Hostname: page-component-5db58dd55d-8lnk4 Total loading time: 0 Render date: 2026-07-09T09:55:13.264Z Has data issue: false hasContentIssue false
  • English
  • Français

The development of Upper Palaeolithic China: new results from the Shuidonggou site

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  02 January 2015

Feng Li ,
Xing Gao ,
Fuyou Chen ,
Shuwen Pei ,
Yue Zhang ,
Xiaoling Zhang ,
Decheng Liu ,
Shuangquan Zhang ,
Ying Guan  and
Huimin Wang
...Show all authors
Feng Li
Affiliation:
1Key Laboratory of Vertebrate Evolution and Human Origin of Chinese Academy of Sciences, Institute of Vertebrate Paleontology and Paleoanthropology, Chinese Academy of Sciences, 142 Xizhimenwai Street, Beijing 100044, China (Email: lifengivpp@gmail.com; gaoxing@ivpp.ac.cn; chenfuyou@ivpp.ac.cn; peishuwen@ivpp.ac.cn; zhangyue@ivpp.ac.cn; zhangxiaoling@ivpp.ac.cn; liudecheng@ivpp.ac.cn; zhangshuangquan@ivpp.ac.cn; guanying@ivpp.ac.cn)
Xing Gao*
Affiliation:
1Key Laboratory of Vertebrate Evolution and Human Origin of Chinese Academy of Sciences, Institute of Vertebrate Paleontology and Paleoanthropology, Chinese Academy of Sciences, 142 Xizhimenwai Street, Beijing 100044, China (Email: lifengivpp@gmail.com; gaoxing@ivpp.ac.cn; chenfuyou@ivpp.ac.cn; peishuwen@ivpp.ac.cn; zhangyue@ivpp.ac.cn; zhangxiaoling@ivpp.ac.cn; liudecheng@ivpp.ac.cn; zhangshuangquan@ivpp.ac.cn; guanying@ivpp.ac.cn)
Fuyou Chen
Affiliation:
1Key Laboratory of Vertebrate Evolution and Human Origin of Chinese Academy of Sciences, Institute of Vertebrate Paleontology and Paleoanthropology, Chinese Academy of Sciences, 142 Xizhimenwai Street, Beijing 100044, China (Email: lifengivpp@gmail.com; gaoxing@ivpp.ac.cn; chenfuyou@ivpp.ac.cn; peishuwen@ivpp.ac.cn; zhangyue@ivpp.ac.cn; zhangxiaoling@ivpp.ac.cn; liudecheng@ivpp.ac.cn; zhangshuangquan@ivpp.ac.cn; guanying@ivpp.ac.cn)
Shuwen Pei
Affiliation:
1Key Laboratory of Vertebrate Evolution and Human Origin of Chinese Academy of Sciences, Institute of Vertebrate Paleontology and Paleoanthropology, Chinese Academy of Sciences, 142 Xizhimenwai Street, Beijing 100044, China (Email: lifengivpp@gmail.com; gaoxing@ivpp.ac.cn; chenfuyou@ivpp.ac.cn; peishuwen@ivpp.ac.cn; zhangyue@ivpp.ac.cn; zhangxiaoling@ivpp.ac.cn; liudecheng@ivpp.ac.cn; zhangshuangquan@ivpp.ac.cn; guanying@ivpp.ac.cn)
Yue Zhang
Affiliation:
