东秦岭南洛河中游地区发现的旧石器和黄土堆积

对2006～2007年在东秦岭南洛河中游地区河南省卢氏和洛宁两县发现的8处旷野类型旧石器地点的160余件石制品进行了初步研究,并对产出石制品的黄土堆积剖面进行了地层学分析和光释光测年。初步结果表明,南洛河中游地区的旧石器工业很丰富,石制品的加工技术与上游洛南盆地一致,同样采取硬锤直接打击法;加工石制品的原料来自于河流堆积物中的石英岩和石英砾石等;石制品中有相当数量的小型石片和由小型石片二次加工修理而成的工具,还有直接由砾石加工而成的重型工具,如手镐等;除此之外,大型石片以及以大型石片加工而成的重型工具,如重型刮削器也多有所见。由于工作范围和力度的局限,南洛河中游地区目前尚未发现上游洛南盆地旧石器遗址中广泛存在的手斧、三棱手镐、薄刃斧和大型石刀等Acheulian类型两面加工技术生产的工具。新发现的南洛河中游旧石器地点分布在不同时期形成的河流阶地和黄土地层中。地层分析和光释光年代测试表明,南洛河中游地区的黄土堆积至少从中更新世便已经开始,并一直持续到全新世,至少在黄土剖面中S₁,S₃和S₄的3个层位有石器分布;其黄土-古土壤旋回不仅可以用于石制品产出层位的准确定年,还指示了早期人类石器工业演化和人类生存环境变化的过程。

A PRELIMINARY SURVEY OF PALAEOLITHIC ARTIFACTS AND LOESS DEPOSIT IN THE MIDDLE SOUTH LUOHE RIVER,EASTERN QINLING MOUNTAINS,CENTRAL CHINA

A total of eight Palaeolithic open-air sites were identified in Lushi Basin and Luoning area in the middle South Luohe River,Central China,and more than 160 lithic artifacts in these open-air sites were collected during the 2006～2007 investigations.The catchment of South Luohe River is regarded as one of the most important place for hominid living in the recent geological time.The newly discovered open-site artifacts are distributed on different terraces of the South Luohe River and its branches.The preliminary analysis suggests that the lithic artifacts were made of local fluvial cobbles of the South Luohe River.The lithic artifacts consist of hammer stone,cores,flakes,retouched tools and flaking debris;the retouched tools include choppers,heavy-duty scrapers,small scrapers,picks,points and burins.Composition and technology of the lithic artifacts share some common characteristics with that in the Luonan Basin of the upper catchment of South Luohe River.Although we have not found Acheaulian-like tools such as hand-axes and cleavers from Lushi Basin and Luoning area in these preliminary investigations,more surveys on these places hopefully identify more types of lithic artifacts.The loess deposit in Lushi Basin and Luoning area is located at various river terraces,their thickness varies from several to tens meters with typical loess and paleo-sol alternations,these aeolian silt deposits presents a useful tool to date the artifacts and to reconstruct the past environment changes.A loess stratigraphy analysis shows that the loess-paleo-sol sequences are similar to the typical loess sequences in Central Chinese Loess Plateau,which is well dated and the reliable time-scale has been obtained.The loess deposit in Lushi Basin and Luoning area is relatively continuous and started to deposit since at least 500ka ago,the independent optically stimulated luminescence dating and magnetic susceptibility measurement confirm this preliminary conclusion.The in-situ lithic artifacts and gravels buried in the loess together indicate human lived in Lushi Basin at least since the Middle Pleistocene,because we found artifacts and gravels in the paleo-sol of S ₁,S ₃ and S ₄ of the loess sequence.These preliminary observations indicate the area of middle South Luohe River is very important and worth to be further investigated in order to understand human evolution in the Middle to Late Pleistocene.