Re-thinking the evolution of microblade technology in East Asia: Techno-functional understanding of the lithic assemblage from Shizitan 29 (Shanxi, China)

Abstract

The lithic assemblage from Shizitan 29, a late Upper Paleolithic open-air site in Shanxi, China, provides evidence for the earliest, well-dated microblade production in East Asia, ca. 26/24 Ka cal BP. To pursue a behavioral rather than traditional typological understanding of this key adaptive technology, we apply a techno-functional approach that enables us to reconstruct the entire operational sequence in behavioral terms through the derivation of technical objectives. This methodology can serve as a model to be applied to other assemblages for greater understanding of the origins and spread of the broadly distributed eastern Asian Late Pleistocene microblade industries. Within the eight cultural layers at Shizitan 29, microblade production abruptly appears at the top of Layer 7 following earlier core-and-flake production, supporting hypotheses of microblade technology arising within adaptive strategies to worsening Late Glacial Maximum environments. Significantly, reconstruction of the operational sequence supports microblade technology being introduced into the North China Loess Plateau from regions further north. It also allows us to re-think microblades’ relationship in behavioral terms with earlier limited examples of East Asian blade production and the evolution and spread of microblade technology, providing new insights into the adaptive relationships between subsequent microblade productions.

History, Chronology and Techno-Typology of the Upper Paleolithic Sequence in the Shuidonggou Area, Northern China

“…3. Microblade technology, a highly-evolved version of UP, appeared in the Shuidonggou area in the early Holocene, around 15 ka later than in other regions of northern China, such as the Nihewan Basin, Henan, and Shanxi Province (Song et al 2017(Song et al , 2019Wang and Qu 2014). Madsen et al (2001) proposed a hypothesis based on the findings at SDG 2 that microblade technology originated from a combination of large blade technology and bipolar technology.…”

“…The origins of microblade technology have been debated for decades (Jia 1978;Kuzmin, Keates and Shen 2007;Song et al 2019;Yi, Gao, Li and Chen 2016, and references therein). Siberia, Mongolia and north China are all candidates for its emergence, and two main hypotheses have been proposed: (a) microblade technology developed from prismatic blade assemblages such as have been found at Ust-Karakol in the Siberian Altai (e.g., Derevianko and Shunkov 2004;Keates 2007;Kuzmin 2007;Yi et al 2016); or (b) it derived from core and flake assemblages such those known from the Xujiayao and Shiyu sites in North China (e.g., Jia 1978;Jia, Gai and You 1972).…”

Diachronic Change in the Utilization of Ostrich Eggshell at the Late Paleolithic Shizitan Site, North China

“…First discovered in 1980, and with several localities excavated between 2000 and 2010, the sequence for the site, ranging from ca. 30 to 8.5 Ka cal BP, is best represented at excavated localities SZT29 and SZT9, which have contexts extending from before and during the Last Glacial Maximum (LGM) and through the Younger Dryas (YD) into the Early Holocene, with correlating changes in their Late Paleolithic material cultural records (Shizitan Archaeological Team, 2010;Song et al, 2017;Song et al, 2019).…”

“…Layer 7 reflects the onset of colder and drier conditions during the LGM (Song et al, 2017). Song et al (2019) divide Layer 7 into two stratigraphical sampling units based on the excavated 10 cm spits in order to investigate a major lithic technological change: "Layer 7 Base" represents the earlier "advanced core and flake industry" in spits 7-12 that continued from Layer 8, and "Layer 7 Top" represents spits 1-2, where microblade production replaces the earlier core and flake industry (and is one of the earlier true microblade pressure productions in North China) (Song et al, 2019). The earliest OES pendants at SZT29 appear in Layer 7 Spits 5-2: it is not clear if they appear before a limited amount of microblade technology is present at the site.…”

A Techno-Functional Interpretation of the Lithic Assemblage from Fontana Ranuccio (Anagni, Central Italy): an Insight into a MIS 11 Human Behaviour

“…In fact, various features, such as retouch activity or the small dimensions of the implements, do not allow the preservation of anvil marks on the tools, so it is hard to provide an accurate estimate for anvil percussion in the Fontana Ranuccio assemblage. Nevertheless, on the basis of a long-term experience on this subject (Bietti and Grimaldi 1991;Grimaldi 1996;Grimaldi et al 1999;Grimaldi and Santaniello 2014;Song et al 2019), also supported by a robust experimental dataset (Bietti et al 2009), we suggest anvil percussion could have played a very important role during the Middle Pleistocene in the production of blanks made from small pebbles or cobbles such as the case in Fontana Ranuccio as well as in other European sites (see for instance Mourre and Jarry 2009-2010 and references therein).…”