1Key Laboratory of Vertebrate Evolution and Human Origin of Chinese Academy of Sciences, Institute of Vertebrate Paleontology and Paleoanthropology, Chinese Academy of Sciences, 142 Xizhimenwai Street, Beijing 100044, China (Email: lifengivpp@gmail.com; gaoxing@ivpp.ac.cn; chenfuyou@ivpp.ac.cn; peishuwen@ivpp.ac.cn; zhangyue@ivpp.ac.cn; zhangxiaoling@ivpp.ac.cn; liudecheng@ivpp.ac.cn; zhangshuangquan@ivpp.ac.cn; guanying@ivpp.ac.cn)
Xiaoling Zhang
Affiliation:
1Key Laboratory of Vertebrate Evolution and Human Origin of Chinese Academy of Sciences, Institute of Vertebrate Paleontology and Paleoanthropology, Chinese Academy of Sciences, 142 Xizhimenwai Street, Beijing 100044, China (Email: lifengivpp@gmail.com; gaoxing@ivpp.ac.cn; chenfuyou@ivpp.ac.cn; peishuwen@ivpp.ac.cn; zhangyue@ivpp.ac.cn; zhangxiaoling@ivpp.ac.cn; liudecheng@ivpp.ac.cn; zhangshuangquan@ivpp.ac.cn; guanying@ivpp.ac.cn)
Decheng Liu
Affiliation:
1Key Laboratory of Vertebrate Evolution and Human Origin of Chinese Academy of Sciences, Institute of Vertebrate Paleontology and Paleoanthropology, Chinese Academy of Sciences, 142 Xizhimenwai Street, Beijing 100044, China (Email: lifengivpp@gmail.com; gaoxing@ivpp.ac.cn; chenfuyou@ivpp.ac.cn; peishuwen@ivpp.ac.cn; zhangyue@ivpp.ac.cn; zhangxiaoling@ivpp.ac.cn; liudecheng@ivpp.ac.cn; zhangshuangquan@ivpp.ac.cn; guanying@ivpp.ac.cn)
Shuangquan Zhang
Affiliation:
1Key Laboratory of Vertebrate Evolution and Human Origin of Chinese Academy of Sciences, Institute of Vertebrate Paleontology and Paleoanthropology, Chinese Academy of Sciences, 142 Xizhimenwai Street, Beijing 100044, China (Email: lifengivpp@gmail.com; gaoxing@ivpp.ac.cn; chenfuyou@ivpp.ac.cn; peishuwen@ivpp.ac.cn; zhangyue@ivpp.ac.cn; zhangxiaoling@ivpp.ac.cn; liudecheng@ivpp.ac.cn; zhangshuangquan@ivpp.ac.cn; guanying@ivpp.ac.cn)
Ying Guan
Affiliation:
1Key Laboratory of Vertebrate Evolution and Human Origin of Chinese Academy of Sciences, Institute of Vertebrate Paleontology and Paleoanthropology, Chinese Academy of Sciences, 142 Xizhimenwai Street, Beijing 100044, China (Email: lifengivpp@gmail.com; gaoxing@ivpp.ac.cn; chenfuyou@ivpp.ac.cn; peishuwen@ivpp.ac.cn; zhangyue@ivpp.ac.cn; zhangxiaoling@ivpp.ac.cn; liudecheng@ivpp.ac.cn; zhangshuangquan@ivpp.ac.cn; guanying@ivpp.ac.cn)
Huimin Wang
Affiliation:
2Institute of Archaeology of Ningxia Hui Autonomous Region, 121 Limin Street, Yinchuan 750001, China (Email: huimin.wang123@163.com)
Steven L. Kuhn
Affiliation:
3Department of Anthropology, Building 30, University of Arizona, Tucson, AZ 85721-0030, USA (Email: skuhn@email.arizona.edu)
*
Author for correspondence
Get access Rights & Permissions [Opens in a new window]

