Luminescence dating of the Huoshiwa and Houshanpo Paleolithic sites in Hanjiang River Valley, Central China

Abstract

Many stone artifacts and Paleolithic sites can be found in Hanjiang River Valley, which is an important area of human activities. In particular, the discovery of flint artifacts has greatly enriched the understanding of the technical diversity of stone artifacts in this area. However, the lack of age data also hindered the follow-up research. On this basis, we investigated and excavated two Paleolithic sites (Huoshiwa and Houshanpo) in Shigu village of Danjiangkou Reservoir Area in 2019 and found dozens of flint artifacts. The standard quartz single-aliquot regenerative dose-based optically stimulated luminescence method was used to date the samples from two Paleolithic sites. The natural OSL signals of the cultural layer samples reached saturation, the ages given could be minimum. Results showed that the ages of the cultural layer in Houshanpo and Huoshiwa sites are older than 70 and 50 ka, respectively. Our study fills in the blank of absolute age of flint artifacts in Danjiangkou Reservoir Area in Late Pleistocene, and provides chronological support for the study of the flint Paleolithic technology.