Abstract
The Chinese open-air site Xuchang-Lingjing (Henan) is located near the border between the Palearctic and the Oriental biozone in a lowland depression at the southern edge of the North China Plain. The site yielded a Middle Palaeolithic assemblage that includes the two fragmented, incomplete human (possibly Denisovan) skulls (Xuchang 1 and Xuchang 2), more than 15,000 artefacts and more than 40,000 mammalian remains representing at least 20 taxa. The composition of the faunal assemblage is biased by hominin hunting activities; it is, however, diverse and “natural” enough to be used as a proxy to reconstruct the paleoenvironmental condition during the human occupation of the site. The Palearctic faunal assemblage indicates a grassland-dominated palaeoecological environment, with a mosaic of scattered forest and mixed forest vegetation as well as along rivers and/or lakes the occurrence of swampy areas and with bushes. The OSL-dates and the assumed correlation with the last interglacial (MIS 5) palaeosol strongly suggest that we are dealing with an interglacial fauna. However, the fact that the Lingjing assemblage represents the southernmost Palearctic fauna questions the assumption that the Lingjing Middle Palaeolithic finds date from an interglacial period. A late Middle Pleistocene (MIS 6) or Late Pleistocene glacial or stadial phase (MIS 4) seems more likely.
Highlights
The discovery of hominin remains generally triggers questions about the age of the finds as well as about the environmental conditions in which the discovered hominin operated
A variety of sedimentary and archaeological indicators show that the disturbance is limited. They concluded that the un interrupted vertical distribution of the Middle Palaeolithic finds throughout the Layers 10 and 11 sequence along with the large number of faunal remains representing different taxa, demonstrates that the site was occupied by humans repeatedly over a relatively long period (Li et al, 2018)
This paper presents a systematic summarizing overview of the fossil materials as well as the most significant diagnostic features of the large mammal species encountered in the Middle Palaeolithic horizon of Lingjing Layer 10 and 11
Summary
The discovery of hominin remains generally triggers questions about the age of the finds as well as about the environmental conditions in which the discovered hominin operated. The Chinese open-air site Xuchang-Lingjing (Henan) yielded a Mid dle Palaeolithic assemblage with two eastern Eurasian late archaic hominin (incomplete) skulls (Li et al, 2017a; Trinkaus and Wu 2017), >15,400 artefacts and a large number of vertebrate remains represent ing >20 taxa. Rich in Middle Palaeolithic lithic artefacts and fossil human and animal remains are the base of Layer 10 and the upper part of Layer 11. A variety of sedimentary and archaeological indicators show that the disturbance is limited They concluded that the un interrupted vertical distribution (up to >1 m) of the Middle Palaeolithic finds throughout the Layers 10 and 11 sequence along with the large number of faunal remains representing different taxa, demonstrates that the site was occupied by humans repeatedly over a relatively long period (Li et al, 2018)
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