Abstract

The Shuidonggou site cluster in northern China contains 12 different early prehistoric sequences with great potential to cast light on the transition to Upper Palaeolithic behaviour in East Asia. Here researchers present the latest results from Locality 2, reporting seven occupation levels with hearths, animal bone and diverse industries. Although previously compared with European Upper Palaeolithic sequences, the new work proposes a different trajectory of development. Distinctive macroblade technology arrived in the area, possibly from Mongolia or Siberia, about 41000–34000 years ago. This industry subsequently disappeared, to be replaced by flake technologies.

Keywords

ChinaShuidonggou Locality 2lithic technologyOxygen Isotope Stage 3

Information

Type
Research article
Information
Antiquity , Volume 87 , Issue 336 , 1 June 2013 , pp. 368 - 383
Copyright
Copyright © Antiquity Publications Ltd. 2013

Access options

Get access to the full version of this content by using one of the access options below. (Log in options will check for institutional or personal access. Content may require purchase if you do not have access.)

Article purchase

Temporarily unavailable

References

Bar-Yosef, O. & Pilbeam, D. (ed.). 2000. The geography of Neanderthals and modern humans in Europe and the greater Mediterranean (Peabody Museum Bulletin 8). Cambridge (MA): Peabody Museum of Archaeology and Ethnography, Harvard University.Google Scholar
Bordes, F. 1968. The Old Stone Age. New York (NY): McGraw-Hill.Google Scholar
Boule, M.H., Breuil, E., Licent, E. & Teilhard De Chardin, P.. 1928. Le Paléolithique de la Chine. Paris: Archives de l’Institut de Paléontologie Humaine.Google Scholar
Brantingham, P.J. 1999. Astride the Movius Line: Late Pleistocene lithic technological variability in northeast Asia. Unpublished PhD dissertation, University of Arizona.Google Scholar
Brantingham, P.J., Krivoshapkin, A.I., Li, J.Z. & Tserendagva, Y.. 2001. The initial Upper Paleolithic in northeast Asia. Current Anthropology 42: 735-47.Google Scholar
Derevianko, A.P. 2011. The Upper Paleolithic in Africa and Eurasia and the origin of anatomically modern humans. Archaeology, Ethnography and Anthropology of Eurasia 39: 2–31.Google Scholar
Gao, X. 1999. A discussion of the Chinese Middle Paleolithic. Acta Anthropologica Sinica 18: 1–16 (in Chinese).Google Scholar
Gao, X. & Norton, C.J.. 2002. A critique of the Chinese ‘Middle Paleolithic’. Antiquity 76: 397–412.Google Scholar
Gao, X., Li, J.Z., Madsen, D.B., Brantingham, P.J., Elston, R.G. & Bettinger, R.L.. 2002. New 14C dates for Shuidonggou and related discussions. Acta Anthropologica Sinica 21: 211-18 (in Chinese).Google Scholar
Gao, X., Pei, S.W., Wang, H.M. & Zhong, K.. 2004. A report on Paleolithic reconnaissance in Ningxia, north China. Acta Anthropologica Sinica 23: 307-25 (in Chinese).Google Scholar
Gao, X., Wang, H.M., Pei, S.W., Chen, F.Y. & Feng, X.W.. 2006. Tracing the footprints of human groups from Shuidonggou, in Institute of Archeology of Yunnan Province (ed.) Collected works for ‘The 40th Anniversary of Yuanmou Man Discovery and the International Conference on Palaeoanthropological Studies’: 152-58. Kunming: Yunnan Science and Technology (in Chinese).Google Scholar
Gao, X., Wang, H.M., Pei, S.W., Feng, X.W. & Chen, F.Y.. 2008a. Progress of the reconnaissance and excavation in Shuidonggou area, in Gao, X., Shi, J.M. & Feng, X.W. (ed.) Essays in honor of Prof. Jia Lanpo on the hundredth anniversary of his birth: 230-39. Beijing: Science (in Chinese).Google Scholar
Gao, X., Yuan, B.Y., Pei, S.W., Wang, H.M., Chen, F.Y. & Feng, X.W.. 2008b. Analysis of sedimentary-geomorphologic variation and the living environment of hominids at the Shuidonggou Paleolithic site. Chinese Science Bulletin 53: 2025-32.Google Scholar
Gao, X., Wang, H.M., Liu, D.C., Pei, S.W., Chen, F.Y., Zhang, X.L. & Zhang, Y.. 2009. A study of fire-use activities at Shuidonggou Locality 12. Acta Anthropologica Sinica 28: 329-36 (in Chinese).Google Scholar
