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Glacial cycles and Palaeolithic adaptive variability on China's Western Loess Plateau

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  02 January 2015

Christopher Morgan ,
Loukas Barton ,
Robert Bettinger ,
Fahu Chen  and
Zhang Dongju
Christopher Morgan
Affiliation:
Utah State University, Anthropology Program, 0730 Old Main Hill, Logan, UT 84322-0730, USA (Email: chris.morgan@usu.edu)
Loukas Barton
Affiliation:
University of Alaska, Department of Anthropology, P.O. Box 757720, Fairbanks, AK 99775-7720, USA (Email: lwbarton@alaska.edu)
Robert Bettinger
Affiliation:
University of California, Department of Anthropology, One Shields Ave., Davis, CA 95616-8522, USA (Email: rlbettinger@ucdavis.edu)
Fahu Chen
Affiliation:
Lanzhou University, MOE Key Laboratory of West China's Environmental System, 222 Tianshuinanlu, Lanzhou, Gansu, China 730000 (Email: fhchen@lzu.edu.cn; zhangdj04@gmail.com)
Zhang Dongju
Affiliation:
Lanzhou University, MOE Key Laboratory of West China's Environmental System, 222 Tianshuinanlu, Lanzhou, Gansu, China 730000 (Email: fhchen@lzu.edu.cn; zhangdj04@gmail.com)
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Extract

Intensive research on China's Western Loess Plateau has located 63 Palaeolithic deposits, which together allow the authors to present a general model of hominin occupation from 80 000 to 18 000 years ago. Tools, subsistence and settlement correlate nicely with the climate: the warm wet MIS3 seeing expansion and more organised acquisition of quartz, and the Late Glacial Maximum that followed, a reduction in human presence but possibly an increase in ingenuity.

Keywords

ChinaclimateMIS3LGMlithics
Type
Debate
Information
Antiquity , Volume 85 , Issue 328 , June 2011 , pp. 365 - 379
Copyright
Copyright © Antiquity Publications Ltd 2011

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