Further Evidence of Organic Soft Hammer Percussion and Pressure Retouch from Lingjing (Xuchang, Henan, China)

ABSTRACT

Opinions on the nature and distinctiveness of the Chinese Paleolithic differ between those who assign early Late Pleistocene lithic technologies to some peculiar facies of the Middle Paleolithic, and those who interpret them as reflecting the persistence of essentially Lower Paleolithic traditions. The absence of Levallois debitage and organic soft hammers are often used as arguments, amongst others, in favor of the second hypothesis. Here, we report new supporting data for the use of bone retouchers and pressure flakers in knapping activities. The specimens were found at the Lingjing site, Xuchang County, Henan, in a layer dated between 105 and 125 ka. This discovery emphasizes the importance of combining evidence from a variety of aspects of material culture, including anthropogenically modified faunal remains, in order to accurately define Chinese Paleolithic technological traditions.

KEYWORDS:

• Bone tools
• bone retoucher
• compressor
• early Late Pleistocene
• Chinese Middle Paleolithic
• archaic hominin

Acknowledgement

We acknowledge financial support from the Strategic Priority Research Program of the Chinese Academy of Sciences (XDB26000000), the China/Shandong University International Postdoctoral Exchange Program, the Sino-French Xu Guangqi Program (41230RB), the National Natural Science Foundation of China (41630102, 41672020), the Shandong University 111 Project (111-2-09) and the Chinese Academy of Sciences Pioneer Hundred Talents Program. PACEA (UMR5199 CNRS) is a Partner team of the Labex LaScArBx-ANR (ANR-10-LABX-52). The funders had no role in study design, data collection and analysis, decision to publish, or preparation of the manuscript. We wish to thank the editor, Grant McGall, as well as two anonymous reviewers for their constructive feedback on an earlier version of this manuscript.

Disclosure statement

No potential conflict of interest was reported by the authors.

Notes on contributors

Luc Doyon is a Postdoctoral Fellow at the Institute of Cultural Heritage, Shandong University, and a scientific collaborator at the CNRS – UMR5199 PACEA, Université de Bordeaux. He specializes in bone technologies from the European and East Asian Pleistocene.

Hao Li is an Associate Professor at the Chinese Academy of Sciences. He specializes in Middle and Late Pleistocene lithic technologies from China and South Africa.

ZhanYang Li is a Professor at the Institute of Cultural Heritage, Shandong University, and a Senior Researcher at the Henan Provincial Institute of Cultural Relics and Archaeology. He directs excavations and research at the Linging site.

Hua Wang is an Associate Professor at the Institute of Cultural Heritage, Shandong University. She specializes in Zooarchaeology and Taphonomy.

QingPo Zhao is a PhD Candidate at Shandong University and a Researcher at the Henan Provincial Institute of Cultural Relics and Archaeology. He studies early Late Pleistocene lithic technologies from the Henan Province.

ORCID

Luc Doyon http://orcid.org/0000-0001-7163-6186

Additional information

Funding

We acknowledge financial support from the Strategic Priority Research Program of the Chinese Academy of Sciences [grant number XDB26000000], the China/Shandong University International Postdoctoral Exchange Program, the Sino-French PHC Xu Guangqi Program [grant number 41230RB], the National Natural Science Foundation of China [grant number 41630102, 41672020], the Shandong University 111 Project [grant number 111-2-09] and the Chinese Academy of Sciences Pioneer Hundred Talents Program. PACEA (UMR5199 CNRS) is a Partner team of the Labex LaScArBx-ANR (ANR-10-LABX-52).