Hostname: page-component-78c5997874-v9fdk Total loading time: 0 Render date: 2024-11-10T06:42:31.254Z Has data issue: false hasContentIssue false
  • English
  • Français

Longquan Cave: an early Upper Palaeolithic site in Henan Province, China

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  19 July 2016

Shuisheng Du ,
Xuan Li ,
Li Zhou ,
Haijiao Pang ,
Ofer Bar-Yosef  and
Xiaohong Wu
Shuisheng Du*
Affiliation:
School of History, Beijing Normal University, 19 Xinjiekouwai Dajie, Beijing 100875, China
Xuan Li
Affiliation:
School of History, Beijing Normal University, 19 Xinjiekouwai Dajie, Beijing 100875, China Luoyang Academy of Cultural Relics and Archaeology, 232 Kaiyuan Dadao, Luoyang 471000, China
Li Zhou
Affiliation:
Luoyang Academy of Cultural Relics and Archaeology, 232 Kaiyuan Dadao, Luoyang 471000, China
Haijiao Pang
Affiliation:
Luanchuan Cultural Relics Administrative Institute, 55 Xinghua Xijie, Luanchuan 471500, China
Ofer Bar-Yosef
Affiliation:
Department of Anthropology, Harvard University, 11 Divinity Avenue, Cambridge, MA 02138, USA
Xiaohong Wu
Affiliation:
School of Archaeology and Museology, Peking University, Jingchun Road, Haidian District, Beijing 100871, China
*
*Author for correspondence (Email: ssdu@bnu.edu.cn)
Get access Rights & Permissions [Opens in a new window]

Abstract

The Palaeolithic sequence of East Asia differs from that of western Eurasia in that it is characterised by core-and-flake tools. Blade industries only appear late in the sequence, long after the first appearance of modern humans; bone tools and personal ornaments may therefore function as a better marker of modern human presence. Longquan Cave provides vital new evidence to this effect, with dated hearths indicating an initial occupation around 40 kya cal BP, followed by a second period of activity around 35–31 kya cal BP. They are associated with a polished bone awl and a structured division of settlement space, features typically associated with modern humans.

Keywords

ChinaLongquan CavePalaeolithiclithicsquartzbone toolradiocarbon dating
Type
Research
Information
Antiquity , Volume 90 , Issue 352 , August 2016 , pp. 876 - 893
Copyright
Copyright © Antiquity Publications Ltd, 2016 

Access options

Get access to the full version of this content by using one of the access options below. (Log in options will check for institutional or personal access. Content may require purchase if you do not have access.)

