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Free keywords:
Nihewan Basin, Datianwa area, Knapping experiments, Cherts, Non-human primate, Debitage size distribution
Abstract:
石制品废片尺寸分布区间是旧石器时代遗址形成过程研究中常采用的一项衡量指标。20世纪70~80年代,美国印第安纳大学的学者Kathy Schick与Nicholas Toth针对东非肯尼亚Koobi Fora地区旧石器时代早期遗址中常见的石料与石器生产技术,开展了大量的废片尺寸分布实验研究,所产生的数据在国际学术界产生重要影响并得到广泛应用。本文在参考Kathy Schick等实验的基础上,对泥河湾盆地大田洼区域旧石器时代遗址中常见的周家山、东谷坨两类燧石原料进行了废片尺寸分布实验研究,以建立该区域燧石原料的废片尺寸分布模式,为该区域遗址形成过程的研究提供直接的参考数据。实验共计25组,获得废片标本10070件。结果显示,两类燧石原料的废片尺寸分布模式基本一致,整体呈随尺寸增加废片数量比例逐渐降低的单一递减分布特征,其中0.5~1cm的比例最高,1~2cm次之,其他尺寸的比例逐渐降低。本次实验验证了Kathy Schick等获得的实验数据中小于2cm废片占绝对优势的结论,但对小于1cm的废片产品比例存在偏差,原料物理性质可能是实验结果产生偏差的原因。本文实验数据更适合作为对比数据评估泥河湾盆地早、中更新世遗址中石制品组合的完整程度。
Abstract:
Debitage size distribution is one of most effective indicators to study the site formation processes in Paleolithic archaeology. In the 1970s and 1980s, the researchers from Indiana University Kathy Schick and Nicholas Toth conducted systematic experiments on the debitage size distribution using raw materials and flaking methods of mainly Early Paleolithic in Koobi Fora region in Kenya, and finally obtained massive experimental data which have been widely accepted and applied to the study of site formation processes all over the world.
In this paper, we operated a number of debitage size distribution experiments using local raw materials Zhoujiashan cherts and Donggutuo cherts and casual core-flake knapping method in the Datianwa area in the Nihewan Basin in order to establish direct experimental data for further analysis on site formation processes in this region. 25 experiments were carried out and 10070 debitage in total were collected. The results indicate that the proportions of debitage decrease as the size increase and small debitage are extremely high throughout. Debitage of 0.5~1 cm has the highest value about 60.9% (mean value) just followed by 1~2 cm about 23.3% (mean value). This pattern is obviously different from that observed by Schick and Toth, and would be more appropriate to study the site formation processes in the Datianwa area in the Nihewan Basin.
