Hostname: page-component-586b7cd67f-rcrh6 Total loading time: 0 Render date: 2024-11-24T15:11:02.160Z Has data issue: false hasContentIssue false
  • English
  • Français

Fact or fiction: the Middle Palaeolithic in China

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  19 January 2015

Feng Li
Feng Li*
Affiliation:
Key Laboratory of Vertebrate Evolution and Human Origins of the Chinese Academy of Sciences, Institute of Vertebrate Paleontology and Paleoanthropology, Chinese Academy of Sciences, 142 Xizhimenwai Street, Beijing 100044, China (Email: [email protected])
Get access Rights & Permissions [Opens in a new window]

Abstract

The subdivision of the Chinese Palaeolithic is a controversial topic. A recent article in Antiquity (Yee 2012) critiqued Gao’s two-stage model that distinguished only an Early and a Late Palaeolithic. Yee argued that the two-stage model should be abandoned, and that a distinct Middle Palaeolithic phase can be identified. Responding to Yee, Feng Li argues that there is no solid evidence of distinctive and widespread technological changes before the Late Palaeolithic, and that it is hence premature to abandon Gao’s two-stage model at present.

Keywords

ChinaEarly PalaeolithicMiddle PalaeolithicLate Palaeolithic
Type
Debate
Information
Antiquity , Volume 88 , Issue 342 , December 2014 , pp. 1303 - 1309
Copyright
Copyright © Antiquity Publications Ltd. 2014

Access options

Get access to the full version of this content by using one of the access options below. (Log in options will check for institutional or personal access. Content may require purchase if you do not have access.)

