gorges Museum, Chongqing 400015

Received date: 2017-01-09

  Revised date: 2017-04-24

  Online published: 2020-09-11

Abstract

In the Paleolithic age with the hunter-gatherer economy, ancient humans lived with and depended on animals for survival under the same environment. Ancient humans further developed and utilized meat resources to produce bone-horn-tooth tools, which were kinds of by-products of animals. The Yumidong site, discovered newly in Wushan county of Chongqing, is a Paleolithic cave site special for its cultural feature. Bone-horn-tooth tools from the site are quite characteristic. In this paper, the author mainly preliminarily studied typology of bone-horn-tooth tools from the site and recorded relevant materials into bone tools (n=104), bone flakes(n=2), bone chunks(n=5),tooth tools (n=6) and antler tools (n=3) in detail. At the same time, the author tried to analyze manufacturing technology of the bone-horn-tooth tools and human behaviors from a chaÎne opératoire, indicating simplicity, flexibility, efficiency, and survival strategy of ancient human. At last, the author discussed the age of the excavated bone-horn-tooth tools and behavioral modernity of ancient humans, showing that the age of bone-horn-tooth tools from the Yumidong site ranged from middle Pleistocene to early Holocene. There was the continuous or discontinuous development between simple tools and formal tools, but it is necessary to reconsider standards for judging Behavioral Modernity of ancient humans in China.

Cite this article

Cunding HE . A preliminary research on the bone, antler and tooth artifacts from the Yumidong site in Chongqing[J]. Acta Anthropologica Sinica, 2019 , 38(01) : 33 -49 . DOI: 10.16359/j.cnki.cn11-1963/q.2017.0085

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