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Luminescence ages for three ‘Middle Palaeolithic’ sites in the Nihewan Basin, northern China, and their archaeological and palaeoenvironmental implications

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  20 January 2017

Yu-Jie Guo ,
Bo Li ,
Jia-Fu Zhang ,
Bao-Yin Yuan ,
Fei Xie  and
Richard Graham Roberts
Yu-Jie Guo*
Affiliation:
Centre for Archaeological Science, School of Earth and Environmental Sciences, University of Wollongong, Wollongong, NSW 2522, Australia
Bo Li
Affiliation:
Centre for Archaeological Science, School of Earth and Environmental Sciences, University of Wollongong, Wollongong, NSW 2522, Australia
Jia-Fu Zhang
Affiliation:
MOE Laboratory for Earth Surface Processes, Department of Geography, College of Urban and Environmental Sciences, Peking University, Beijing 100871, China
Bao-Yin Yuan
Affiliation:
Institute of Geology and Geophysics, Chinese Academy of Sciences, Beijing 100029, China
Fei Xie
Affiliation:
Cultural Relics of Hebei Province, Shijiazhuang 050000, China
Richard Graham Roberts
Affiliation:
Centre for Archaeological Science, School of Earth and Environmental Sciences, University of Wollongong, Wollongong, NSW 2522, Australia
*
⁎Corresponding author. E-mail address:yjguo87@gmail.com, yg991@uowmail.edu.au (Y.-J. Guo).
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Abstract

The Nihewan Basin is a key region for studying the Palaeolithic archaeology of East Asia. However, because of the lack of suitable dating methods and representative lithic technologies in this region, the ‘Middle Palaeolithic’ sites in this basin have been designated based mainly on stratigraphic correlation, which may be unreliable. In this study, three Palaeolithic sites, Motianling, Queergou and Banjingzi, which have been assigned previously to the ‘Middle Palaeolithic’, are dated based on luminescence dating of K-feldspar grains. Our results show that the cultural layers at Motianling, Queergou and Banjingzi have ages of 315 ± 13, 268 ± 13 and 86 ± 4 ka (corresponding to Marine Isotope Stages 9, 8 and 5), respectively, suggesting that Motianling and Queergou should be assigned to the Lower Palaeolithic, while the age of Banjingzi is consistent with a Middle Palaeolithic attribution. Our results suggest that reassessing the age of ‘Middle Palaeolithic’ sites in the Nihewan Basin, and elsewhere in North China, is crucial for understanding the presence or absence of the Middle Palaeolithic phase in China. Our dating results also indicate that the Sanggan River developed sometime between about 270 and 86 ka ago.

Keywords

Optical datingK-feldsparMET-pIRIRStandardised growth curvesMiddle PalaeolithicNihewan palaeo-lakeSanggan River
Type
Original Articles
Information
Quaternary Research , Volume 85 , Issue 3 , May 2016 , pp. 456 - 470
Copyright
University of Washington

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