许家窑遗址74093地点1977年出土石制品研究

许家窑遗址74093地点位于泥河湾盆地中部, 发现于1974年, 出土了早期智人化石以及大量的石制品和动物化石。该地点进行过多次发掘, 其中1977年在U3等探方共出土石制品共1765件, 类型包括石核、石器、完整石片、不完整石片和断块等。石制品原料取自梨益沟流水带来的河卵石, 以石英岩和脉石英为主。石制品以小型居多, 锤击法为主要剥片方法, 砸击法应用较少。石器毛坯以片状居多, 占63.6%; 石器类型多样, 以刮削器和石球为主; 石器由锤击法加工而成, 加工部位多集中分布在毛坯的单侧或者单端, 单向加工占72.4%, 且以正向为主; 双向加工占27.6%, 多以复向加工为主。年代测定表明古人类在该地点活动的时间大致发生在晚更新世早期。石器组合属于华北小石器工业传统, 大量石球的发现对于研究早期人类的剥片技术和生存行为具有重要意义。

A Preliminary Study on the Stone Artifacts Excavated from Locality 74093 of the Xujiayao Site in 1977

Xujiayao(40°06'02.8'N;113°58'41.4'E; ca.970 m above sea level) is an open-air site discovered in 1973 during field reconnaissance by members of the Institute of Vertebrate Paleontology and Paleoanthropology(IVPP), Chinese Academy of Sciences. The site is located on the right bank of the Liyi River and is named after the local village. Scientists from the IVPP excavated Xujiayao in 1976, 1977, and 1979. Xujiayao is represented by two localities(74093 and 73113), with evidence for archaic Homo sapiens, and the majority of the artifactual and vertebrate materials recovered from Locality 74093. The present paper is a preliminary report on the stone artifacts from Locality 74093 excavated in 1977. The Xujiayao site comprises fluviolacustrine deposits, with a stratigraphic profile consisting of a series of erosional surfaces intercalated with eight sandy clay and silty clay depositional layers. Five stratigraphic layers of the 3rd terrace were identified, with a total thickness of more than 15—20 m. Archaeological materials were unearthed mainly from the 3rd layer consisting of grayish green to brown clay(4 m thick). Dating shows that the human activities at this locality most probably took place in the early Late Pleistocene.
A total of 1765 stone artifacts were unearthed from the spit U3 of the excavation in 1977. The stone assemblage includes cores(N=140), retouched pieces(132), flakes(399), flake fragments(427), chunks(667), and stone hammers(2). Lithic materials were locally available from ancient riverbeds with quartzite and vein quartz as the predominant raw material(accounting for 82.6%). The principal flaking technique was direct hammer percussion without prepared striking platforms, together with bipolar technique. Most stone artifacts were small in size,and most blanks for tool fabrication were flakes and flake fragments. More than 10 retouched types were identified, with scrapers and spheroids the most dominant, followed by notches, denticulates, points, burins, scraper-notches, borers, and choppers. Modified pieces were retouched by direct hammer percussion with mostly unifacial retouch on the distal end and lateral margins of the blanks.
The lithic assemblage of this locality shows a close affiliation with the "Small Tool Tradition" in North China.It should be noted that the emergence of spheroids in the lithic assemblage is unique in Chinese Paleolithic studies.