Paleolithic Cultures in China: Uniqueness and Divergence

This paper presents an overview of the Chinese Paleolithic industries between 300 ka and 40 ka, a time span now termed the “later Early Paleolithic” (LEP) in the Chinese chronological scheme. It describes the unique features of LEP remains in China compared with contemporaneous materials in Africa a...

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Bibliographic Details
Published in:Current anthropology 2013-12, Vol.54 (S8), p.S358-S370
Main Author: Gao, Xing
Format: Article
Language:English
Subjects:
Adaptation
African culture
Alternative Approaches
Archaeological dating
Archaeological research
Asia
China
Chinese culture
Conferences
Cross-national analysis
Cultural anthropology
Cultural Pluralism
Eurasia
Far East
Fossils
Generalities
Hand axes
History of technology
Human evolution
Humans
Lithic industry
Material culture
Methodology and general studies
Multiculturalism
Palaeolithic and mesolithic
Paleolithic Age
Pebbles
Peoples Republic of China
Prehistoric technology
Prehistoric tools
Prehistory and protohistory
Raw Materials
Scrapers
Stone Age
Stone tools
Typology, technology and attribute analysis
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Summary:This paper presents an overview of the Chinese Paleolithic industries between 300 ka and 40 ka, a time span now termed the “later Early Paleolithic” (LEP) in the Chinese chronological scheme. It describes the unique features of LEP remains in China compared with contemporaneous materials in Africa and western Eurasia as well as the internal diversity and complexity of these Chinese Paleolithic assemblages. Basic features of LEP remains in China include the persistent and conservative pebble-tool and simple flake-tool traditions, the use of poor-quality local raw materials, tool fabrication on pebbles and direct use of unretouched flakes, opportunistic flaking, simple and casual modification, and the lack of obvious temporal trends. The diversity and complexity of Chinese Paleolithic cultures as they are expressed in terms of the major difference between southern China’s pebble-tool tradition and northern China’s simple flake-tool tradition are also assessed. Based on such generalizations and analyses, a comprehensive behavioral model is proposed to explain the unique features of LEP cultures in China and the alternative pathway of human evolution and adaptation in China during that period of time.
ISSN:0011-3204
1537-5382
DOI:10.1086/673502