Guan, Y., Gao, X., Wang, H.M., Chen, F.Y., Pei, S.W., Zhang, X.L. & Zhou, Z.Y.. 2011. Spatial analysis of intra-site use at a Late Palaeolithic site at Shuidongou, northwest China. Chinese Science Bulletin 56: 3457-63.Google Scholar
Jia, L.P., Gai, P. & Li, Y.X.. 1964. New materials from the Palaeolithic site of Shuidonggou. Vertebrata PalAsiatica 8: 75–86 (in Chinese).Google Scholar
Kuhn, S.L. 2004. Upper Paleolithic raw material economies at Ü çag˘ızlıcave, Turkey. Journal of Anthropological Archaeology 23: 431–48.Google Scholar
Kuhn, S.L., Stiner, M.C. & GüLé, E.. 1999. Initial Upper Palaeolithic in south-central Turkey and its regional context: a preliminary report. Antiquity 73: 505-17.Google Scholar
Kuzmin, Y.V., Keats, S.G. & Shen, C. (ed.). 2007. Origin and spread of microblade technology in northern Asia and North America. Vancouver: Archaeology.Google Scholar
Li, F., Kuhn, S.L., Gao, X. & Chen, F.Y.. 2013. Re-examination of the date of large blade technology in China—a comparison of Shuidonggou Locality 1 and Locality 2. Journal of Human Evolution 64: 161-68. doi: 10.1016/j.jhevol.2012.11.001Google Scholar
LI, Y.X. 1993. A discussion of the Upper Paleolithic industries of China. Acta Anthropologica Sinica 12: 214-23 (in Chinese).Google Scholar
Licent, E. & Teilhard De Chardin, P.. 1925. Le Paléolithique de la Chine. L’Anthropologie 25: 201-34.Google Scholar
Lin, S.L. 1996. Comparisons of Chinese and western Palaeolithic technological models. Acta Anthropologica Sinica 15: 1–20 (in Chinese).Google Scholar
Liu, D.C., Chen, F.Y., Zhang, X.L., Pei, S.W., Gao, X. & Xia, Z.K.. 2008. Preliminary comments on the paleoenvironment of the Shuidonggou Locality 12. Acta Anthropologica Sinica 27: 295–303 (in Chinese).Google Scholar
Liu, D.C., Wang, X.L., Gao, X., Xia, Z.K., Pei, S.W., Chen, F.Y. & Wang, H.M.. 2009. Progress in the stratigraphy and geochronology of the Shuidonggou site, Ningxia, north China. Chinese Science Bulletin 54: 3880-86.Google Scholar
Madsen, D.B., Li, J.Z., Brantingham, P.J., Gao, X., Elston, R.G. & Berringer, R.L.. 2001. Dating Shuidonggou and the Upper Palaeolithic blade industry in north China. Antiquity 75: 706-16.Google Scholar
Mellars, P. (ed.). 1990. The emergence of modern humans: an archaeological perspective. Ithaca (NY): Cornell University Press.Google Scholar
Mellars, P., Boyle, K., Bar-Yosef, O. & Stringer, C. (ed.). 2007. Rethinking the human revolution: new behavioural and biological perspectives on the origin and dispersal of modern humans (McDonald Institute Monographs). Cambridge: McDonald Institute for Archaeological Research.Google Scholar
Pei, S.W., Gao, X., Wang, H.M., Kuman, K., Bae, C.J., Chen, F.Y., Guan, Y., Zhang, Y., Zhang, X.L., Peng, F. & Li, X.L.. 2012. The Shuidonggou site complex: new excavations and implications for the earliest Paleolithic in north China. Journal of Archaeological Science 39: 3610-26.Google Scholar
Wang, C.X., Zhang, Y., Gao, X., Zhang, X.L. & Wang, H.M.. 2009. Archaeological study of ostrich eggshell beads collected from Shuidonggou site. Chinese Science Bulletin 54: 3887-95.Google Scholar
Zhang, S.S. 1990. Regional industrial gradual advance and cultural exchange of Paleolithic in north China. Acta Anthropologica Sinica 9: 322-34 (in Chinese).Google Scholar
Zhang, S.S. 1997. On the problems of seeking the earliest (about 2 Ma) human remains in China. Acta Anthropologica Sinica 16: 87–95 (in Chinese).Google Scholar
Zhang, S.S. 1999a. On the important advancement of the Paleolithic archaeology in China since 1949. Acta Anthropologica Sinica 18: 193–214 (in Chinese).Google Scholar
Zhang, S.S. 1999b. A study of stone artefacts found at the Xiaokouzi prehistoric site. Acta Anthropologica Sinica 18: 81–100 (in Chinese).Google Scholar
Zhang, S.S. 2002. Advances in Chinese Paleolithic archaeology in the past 20 years and some comments. Quaternary Science 22: 11–19 (in Chinese).Google Scholar