References

Balme, J. 2013. Of boats and string: the maritime colonization of Australia. Quaternary International 285: 68–75. http://dx.doi.org/10.1016/j.quaint.2011.02.029 Google Scholar
Barker, G., Barton, H., Birs, M., Daly, P., Datan, I., Dykes, A., Farr, L., Gilbertson, D., Harrisson, B., Hunt, C., Higham, T., Kealhofer, L., Krigbaum, J., Lewis, H., McLaren, S., Paz, V., Pike, A., Piper, P., Pyatt, B., Rabett, R., Reynolds, T., Rose, J., Rushworth, G., Stephens, M., Stringer, C., Thompson, J. & Turney, C.. 2007. The ‘human revolution’ in lowland tropical Southeast Asia: the antiquity and behavior of anatomically modern humans at Niah Cave (Sarawak, Borneo). Journal of Human Evolution 52: 243–61. http://dx.doi.org/10.1016/j.jhevol.2006.08.011 Google Scholar
Bar-Yosef, O. 2015a. Chinese Palaeolithic challenges for interpretations of Palaeolithic archaeology. Anthropologie 53: 77–92.Google Scholar
Bar-Yosef, O. 2015b. In search of group identity—Late Pleistocene foragers in northern China, in Coward, F., Hosefield, R., Pope, M. & Wenban-Smith, F. (ed.) Settlement, society and cognition in human evolution: landscapes in mind: 214–33. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press. http://dx.doi.org/10.1017/CBO9781139208697 Google Scholar
Bar-Yosef, O. & Belfer-Cohen, A.. 2013. Following Pleistocene road signs of human dispersals across Eurasia. Quaternary International 285: 30–43. http://dx.doi.org/10.1016/j.quaint.2011.07.043 Google Scholar
Bar-Yosef, O. & Wang, Y.. 2012. Paleolithic archaeology in China. Annual Review of Anthropology 41: 319–35.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Bronk Ramsey, C. 2009. Bayesian analysis of radiocarbon dates. Radiocarbon 51: 337–60.Google Scholar
Chen, B.C., Li, J.J. & Yu, S.F.. 2001. A Paleolithic site in Sanming city, Fujian Province. Acta Anthropologica Sinica 20: 256–70 (in Chinese).Google Scholar
Chen, C. 2007. Techno-typological comparison of microblade cores from East Asia and North America, in Kuzmin, Y.V., Keates, S.G. & Shen, C. (ed.) Origin and spread of microblade technology in northeastern Asia and North America: 7–38. Burnaby: Archaeology Press, Simon Fraser University.Google Scholar
Dennell, R. 2009. The Palaeolithic settlement of Asia. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press.Google Scholar
Du, S.S. 2007. Periodization, regionalization and other problems of the Late Palaeolithic culture in northern China. Acta Archaeologica Sinica 26: 127–56 (in Chinese).Google Scholar
Fu, Q., Meyer, M., Gao, X., Stenzel, U., Burbano, H.A., Kelso, J. & Pääbo, S.. 2013. DNA analysis of an early modern human from Tianyuan Cave, China. Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences of the USA 110: 2223–27. http://dx.doi.org/10.1073/pnas.1221359110 Google Scholar
Gao, X. 2013. Alternative pathways to complexity: evolutionary trajectories in the Middle Paleolithic and Middle Stone Age. Current Anthropology 54 (S8): 358–70. http://dx.doi.org/10.1086/673502 Google Scholar
Gao, X., Guan, Y., Chen, F., Yi, M., Pei, S. & Wang, H.. 2014. The discovery of late Paleolithic boiling stones at SDG 12, north China. Quaternary International 347: 91–96. http://dx.doi.org/10.1016/j.quaint.2014. 07.003 Google Scholar
Guan, Y., Gao, X., Wang, H.M., Chen, F.Y., Pei, S.W., Zhang, X.L. & Zhou, Z.Y.. 2011. Spatial analysis of intra-site use at a Late Palaeolithic site at Shuidonggou, northwest China. Chinese Science Bulletin 56: 3457–63.Google Scholar
Green, R.E., Krause, J., Briggs, A.W., Maricic, T., Stenzel, U., Kircher, M., Patterson, N., Li, H., Zhai, W., Hsi-Yang Fritz, M., Hansen, N.F., Durand, E.Y., Malaspinas, A.-S., Jensen, J.D., Marques-Bonet, T., Alkan, C., Prüfer, K., Meyer, M., Burbano, H.A., Good, J.M., Schultz, R., Aximu-Petri, A., Butthof, A., Höber, B., Höffner, B., Siegemund, M., Weihmann, A., Nusbaum, C., Lander, E.S., Russ, C., Novod, N., Affourtit, J., Egholm, M., Verna, C., Rudan, P., Brajkovic, D., Kucan, Z., Gušic, I., Doronichev, V.B., Golovanova, L.V., Lalueza-Fox, C., de la Rasilla, M., Fortea, J., Rosas, A., Schmitz, R.W., Johnson, P.L.F., Eichler, E.E., Falush, D., Birney, E., Mullikin, J.C., Slatkin, M., Nielsen, R., Kelso, J., Lachmann, M., Reich, D. & Pääbo, S.. 2010. A draft sequence of the Neanderthal genome. Science 328: 710–28. http://dx.doi.org/10.1126/science.1188021 Google Scholar
