Abstract
The Xiayaogou Houshan site is one of more than 10 Paleolithic localities located during archaeological survey searching for Paleolithic localities in Xixia County, Nanyang City, Henan Province, in September 2020, carried out jointly by a team from the School of Archaeology of Jilin University and the Nanyang City Cultural Relics and Archaeology Research Institute. The Xiayaogou Houshan site lithic assemblage includes cores, tools, and chunks, with small, flaked stone artifacts being the most abundant. Analysis of the lithics shows that the main industrial features are hard hammer percussion technology and bipolar technology. Scrapers are the most abundant retouched tool, and they were retouched by direct percussion with a mainly forward direction of retouch. All of the lithic artifacts found were chipped, and there were no ground or polished stone objects or pottery found. There were also no cultural materials suitable for dating, such as animal bone or carbonized plant materials, discovered. The available geological, stratigraphic, and artifact evidence, however, suggests that this locality should date to the Middle Pleistocene. Thus, Xiayaogou Houshan is likely an Early Paleolithic period locality.
This is a preview of subscription content, log in via an institution to check access.
Data availability
The original contributions presented in the study are included in the article.
References
Henan sheng di zhikuang chan ju, 河南省地质矿产局. 1989. Henan Sheng qu yu di zhi zhi 河南省区域地质志 (Regional geology of Henan Province). Beijing: Di zhi chu ban she.
Li, Hao李浩, Li Chaorong李超荣, and Feng Xingwu 冯兴无. 2012. 2004 nian Danjiangkou ku qu diao cha fa xian shi zhi pin 2004年丹江口库区调查发现的石制品 (A study on the stone artifacts from 2004 field investigation in Danjinagkou Reservoir Area, Hubei and Henan, China). Ren lei xue bao 人类学学报 (Acta Anthropological Sinica) 2012(5):113-126.
Li, Zhanyang李占扬, and Chai Zhongqing 柴中庆. 1991. (Paleolithic discovered in Xiaodong of Xixia, Henan Province). Zhongyuan wen wu 中原文物 1991(02):116.
Niu, Dongwei 牛东伟, Peng Fei 彭菲, Pei Shuwen 裴树文, and Ma Ning 马宁. 2014. (The paleolithic locality at Baidutan in the Danjiangkou Reservoir inundated region). Ren lei xue bao 人類學報 33:149-161.
Pei, Shuwen裴树文, and Song Guoding 宋国定. 2006. (Preliminary report on Paleolithic from Xixia, Henan Province). Ren lei xue bao人类学学报 2006(04):323-331.
Wang, Shejiang王社江, Sun Xuefeng 孙雪峰, Lu Huayu鹿化煜, Yi Shuangwen 弋双文, Zhang Caike 张改课, Xing Luda 邢路达, Zhuo Haixin 卓海昕, Yu Kaifeng 俞凯峰, and Wang Wei 王頠. 2014. Newly discovered Paleolithic Open-air sites in Hanzhong basin in Upper Valley of Hanjiang river and their age. Ren lei xue bao 人类学学报 33:125-136.
Wei, Qi卫奇. 2001. (Discussion on observation format of stone artifacts). (Proceedings of the 8th Annual Conference of Ancient Vertebrate Society of China), ed. 第八届中国古脊椎动物学学术年会论文集 PAGES [10]. City: China Ocean Press.
Xia, Wenting夏文婷, Wang Shejiang 王社江, Xia Nan 夏楠, Lu Huayu 鹿化煜, Wang Xianyan 王先彦, Sun Xuefeng 孙雪峰, Zhang Hongyan 张红艳, Zhang Wenchao 张文超, Zhuo Haixing 卓海昕, Xing Luda 邢路达, Yu Qingyao 于青瑶, Feng Wuming 冯武明. 2018. Hanzhong pen di Longgangsi yi zhi di 3 di dian chu tu de shi zhi pin 汉中盆地龙岗寺遗址第 3 地点出土的石制品. Ren lei xue bao 人类学学报 37: 529–541.
Zhang, Weihua张维华. 1986. (New Paleolithic and human fossils found in Henan Province). Zhongyuan wen wu 中原文物 1986. 1: 1-15.
Acknowledgements
The participants in the investigation are Professor Chen Quanjia陈全家, Professor of Archaeology College of Jilin University, Dr. Song Jiaxing 宋家兴, Dr. Dou Jiaxin 窦佳欣, and Comrade Li Changzhou 李长周, and Yuhang 余杭 of the Nanyang Institute of Cultural Relics and Archaeology. During the investigation by Jilin University College of Archaeology, Nanyang Institute of Cultural relics and Archaeology leadership strong support, here to express gratitude.
Funding
This work was funded by grants from the National Social Science Foundation of China (18BKG033), the Interdisciplinary Scientific Research Team Project of Jilin University (10183JXTD202006), and the Postgraduate Education Reform Project of Jilin University (2021JGY42).
Author information
Authors and Affiliations
Contributions
C. W., X. Z., conducted and designed the study. X. Z. wrote an initial version of the manuscript. All co-authors reviewed and made modifications to the final version of the manuscript.
Corresponding author
Ethics declarations
Ethics statements
Studies involving animal subjects.
Generated Statement: No animal studies are presented in this manuscript.
Studies involving human subjects.
Generated Statement: No human studies are presented in this manuscript.
Inclusion of identifiable human date.
Generated Statement: No potentially identifiable human images or date is presented in this study.
Competing interests
The authors declare that they have no known competing financial interests or personal relationships that could have appeared to influence the work reported in this paper.
Rights and permissions
About this article
Cite this article
Zhang, X., Wang, C. A likely Early Paleolithic lithic assemblage from the Xiayaogou Houshan site, Central China. asian archaeol (2024). https://doi.org/10.1007/s41826-023-00081-5
Received:
Accepted:
Published:
DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/s41826-023-00081-5