References

Adams, B. & Blades, B.S. (ed.). 2009. Lithic materials and Paleolithic societies. Singapore: Blackwell.Google Scholar
Archaeological Team at Gezidong. 1975. Report of the Gezidong Palaeolithic site, Liaoning. Vertebrata Palasiatica 13: 122–36 (in Chinese).Google Scholar
Bar-Yosef, O. & Wang, Y.P.. 2012. Paleolithic archaeology in China. Annual Review of Anthropology 41: 319–35. http://dx.doi.org/10.1146/annurev-anthro-092611-145832 CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Boëda, E., Hou, Y.M., Forestier, H., Sarel, J. & Wang, H.M.. 2013. Levallois and non-Levallois blade production at Shuidonggou in Ningxia, north China. Quaternary International 295: 191–203. http://dx.doi.org/10.1016/j.quaint.2012.07.020 Google Scholar
Bordes, F. 1978. Foreword, in Ikawa-Smith, F. (ed.) Early Paleolithic in South and East Asia: ix–x. The Hague: Mouton.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Boule, M.H., Breuil, E., Licent, E. & Teilhard De Chardin, P.. 1928. Le Paléolithique de la Chine. Paris: Archives de l’Institut de Paléontologie Humaine.Google Scholar
Chazan, M. 2009. Assessing the Lower to Middle Paleolithic transition, in Camps, M. & Chauhan, P. (ed.) Sourcebook of Paleolithic transitions: methods, theories, and interpretations: 237–43. New York: Springer.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Chen, C., Shen, C., Chen, W.Y. & Tang, Y.J.. 2002. Lithic analysis of the Xiaochangliang industry. Acta Anthropologica Sinica 21: 23–40 (in Chinese).Google Scholar
Féblot-Augustins, J. 1993. Mobility strategies in the Late Middle Palaeolithic of Central Europe and Western Europe: elements of stability and variability. Journal of Anthropological Archaeology 12: 211–65. http://dx.doi.org/10.1006/jaar.1993.1007 Google Scholar
Féblot-Augustins, J. 2008. Paleolithic raw material provenance studies, in Pearsall, D.M. (ed.) Encyclopedia of archaeology: 1187–98. San Diego (CA): Elsevier & Academic Press.Google Scholar
Gao, X. 1999. A discussion of the Chinese Middle Palaeolithic. Acta Anthropologica Sinica 18: 1–16 (in Chinese).Google Scholar
Gao, X. 2000a. Explanations of typological variability in Palaeolithic remains of Zhoukoudian Locality 15, China. Unpublished PhD dissertation, University of Arizona.Google Scholar
Gao, X. 2000b. A study of flaking technology at Zhoukoudian Locality 15. Acta Anthropologica Sinica 19: 199–215 (in Chinese).Google Scholar
Gao, X. 2013. Paleolithic cultures in China: uniqueness and divergence. Current Anthropology 54: S358–70. http://dx.doi.org/10.1086/673502 Google Scholar
Gao, X. & Norton, C.J.. 2002. A critique of the Chinese ‘Middle Palaeolithic’. Antiquity 76: 397–412.Google Scholar
Gao, X. & Pei, S.W.. 2006. An archaeological interpretation of ancient human lithic technology and adaptive strategies in China. Quaternary Sciences 26: 504–13 (in Chinese).Google Scholar
Ikawa-Smith, F. 1978a. The early Paleolithic tradition of East Asia, in Ikawa-Smith, F. (ed.) Early Paleolithic in South and East Asia: 1–10. The Hague: Mouton.Google Scholar
Ikawa-Smith, F. (ed.). 1978b. Early Paleolithic in South and East Asia. The Hague: Mouton.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Jia, L.P. & Wei, Q.. 1976. A Palaeolithic site at Hsü-Chia-Yao in Yangkao County, Shansi Province. Kaoguxuebao [Archaeology Bulletin] 2: 97–114 (in Chinese).Google Scholar
Keates, S.G. 1997. Analyzing modern human origins in China, in Clark, G.A. & Willermet, C.M. (ed.) Conceptual issues in modern human origins research: 294–303. New York: Aldine de Gruyter.Google Scholar
Keates, S.G. 2001. Perspectives on ‘Middle Palaeolithic’ settlement patterns in China, in Conard, N.J. (ed.) Settlement dynamics of the Middle Paleolithic and Middle Stone Age: 153–75. Tübingen: Kerns.Google Scholar
Klein, R.G. 2009. The human career: human biological and cultural origins. Chicago (IL): University of Chicago Press.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Leakey, M.D. 1971. Olduvai Gorge–excavations in Beds I & II, 1960–1963. London: Cambridge University Press.Google Scholar
Li, F., Gao, X., Chen, F.Y., Pei, S.W., Zhang, Y., Zhang, X.L., Liu, D.C., Zhang, S.Q., Guan, Y., Wang, H.M. & Kuhn, S.L.. 2013. The development of Upper Palaeolithic China: new results from the Shuidonggou site. Antiquity 88: 368–83.Google Scholar
Li, F., Kuhn, S.L., Olsen, J.W., Chen, F.Y. & Gao, X.. 2014. Disparate stone age technological evolution in north China: lithic technological variability and relations between populations during MIS 3. Journal of Anthropological Research 70: 35–67. http://dx.doi.org/10.3998/jar.0521004.0070.103 CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Li, Y.X., Xie, F. & Shi, J.M.. 1991. A preliminary study of the lithic industry from the Banjingzi site at Yangyuan County, Heibei Province, in Institute of Vertebrate Paleontology and Paleoanthropology (ed.) Contributions to the INQUA, Institute of Vertebrate Paleontology and Paleoanthropology, Academia Sinica: 74–99. Beijing: Beijing Scientific and Technological Publishing House (in Chinese).Google Scholar
Lin, S.L. 1996. Comparison of technological mode of Palaeolithic culture between China and the West. Acta Anthropologica Sinica 15: 1–20 (in Chinese).Google Scholar
Ma, N., Pei, S.W. & Gao, X.. 2011. A preliminary study on the stone artefacts excavated from Locality 74093 of the Xujiayao site in 1977. Acta Anthropologica Sinica 30: 275–88 (in Chinese).Google Scholar
Norton, C.J. & Jin, J.J.H.. 2009. The evolution of modern human behavior in East Asia: current perspectives. Evolutionary Anthropology 18: 247–60. http://dx.doi.org/10.1002/evan.20235 CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Norton, C.J., Gao, X. & Feng, X.W.. 2009. The East Asian Middle Paleolithic reexamined, in Camps, M. & Chauhan, P. (ed.) Sourcebook of Paleolithic transitions: methods, theories, and interpretations: 245–54. New York: Springer.Google Scholar
Pei, W.C. 1937. Paleolithic industries in China, in Maccurdy, G.G. (ed.) Early man: 221–32. New York: Lippincott.Google Scholar
Pei, W.C. 1955. Palaeolithic culture in China, in Institute of Vertebrate Paleontology & Paleoanthropology (ed.) The discovery and study of fossil hominid in China: 53–89. Beijing: Science Press (in Chinese).Google Scholar
Peterson, C. & Manvick, B. (ed.). 2009. Collaborative research in East and Southeast Asia (SAA Archaeological Record 9.3). Washington, D.C.: Society for American Archaeology.Google Scholar
Qiu, Z.L. 1985. The Middle Paleolithic of China, in Wu, R.K. & Olsen, J.W. (ed.) Paleoanthropology and Paleolithic archaeology in the People’s Republic of China: 187–210. Orlando (FL): Academic Press.Google Scholar
Qiu, Z.L. 1989. The Middle Palaeolithic of China, in Wu, R.K., Wu, X.Z. & Zhang, S.S. (ed.) Palaeoanthropology in China: 195–219. Beijing: Science Press.Google Scholar
Schick, K.D. & Dong, Z.. 1993. Early Paleolithic of China and eastern Asia. Evolutionary Anthropology 2: 22–35.Google Scholar
Vaquero, M. & Carbonell, E.. 2003. A temporal perspective on the variability of the discoid method in the Iberian Peninsula, in Peresani, M. (ed.) Discoid lithic technology: advances and implications (British Archaeological Reports international series 1120): 67–82. Oxford: Archaeopress.Google Scholar
Villa, P. 2009. The Lower to Middle Paleolithic transition, in Camps, M. & Chauhan, P. (ed.) Sourcebook of Paleolithic transitions: methods, theories, and interpretations: 265–70. New York: Springer.Google Scholar
Wang, X.K., Wei, J., Chen, Q.J., Tang, Z.W. & Wang, C.X.. 2010. A preliminary study on the excavation of the Jinsitai Cave site. Acta Anthropologica Sinica 29: 15–32 (in Chinese).Google Scholar
Wang, Y.P. 2005. Roots of Pleistocene hominids and cultures in China. Beijing: Science Press (in Chinese).Google Scholar
White, M.J. & Pettitt, P.B.. 2011. The British Late Middle Palaeolithic: an interpretative synthesis of Neanderthal occupation at the northwestern edge of the Pleistocene world. Journal of World Prehistory 24: 25–97. http://dx.doi.org/10.1007/s10963-011-9043-9 Google Scholar
Yee, M.K. 2012. The Middle Palaeolithic in China: a review of current interpretations. Antiquity 86: 619–26.Google Scholar
Zhang, S.S. 1985. A preliminary study on Middle Palaeolithic cultures in north China. Shiqian Yanjiu [Prehistoric Studies] 1: 8–16 (in Chinese).Google Scholar