Analysis of the Longgupo lithic industry

IVPP-IR > 中科院古脊椎所（2000年以后）

	Analysis of the Longgupo lithic industry
	Boeda, Eric 1,2,3; Hou, Ya-Mei 2,4
	2011
发表期刊	ANTHROPOLOGIE
卷号	115 期号:1 页码:78-175
文章类型	Article
摘要	Excavation has enabled recovery of 854 artifacts within 30 archaeological levels in the south sector and 11 in the north (chapter 3). These levels are quite probably contemporaneous, or even the same. The quantitative disparity in the number of strata between the two sectors is simply due to the fact that only the lower half of the northern zone was completely investigated. Similarly, the number of artifacts recovered by level varies according to the surface area excavated, although is some cases the density of material is significant despite the small area excavated, for example stratum C IV 5 which contains 174 lithic artifacts in 2 m(2). Before undertaking the technological analysis of the artifacts, given the preceding polemics provoked by the great age of this site and its implications for the spread of the first populations out of Africa, it was deemed important to carry out a plurifactorial analysis combining all of the data related to: the stratigraphy, taphonomic processes (post-depositional disturbance), analysis of natural processes that may have produced eoliths, experimentation and techno-functional analysis of the material. The stratigraphy shows clear interstratifications of fine and coarse fluviatile levels with often very clear particle size sorting of the coarse fraction. The archaeological material is typically found at the interface of these strata, either at the base of a clayey matrix, overlying a preceding coarse level, or in the superficial part of a sandy-clay deposit underlying coarse deposits. Post-depositional disturbance revealed during the new excavations in 2003 2006 cannot alone be the cause of eoliths. Excavation of a 6 m2 zone in the modern river bed, located below the site, has demonstrated that the technological traits of eoliths recovered cannot in any way be confused with the technological traits of the artifacts recovered at the site itself. Similarly, viewed quantitatively, the 6 m2 zone excavated in the river bed yielded around 20 eoliths while the 30 m2 zone excavated at the site yielded 854 artifacts, one stratum alone yielding 184 artifacts in a 3 m2 zone. During the experimental phase, adopting the same conditions of procuring raw material, from the same river bed, we very quickly realized the rarity of types of adequate volume that had been generally used at the site and the need to use certain operational processes to create such a form. In addition, the hardness and presence of several natural fracture planes in the Triassic limestone explain the choice of different operational processes and the very high number of knapping accidents, including those occurring during bipolar percussion. Although 90% of the raw material used was cobbles or broken blocks of local Triassic limestone, 10% of the tools were made on exogenous raw materials siliceous or gravelly limestone, quartzitic sandstone, chert, volcanic rock that are absent from the immediate environment of the site. These raw materials were brought to the site in the form of tools: worked cobbles, large retouched flakes, backed double-truncated flakes, a plaquette with a lateral bifacial edge, etc. The 854 artifacts have been classified into six object classes: worked cobbles with transversal edge (39%), worked cobbles with lateral edge (2%), unipolar flakes (27%), bipolar objects (half-blocks, half-cobbles including some flat "split" cobbles, "orange slices", flakes and diverse fragments) (17%) and fragments resulting from knapping of blocks or cobbles (13%), hammerstone (2%).
关键词	Longgupo Site China Plio-pleistocene Lithic Industry
WOS标题词	Science & Technology ; Life Sciences & Biomedicine
关键词[WOS]	ASIA
收录类别	SSCI
语种	英语
WOS研究方向	Anthropology
WOS类目	Anthropology
WOS记录号	WOS:000288824200005
引用统计
文献类型	期刊论文
条目标识符	http://119.78.100.205/handle/311034/7662
专题	中科院古脊椎所（2000年以后）
作者单位	1.Univ Paris Ouest Nanterre La Def, CNRS ArSCAN, UMR 7041, Equipe AnTET, F-92023 Nanterre, France 2.Chinese Acad Sci, Inst Vertebrate Paleontol & Paleoanthropol, Beijing 100044, Peoples R China 3.China Three Gorges Museum, Chongqing Three Gorges Inst Paleoanthropol, Chongqing 400015, Peoples R China 4.Chinese Acad Sci, Joint Lab Human Evolut & Archaeometry, Beijing 100044, Peoples R China
推荐引用方式 GB/T 7714	Boeda, Eric,Hou, Ya-Mei. Analysis of the Longgupo lithic industry[J]. ANTHROPOLOGIE,2011,115(1):78-175.
APA	Boeda, Eric,&Hou, Ya-Mei.(2011).Analysis of the Longgupo lithic industry.ANTHROPOLOGIE,115(1),78-175.
MLA	Boeda, Eric,et al."Analysis of the Longgupo lithic industry".ANTHROPOLOGIE 115.1(2011):78-175.