Habgood, P.J. & Franklin, N.R.. 2008. The revolution that didn't arrive: a review of Pleistocene Sahul. Journal of Human Evolution 55: 187–222. http://dx.doi.org/10.1016/j.jhevol.2007.11.006 Google Scholar
Huang, W.W., Zhang, Z.H., Fu, R.Y., Chen, B.F., Liu, J.Y., Zhu, M.Y. & Wu, H.K.. 1986. Bone artifact and adornment uncovered in Xiaogushan Cave, Haicheng, Liaoning province. Acta Anthropologica Sinica 5: 259–66 (in Chinese).Google Scholar
Li, J.J. & Fan, X.C.. 2006. Formation and stratigraphy of Chuanfan Cave. Acta Anthropologica Sinica 25: 153–60 (in Chinese).Google Scholar
Li, F., Kuhn, S.L., Gao, X. & Chen, F.Y.. 2013. Re-examination of the dates of large blade technology in China: a comparison of Shuidonggou locality 1 and locality 2. Journal of Human Evolution 64: 161–68. http://dx.doi.org/10.1016/j.jhevol.2012.11.001 Google Scholar
Mellars, P., Gori, K.C., Carr, M., Soares, P.A. & Richards, M.B.. 2013. Genetic and archaeological perspectives on the initial modern human colonization of southern Asia. Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences of the USA 110: 10699–704. http://dx.doi.org/10.1073/pnas.1306043110 Google Scholar
Pei, W.C. 1939. The upper cave industry of Choukoutian. Palaeontologia Sinica (D9): 1–36.Google Scholar
Pei, S.W., Gao, X., Wang, H., Kuman, K., Bae, C.J., Chen, F., Guan, Y., Zhang, Y., Zhang, X., Peng, F. & Li, X.. 2012. The Shuidonggou site complex: new excavations and implications for the earliest Late Paleolithic in North China. Journal of Archaeological Science 39: 3610–26. http://dx.doi.org/10.1016/j.jas.2012.06.028 Google Scholar
Qu, T.L., Bar-Yosef, O., Wang, Y.P. & Wu, X.H.. 2013. The Chinese Upper Paleolithic: geography, chronology, and techno-typology. Journal of Archaeological Research 21: 1–73. http://dx.doi.org/10.1007/s10814-012-9059-4 Google Scholar
Reimer, P.J., Bard, E., Bayliss, A., Beck, J.W., Blackwell, P.G., Ramsey, C. Bronk, Buck, C.E., Cheng, H., Edwards, R.L., Friedrich, M., Grootes, P.M., Guilderson, T.P., Haflidason, H., Hajdas, I., Hatté, C., Heaton, T.J., Hoffmann, D.L., Hogg, A.G., Hughen, K.A., Kaiser, K.F., Kromer, B., Manning, S.W., Niu, M., Reimer, R.W., Richards, D.A., Scott, E.M., Southon, J.R., Staff, R.A., Turney, C.S.M. & van der Plicht, J.. 2013. IntCal13 and Marine13 radiocarbon age calibration curves 0–50,000 years cal BP. Radiocarbon 55: 1869–87. http://dx.doi.org/10.2458/azu_js_rc.55.16947 Google Scholar
Shang, H. & Trinkaus, E.. 2010. The early modern human from Tianyuan Cave, China. Austin: Texas A&M University Press.Google Scholar
Shang, H., Tong, H., Zhang, S., Chen, F. & Trinkaus, E.. 2007. An early modern human from Tianyuan Cave, Zhoukoudian, China. Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences of the USA 104: 6573–78. http://dx.doi.org/10.1073/pnas.0702169104 Google Scholar
Zhang, J.-F., Wang, X.-Q., Qiu, W.-L., Shelach, G., Hu, G., Fu, X., Zhuang, M.-G. & Zhou, L.-P. 2011. The Paleolithic site of Longwangchan in the middle Yellow River, China: chronology, paleoenvironment and implications. Journal of Archaeological Science 38: 1537–50. http://dx.doi.org/10.1016/j.jas.2011.02.019 Google Scholar
Zhang, S-Q., d'Errico, F., Backwell, L.R., Zhang, Y., Gen, F. & Gao, X.. 2016. Ma'anshan cave and the origin of bone tool technology in China. Journal of Archaeological Science 65: 57–69.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Zhou, L., Li, X., Pang, H.J. & Du, S.S.. 2011. Preliminary analysis of lithic assemblage excavated in Longquan Cave, Henan Province, central China. Quaternary Research 31: 972–81 (in Chinese).Google Scholar