![]() ![]() Once the artifact assemblage is classified, based upon this typology or another typology, the specimens can be tabulated, measured, and assessed. All debitage without a single recognizable dorsal and ventral surface is considered to be angular shatter. Flake debitage without a striking platform is considered to be flake shatter. Proximal flakes are those with a recognizable striking platform. The flake debitage is further separated based upon the presence or absence of a striking platform. The debitage (artifacts on the right side of the flowchart) are also separated based upon flake characteristics into a flake group and a nonflake group. Those tools with a single recognizable dorsal and a single recognizable ventral surface are considered flake tools and the other tools (not bifaces and not flake tools) are considered core tools. The tools included in the nonbifacial category are separated into flake tools and core tools based on the presence of a single recognizable dorsal and ventral surface (flake characteristics). Bifaces are further separated into those with haft elements (hafted bifaces) and those without haft elements (unhafted bifaces). Those tools without biface shaping and flaking are nonbifacial tools. Tools that have two surfaces which meet to form an edge that circumscribes the entire tool, and which have flakes removed on both surfaces are bifaces. Chipped stone artifacts that have no intentional modification or modification resulting from use are on the right side of the chart (debitage). All chipped stone artifacts located on the left side of the chart are objective pieces that have been intentionally modified or modified by use (tools). If the artifact is not made from chipped stone, it is not included in the flowchart. The typology begins with chipped stone artifacts. Flowchart showing chipped stone typology with seven artifact types. However, flake-tool modification was not as extensive as those in northern China, and the toolkits there were not as diverse.įigure 3. Flake-tool blanks were made from large pebble/cobble raw materials by anvil-chipping or throwing techniques, and then altered along the working edge by retouching in order to make them into suitable tools. The best examples of the southern flake-tool industry are from the Hanyuan Fuling site of Sichuan province, as well as two cave sites, Maomaodong and Baiyandong. The development of this trend is well documented from the Three Gorge assemblages, through the Ziyang Locality B assemblage, to the Tongliang lithic assemblages. It seems that the Shiyu occupants, who lived around 29 000 BP, were wild horse hunters.įlake-tool industries became more frequent in southern China but typologically and technologically these flake tools were distinctive from these in northern China, suggesting a local technological innovation. Faunal analysis suggests most animal species are adapted to a prairie environment – there were at least 200 individuals of wild horses and wild donkeys. A large quantity of faunal remains was recovered from the site, animal teeth alone counting for roughly 5000 pieces. Most flake blanks were also observed to be of regular size. Their working edges were finely retouched, probably by soft-hammers. Shiyu, identified and excavated in 1963, yielded thousands of flake tools predominated by various shapes of scrapers: most of them were between 20 and 30 mm in length. Standardizing toolkits were clearly adapted to northern hunting strategy that mobilized human societies. Pressure technique was also developed for making tools that required intensive surface retouching such as bifaces and projectile points. Toolkits included scrapers, burins, small projectile points, drills, notches and denticulates, which were made from various raw materials and by different techniques including hard-hammer and soft-hammer percussion. Compared to previous flake-tool technology, these lithic assemblages produced flake tools that show better designed and standardized forms. ![]() Small flake industries of northern China were well represented by the Shiyu site in Shanxi province, the Xianrendong cave site of Liaoning province, and the Xiaonanhai cave site of Henan province. Chen Shen, in Encyclopedia of Archaeology, 2008 Small-flake-tool Technologyĭuring this period, flake tools from northern Late Palaeolithic sites tend to be small in size but delicately made mostly on fine quality cherts. ![]()
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