Use-wear analysis has become an important technique in Palaeolithic archaeology.Based on a historical review of the development of the use-wear technique in the West and China, this article introduces both the high po...Use-wear analysis has become an important technique in Palaeolithic archaeology.Based on a historical review of the development of the use-wear technique in the West and China, this article introduces both the high power and low power methods, their conditions in detail, the criteria of identification, and the operation procedure. Moreover, the author gives preliminary results of the use-wear examination of the Xiaochangliang lithic artifacts, and discusses problems and prospects of present-day use-wear studies.展开更多
During 2007-2008 excavations at the Lingjing site near Xuchang,Henan Province,dated back to around 100-80 ka ago,a large quantity of mammalian fossil remains were recovered along with a remarkable cluster of Early Mod...During 2007-2008 excavations at the Lingjing site near Xuchang,Henan Province,dated back to around 100-80 ka ago,a large quantity of mammalian fossil remains were recovered along with a remarkable cluster of Early Modern Human(EMH) skull fragments in situ.Observably some of those animal bones were probably modified into tools.A use-wear analysis was carried out to examine the functions of modified bone tools.The results suggest that Lingjing bone tools were used for drilling,penetrating,and scraping animal substances,and that some might have been hafted during the use.This study confirms that early existence ofintentionally-modified bone tools at human occupations of the early Late Pleistocene in northern China.This discovery suggests making and use of bone tools were inevitably a part of early human behaviors and cultural development,as such of stone tools.展开更多
Chipped-stone "adze-shaped objects" (ASOs) were identified from a few Upper Palaeolithic sites in northern China. Its morpho- logical form resembles to ground-stone type-specific adze, but the function of th...Chipped-stone "adze-shaped objects" (ASOs) were identified from a few Upper Palaeolithic sites in northern China. Its morpho- logical form resembles to ground-stone type-specific adze, but the function of the ASO has never been assessed. The objective of this study is to investigate the use function of this particular tool type recovered from the Hutouliang site in the Nihewan Basin of northern China. In this study, the lithic use-wear analysis is applied to examining microscopically edge-damages and sur- face-rounding of the tools in order to assess how they were employed. The result suggests that the ASO might have been used as woodworking tools with a hafted shaft, providing evidence for the appearance of the earliest hafted chipped-stone adzes prior to 10000 years ago in northern China. This study also demonstrates that the use-wear technique is an innovated and effective analytic appraoch to the study of stone tool functions that has been conventionally treated by typo-technological analyses. Stone tool use-patterns revealed by use-wear evidence would shed new insights on prehistoric adaptive strategies of modern human in northern China.展开更多
文摘Use-wear analysis has become an important technique in Palaeolithic archaeology.Based on a historical review of the development of the use-wear technique in the West and China, this article introduces both the high power and low power methods, their conditions in detail, the criteria of identification, and the operation procedure. Moreover, the author gives preliminary results of the use-wear examination of the Xiaochangliang lithic artifacts, and discusses problems and prospects of present-day use-wear studies.
基金中国科学院知识创新工程方向项目(KZCX2-YW-Q1-04)科技部基础项目(2006CB806400+3 种基金2007FY110200)国家自然科学基金(J0630965)中国科学院和国家外国专家局创新团队国际合作伙伴计划Fellowship fromthe American Council of Learned Societies/Henry Luce Foundation和Royal Ontario Museum Research Grant
基金supported by the National Natural Science Foundation of China(40872115)CAS/SAFEA International Partnership Program for Creative Research Teamsthe Programme of Introducing Talents of Discipline to Universities (111-2-09)
文摘During 2007-2008 excavations at the Lingjing site near Xuchang,Henan Province,dated back to around 100-80 ka ago,a large quantity of mammalian fossil remains were recovered along with a remarkable cluster of Early Modern Human(EMH) skull fragments in situ.Observably some of those animal bones were probably modified into tools.A use-wear analysis was carried out to examine the functions of modified bone tools.The results suggest that Lingjing bone tools were used for drilling,penetrating,and scraping animal substances,and that some might have been hafted during the use.This study confirms that early existence ofintentionally-modified bone tools at human occupations of the early Late Pleistocene in northern China.This discovery suggests making and use of bone tools were inevitably a part of early human behaviors and cultural development,as such of stone tools.
基金supported by the National Basic Research Program of China (Grant No. 2006CB806400)Specific Basic Research Program of Ministry of Sciences and Technology of China (Grant No. 2007FY110200)+3 种基金National Natural Science Foundation of China (Grant Nos. 40502006 and J0630965)CAS/SAFEA International Partnership Program for Creative Research TeamsHenry Luce Foundation Fellowship for East and Southeast Asian Archaeology and Early History (ACLS)Royal Ontario Museum Research Grant
文摘Chipped-stone "adze-shaped objects" (ASOs) were identified from a few Upper Palaeolithic sites in northern China. Its morpho- logical form resembles to ground-stone type-specific adze, but the function of the ASO has never been assessed. The objective of this study is to investigate the use function of this particular tool type recovered from the Hutouliang site in the Nihewan Basin of northern China. In this study, the lithic use-wear analysis is applied to examining microscopically edge-damages and sur- face-rounding of the tools in order to assess how they were employed. The result suggests that the ASO might have been used as woodworking tools with a hafted shaft, providing evidence for the appearance of the earliest hafted chipped-stone adzes prior to 10000 years ago in northern China. This study also demonstrates that the use-wear technique is an innovated and effective analytic appraoch to the study of stone tool functions that has been conventionally treated by typo-technological analyses. Stone tool use-patterns revealed by use-wear evidence would shed new insights on prehistoric adaptive strategies of modern human in northern China.
