Chronology of the Paleolithic site of Xibaimaying in the Nihewan Basin, North China, inferred from optical dating of fine-grained quartz

Abstract

The Paleolithic site of Xibaimaying (XBMY), once considered the youngest flake tool site within the Nihewan Basin, North China, is an ideal archive to study the chronological relationship between flake tool and microblade industries in the Nihewan Basin during the Upper Palaeolithic, but the previous ages obtained for the site remain controversial. From 2015 to 2019, three areas at two archaeological localities (XBMY-I and XBMY-II) of the site were excavated, and well-preserved fossils and flake tools were unearthed. In this study, a total of 26 samples were collected from the three areas for optically stimulated luminescence (OSL) dating using a single-aliquot regenerative-dose (SAR) protocol on fine-grained quartz. A shared ‘Standardized growth curve’ (SGC) for a section was constructed to reduce the time required for D e estimation. The long-term weighted average water contents of the samples during their burial period were estimated based on the in-situ water contents of continuous samples from a nearby borehole. All the OSL ages were modelled via Bayesian statistics using the OxCal software, modifying the OSL ages with stratigraphic constraints in each section. The results show that the cultural layer bearing flake tool assemblages falls within the period of 122–36 ka, indicating that the flake tool industry of the Xibaimaying site is comparable to that of the Youfangbei (108–86 ka), Banjingzi (∼86 ka) and Xinmiaozhuang (75–63 ka) sites, rather than the youngest one in the Nihewan basin, which explains why the Xibaimaying site is characterized as pure flake tool culture without any ‘advanced’ trait. The OSL dating results also shed new light on the study of sedimentary processes in the Xibaimaying site area. The different deposition rates (0.01–1.61 mm/a) for the sediments at the three newly excavated areas imply complex geomorphologic processes in the site area.