ARCHAEOLOGICAL PERSPECTIVES IN THE NIHEWAN BASIN, CHINA

Paleolithic archaeological sites in the Nihewan Basin (previously Nihowan) in northern China were visited and their excavated materials examined in order to assess their potential for future research. Paleomagnetic studies have indicated that the older sites here may extend back to the late Early Pleistocene (ca. 1 m.y.a.); radiocarbon dates for the later sites indicate later Late Pleistocene age (ca. 11,000 B.P.). Previous work has found the earlier sites in the sedimentary seqeunce to be contained within magnetically reversed sediments believed to lie below the Jaramillo Subchron (ca. 0·97 m.y.a.), and thus they may represent some of the earliest occupations ofHomo erectus in eastern Asia. The stratigraphic contexts of these sites were examined in the field, excavated artefacts were studied in the laboratory, and preliminary artefact replication experiments were carried out. Artefact assemblages at the earlier sites are made primarily in local cherts and are technologically simple industries predominated by unmodified flakes and fragments, with some flaked cobbles and chunks but relatively few modified or retouched pieces. Most of the sites are in fine-grained sediments indicating low-energy conditions of deposition in fluvial/lacustrine environments, and their artefacts are in very good, fresh condition; thus they may preservein situ evidence of activity patterns. An in-depth analysis is being conducted of Donggutuo, one of the earlier sites. Preliminary results of this study indicate good potential for conjoining of flaked artefacts, microwear analysis, analysis of cut-marked and carnivore-gnawed bone, and intrasite spatial studies of possible activity patterns ofHomo erectus in eastern Asia in the Early Pleistocene. © 1991 Academic Press Limited.