Paleolithic Personal Ornaments from Xiaogushan Cave: The Formation of Early Symbolism and Its Regional Features in Northeast China

2022 ◽  
Vol 49 (4) ◽  
pp. 15-23
Author(s):  
A. P. Zabiyako ◽  
Junzheng Wang
Keyword(s):  
Comparative Study ◽  
Northeast China ◽  
Lithic Technology ◽  
Northern China ◽  
Stone Tools ◽  
Transitional Period ◽  
Upper Paleolithic ◽  
Regional Context ◽  
Regional Features ◽  
Important Marker

This article presents the results of a comparative study of personal ornaments from Xiaogushan Cave in the interregional and regional context of the formation of modern behavior. Xiaogushan is a Paleolithic and Neolithic site in Northeast China. In the Upper Paleolithic layers of the site, apart from tools, personal ornaments were found— pendants made from animal teeth, and a decorated bone disc. The date of the site is a matter of debate; ornaments from layers 2 and 3 date to ~30 ka BP. Like other bone artifacts (harpoon, needles, point), and together with types of stone tools and lithic technology, they mirror the local process of Middle to Upper Paleolithic transition. We focus on similarities between the Xiaogushan ornaments and Upper Paleolithic pendants from northern China and Eurasia in general, attesting to modern behavior during the transitional period and being an important marker of the spread of Upper Paleolithic innovations from the centers to the periphery. Xiaogushan is the fi rst Upper Paleolithic industry in Northeast China known to date, and demonstrates skills and symbolic behavior typical of the initial Upper Paleolithic. The Xiaogushan pendants follow the general tendencies, while being specifi c markers of the evolution of symbolic behavior in Eastern Eurasia.

The Paleolithic of Trans-Baikal

1961 ◽  
Vol 26 (4) ◽  
pp. 486-497 ◽  
Author(s):  
A. P. Okladnikov ◽  
Chester S. Chard
Keyword(s):  
North China ◽  
Stone Tools ◽  
Upper Paleolithic ◽  
Eastern Asia ◽  
The West ◽  
The Third ◽  
Fish Bones ◽  
Woolly Rhinoceros ◽  
Third Stage ◽  
The Common

AbstractPaleolithic remains, mostly surface finds from blowouts, are known from 63 sites in the Trans-Baikal, one of the five large regional subdivisions of the Siberian Paleolithic. Most important recent discoveries are the stratified sites of Oshurkovo and Sannyi Mys and the Pleistocene faunal sequence on Tologoi Mountain. Characteristic stone tools are made from whole or split pebbles and from blades removed from prismatic cores. Bone artifacts, known only from Oshurkovo, include slotted points and knives and flat antler harpoons. The Trans-Baikal finds, all Upper Paleolithic in time, are tentatively arranged in five chronological stages. The earliest period is based on the lower levels at Sannyi Mys in which microblades, but no pebble tools, are found with woolly rhinoceros and mammoth. The next period is represented by large pebble tools and cores from Ust"-Kiakhta Locality 3. Typical Siberian pebble tools found with horse in the upper levels at Sannyi Mys are assigned to the third stage. The fourth is best known from Oshurkovo where all the common Siberian Paleolithic stone tools are found along with bone artifacts in deposits which contain abundant fish bones. A number of sites are assigned to the fifth stage, but it is best represented by the uppermost level at Oshurkovo where flakes, flaked pebbles, and small blade tools of regular outline replace the large blades and pebble cores of the earlier periods. This tentative sequence is strengthened by correlations with the Angara and Yenisei areas to the west and with Mongolia and North China to the east. The Trans-Baikal is seen as an area in which the prismatic core and blade tradition of Eurafrican origin and the split pebble-tool tradition of eastern Asia were in contact from the earliest known period.

scholarly journals The Early to Late Paleolithic Transition in Korea: A Closer Look

Radiocarbon ◽  
2013 ◽  
Vol 55 (3) ◽  
pp. 1341-1349 ◽  
Author(s):  
Christopher J Bae ◽  
Kidong Bae ◽  
Jong Chan Kim
Keyword(s):  
Mass Spectrometry ◽  
Northeast China ◽  
Northern China ◽  
Stone Tool ◽  
Late Paleolithic ◽  
National University ◽  
Type Site ◽  
Paleolithic Archaeology ◽  
Seoul National University ◽  
Ams Dates

In Korean Paleolithic archaeology, it is traditionally thought that the Late Paleolithic stone tool industries were in some way derived from the Shuidonggou site in northern China. The latter site has long been considered to be the type site of the eastern Asian Late Paleolithic blade technology. However, recent studies suggest that a number of Korean Late Paleolithic sites probably predate Shuidonggou, some by several thousands of years. Here, we present a series of accelerator mass spectrometry (AMS) dates recently analyzed by the AMS laboratory at Seoul National University and discuss further the possibility that the introduction of blade (and later microblade) technologies into Korea may have originated directly from Mongolia, Siberia, and possibly other areas of northeast China, rather than from Shuidonggou.

scholarly journals Elongation as a factor in artefacts of humans and other animals: an Acheulean example in comparative context

2013 ◽  
Vol 368 (1630) ◽  
pp. 20130114 ◽  
Author(s):  
J. A. J. Gowlett
Keyword(s):  
Comparative Study ◽  
Stone Tools ◽  
Capuchin Monkeys ◽  
Middle Palaeolithic ◽  
Archaeological Record ◽  
Upper Palaeolithic ◽  
Satisfactory Outcome ◽  
New Caledonian Crows ◽  
Selection For ◽  
Individual Variables

Elongation is a commonly found feature in artefacts made and used by humans and other animals and can be analysed in comparative study. Whether made for use in hand or beak, the artefacts have some common properties of length, breadth, thickness and balance point, and elongation can be studied as a factor relating to construction or use of a long axis. In human artefacts, elongation can be traced through the archaeological record, for example in stone blades of the Upper Palaeolithic (traditionally regarded as more sophisticated than earlier artefacts), and in earlier blades of the Middle Palaeolithic. It is now recognized that elongation extends to earlier Palaeolithic artefacts, being found in the repertoire of both Neanderthals and more archaic humans. Artefacts used by non-human animals, including chimpanzees, capuchin monkeys and New Caledonian crows show selection for diameter and length, and consistent interventions of modification. Both chimpanzees and capuchins trim side branches from stems, and appropriate lengths of stave are selected or cut. In human artefacts, occasional organic finds show elongation back to about 0.5 million years. A record of elongation achieved in stone tools survives to at least 1.75 Ma (million years ago) in the Acheulean tradition. Throughout this tradition, some Acheulean handaxes are highly elongated, usually found with others that are less elongated. Finds from the million-year-old site of Kilombe and Kenya are given as an example. These findings argue that the elongation need not be integral to a design, but that artefacts may be the outcome of adjustments to individual variables. Such individual adjustments are seen in animal artefacts. In the case of a handaxe, the maker must balance the adjustments to achieve a satisfactory outcome in the artefact as a whole. It is argued that the need to make decisions about individual variables within multivariate objects provides an essential continuity across artefacts made by different species.

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