水洞沟遗址第7地点动物化石初步研究

水洞沟遗址第7地点2003~2005年发掘出土动物化石2000余件。初步鉴定包括蒙古野驴(Equus hemionus)、披毛犀(Coelodonta antiquitatis)、普氏原羚(Procapra przewalskii)、水牛(Bubalus sp.)等十多个动物属种。该遗址出土的动物骨骼标本表面少见食肉类啃咬痕迹且未有啮齿类啃咬痕迹及水流磨蚀等现象,表明这一动物骨骼组合应当不是食肉类、啮齿类与水流等自然性营力带入遗址的。遗址动物群中一定比例的具切割痕骨骼标本的出现表明了古人类在动物群富集过程中的主导地位。动物考古学观察表明,处于旧石器时代晚期的该地点古人类主要对遗址附近的大中型食草类动物进行了猎捕与肢解、利用,这与相对更晚阶段的第12地点古人类以小型哺乳动物为主要猎食对象的生存策略形成了较为明显的对比。

A Preliminary Study of the Faunal Remains from the Shuidonggou Locality 7

The Shuidonggou Locality 7 (SDG7), one of the newly discovered and excavated sites in the Shuidonggou Site Cluster, is c. 300 m southeast of SDG1. Preliminary OSL dating shows that hominin occupied the site most probably took place at 27 to 25 ka BP. More than 2000 of animal fossils or bone fragments were unearthed from the site during the excavation seasons of 2003~2005. However, most bones from this site are strongly fragmented and only a comparatively small proportion of the fossils can be taxonomically identified to species or genus level. Of the fossil species identified so far, wild ass (Equus hemionus), buffalo (Bubalus sp.), and gazelle (Procapra przewalskyi) are quite dominant in number. Based on its taphonomic characteristics, the faunal remains from SDG7 is proposed to be essentially preserved in a primary context to some extent and only slightly disturbed by flowing water; and the seemingly small number of cut-marked bones from SDG7, however, does not negate the dominant role played by humans in the accumulation of the faunal remains. The evenness value for the SDG7 fauna is lower relative to that for the fauna of SDG12, which is contradictory to the predicted results of the climatic cycles and may therefore indicate that human population at SDG7 is noticeably small, at least compared to that at SDG12. Adapted to the small population size at this period, humans at SDG7 exploited the large and middle-sized animals on the one hand and neglected the small-sized ones on the other.