Blade production of Shuidonggou Locality1 (Northwest China): A technological perspective

Abstract

Shuidonggou Locality 1 (SDG1) contains one of the most important early blade assemblages in East Asia, and has been excavated and studied in detail since its discovery in 1923. However, most studies focus on typology and qualitative analysis along with contextual problems such as chronology and stratigraphy. This article outlines current debates on its chronology and stratigraphy, and supports a conservative wide temporal range for the SDG1 lower cultural layer of 40,000–25,000 BP. Using a combined chaîne opératoire and attribute analytical approach, we provide a quantitative technological analysis of the SDG1 lithic assemblage. Our analysis indicates that blade production was applied using two different strategies. (1) The main reduction sequence produced standard blades, elongated flakes and bladelets from broad-faced cores, and mostly from bidirectional knapping. On some broad-faced cores, the flaking surface expands to the narrow facets. In this case, the strategy shifts from a broad-faced to sub-prismatic core approach. (2) The second (and less common) reduction system produced blades and bladelets from prismatic and narrow-faced cores. Our results also indicate that SDG1 blade production was based exclusively on direct percussion and not on pressure or indirect percussion flaking, though marginal percussion was sometimes used. Comparing SDG1 with other Initial Upper Paleolithic and Early Upper Paleolithic (EUP) in Northeast Asia, we suggest the SDG1 assemblages are typologically and technologically similar to the IUP assemblage in the Altai region of Siberia and Mongolia. Given the wide chronological range of SDG1 with some EUP technological features in SDG1 assemblage, we cannot exclude the possibility of incursion of EUP technology.