The Emergence of Blade Industry in Late Upper Paleolithic Central Plain of China

Summary

The lithic remains of blade manufacturing have been found in the Central China Plain dating to roughly 25 ka B.P. Based on chaîne opératoire analysis of lithic assemblages from Dongshi and Xishi sites, the blade industry in this region shared many features in common with typical blade industries of Western Eurasia. Such discovery challenges the presumption that the hinterland of East Asia lacked the development of blade industrialization during the Paleolithic age. The emergence of blade crafting reflects a great change in technical tradition in North China and begs the question of whether this change was caused by cultural transmission from the north and west or whether it was stimulated by a shift in local adaptive strategy. By comparing the lithic assemblages in larger temporal and spatial frames, as well as by exploring the technical organization of blade manufacturing in the Central China Plain, it is argued that the emergence of the typical blade industry in this region was influenced more by cultural transmissions from the Eurasian Steppe. Additionally, environment changes of the Central China Plain at 25 ka B.P. created a positive condition for the local people to accept this new technology and reform it in later periods.

This Resource is Part of the Following Collections

• Society for American Archaeology 82nd Annual Meeting, Vancouver, BC (2017)

Keywords

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Record Identifiers

Abstract Id(s): 15056