Archaeological Survey and Lithic Artifacts Analysis of Prehistoric Sites in the Upper Jing River Basin, China

Abstract

ABSTRACT The Jing River Basin is one of the birthplaces of Chinese civilization, but there has been no systematic research on prehistoric archaeology in this region to date. Recently, researchers conducted archaeological surveys of four prehistoric sites in the upper reaches of the Jing River and collected a batch of lithic artifacts. This article employs a combined approach of typological analysis and technique analysis to study the lithic artifacts. Results show that the operational method involves core preparation and flaking by direct percussion. Compared to other prehistoric sites in China, it is evident that the discovered sites belong to the prehistoric culture of the upper Yellow River region. By combining the collected pottery, it can be more precisely determined that the four sites surveyed in this investigation represent the Qijia Culture of the Neolithic period. This is a unique prehistoric culture in the northwest of China.