Early and Middle Pleistocene Hominid Behaviour in Northern China

Description

The substantial majority of stone artefact assemblages in the Far East has been recorded in the People’s Republic of China. However, few detailed lithic analyses have been conducted. This volume seeks to contribute toward a more informed understanding of the archaeological evidence from China, primarily with reference to the early Palaeolithic sites of Xiaochangliang and Donggutuo in the Nihewan Basin, northern China. It attempts to achieve this by in-depth lithic attribute analyses of the Nihewan artefacts and the geological, chronological, palaeoenvironmental, stratigraphic and spatial contexts in which they were found. The available data for resource and subsistence technology are also evaluated, and the significance of the Nihewan sites in the Palaeolithic and ethnographic contexts is discussed. The hominid behavioural evidence is then compared to some of the better known northern Chinese Early and Middle Pleistocene localities.