桃花溪旧石器

PALEOLITHS FOUND IN TAOHUAXI LOCALITY

During dredging the waterway of Taohuaxi brooklet between August-September of 1987, a paleolithic locality was found on the high terrace about 80m above the present river level of Changjian River near Chongqing Zoo where lies about 10km in the south-western part of Chongqing county. 69 stone artifacts and a few walnut shells (Juglans cathaynsis) are uncovered in white-gray sand layer of the locality laid underground about 6m. 69 pieces of stone artifacts are divided into cores including single platform cores and polyhedral cores, flakes, hammer stones, crushed hammer stone, scrapers which are subdivided into two edges, the complex scraper and end scraper, and choppers (Chopping tools) which contain concave, convex, two edges, pointed, complex and end choppers, which consist of three types. On the basis of the type and technique, the assemblage found in Taohuaxi locality have some primary characters as follows: Most artifacts are big and irregular in shape, most flakes are produced by direct percussion and a few specimens may be flaked on the anvil; The tools of the flake are common than those of the core; Many tools are crudely trimmed, and only three specimens are will retouched; The tools divided into scrapers (only 4 pieces) and choppers (29 specimens). It indicates the chopper is the important tool in the aggregate. These characters of the artifacts are closely related to those found in Ziyang Man locality B and Tonglian Culture sites. This locality is tentatively dated to be upper Pleistocene, probably to be the later stage supported both by cultural evidence and stratigraphic materials.