Mid-Pleistocene Acheulean-like stone technology of the Bose basin, South China

Science

Volumn 287, Issue 5458, 2000, Pages 1622-1626

  Yamei, Hou ^a   Potts, Richard ^a   Baoyin, Yuan ^a   Zhengtang, Guo ^a   Deino, Alan ^a   Wei, Wang ^a   Clark, Jennifer ^a   Guangmao, Xie ^a   Weiwen, Huang ^a  

^a NONE

Author keywords

[No Author keywords available]

Indexed keywords

LIMESTONE;

ACHEULEAN; PLEISTOCENE; TEKTITE; TOOL USE;

ARTICLE; ARTIFACT; CHINA; GEOGRAPHIC AND GEOLOGICAL PHENOMENA; GEOGRAPHIC DISTRIBUTION; PRIORITY JOURNAL; ROCK; SEDIMENT; TECHNOLOGY;

AFRICA; ANIMALS; ANTHROPOLOGY; ARCHAEOLOGY; CHINA; HISTORY, ANCIENT; HOMINIDAE; HUMANS;

CHINA;

EID: 0034007807     PISSN: 00368075     EISSN: None     Source Type: Journal    
DOI: 10.1126/science.287.5458.1622     Document Type: Article

References (65)

1. H. L. Movius Jr., Trans. Am. Philos. Soc. 38, 330 (1949).
2. _, in Early Man in the Far East, Studies in Physical Anthropology, no. 1, W. W. Howells, Ed. (Humanities Press, New York, 1969), pp. 17-77.
3. P. Teilhard de Chardin, Early Man in China (Institut de Géo-Biologie, Beijing, 1941).
4. Ideas advanced to explain the Movius Line include hominin migration to East Asia before the Acheulean's origin in Africa (43) and the loss of cultural knowledge about how to make Acheulean LCTs (44). Both ideas imply the isolation of toolmakers who were depauperate in the ability to produce Mode 2 LCTs after entering East Asia.
5. A stable tropical-to-subtropical setting, indicated by lateritized soils (45), is thought to have prompted the development in East Asia of simple lithic and non-lithic technology originally adapted to forested habitats, whereas the Acheulean developed in open savanna and Ice-Age environments of the western Old World (46-49).
6. S. Yi and G. A. Clark, Curr. Anthropol. 24, 181 (1983).
7. V. Ranov, Quat. Sci. Rev. 14, 731 (1995).
8. J. Leng, thesis, Washington University, St. Louis, MO (1992).
9. K. D. Schick, in Integrative Paths to the Past, R. S. Corruccini and R. L. Ciochon, Eds. (Prentice-Hall, Englewood Cliffs, NJ, 1994), pp. 569-596.
10. Previously reported East Asian sites with bifacial LCTs are dated >100 ka, but none are demonstrably older than 500 ka, including Chongokni (50), Dingcun (51), and Kamitakamori (52).
11. J. D. Clark, in Integrative Paths to the Past, R. S. Corruccini and R. L. Ciochon, Eds. (Prentice-Hall, Englewood Cliffs, NJ, 1994), pp. 451-469.
12. T. Wynn, The evolution of Spatial Competence (University of Illinois Press, Urbana, IL, 1989).
13. Bose is the local Zhuang spelling of Baise (Mandarin), a name by which the basin and lithic industry are also known (53, 54).
14. B. Yuan et al., Acta Anthropol. Sin. 18, 215 (1999).
15. Excavation sites are Gaolingpo (n = 770 in situ artifacts), Bogu (n = 26), and Xiaomei (n = 36).
16. Assignment of the Bose T4 tektites to the Australasian group was suggested by a previous fission track analysis of a single tektite from Bogu (sample BG-93-18), which provided an initial age estimate of 732 ± 39 ka (55).
17. 2 laser as the heating source (56). The tektites were splash-form in appearance, weighed 4.1 to 39.9 g, and consisted of exceedingly fresh, uniform black glass.
18. Supplementary data are available at Science Online at www.sciencemag.org/feature/data/1048032.shl.
19. This number was recalculated from (57) on the basis of new standards (58). The error is a 95% confidence limit.
20. J. Kunz, K. Bollinger, E. K. Jessberger, D. Storzer, in Ages of Australasian Tektites (Lunar and Planetary Science Conference XXVI, Lunar and Planetary Institute, Houston, TX, 1995), p. 809.
21. 39Ar analysis of lavas (60), adjusted to the Fish Canyon tuff sanidine standard used here (58). The Bose T4 section did not yield a coherent magnetostratigraphy.
22. W. Roebroecks and T. van Kolfschoten, Eds., The Earliest Occupation of Europe (Univ. of Leiden Press, Leiden, Netherlands, 1995).
23. G. Clark, World Prehistory (Cambridge Univ. Press, London, 1969).
24. M. D. Leakey, Olduvai Gorge, vol. 3 (Cambridge Univ. Press, Cambridge, 1971).
25. N. Toth, J. Archaeol. Sci. 12, 101 (1985).
26. R. Potts, J. Anthropol. Res. 47, 153 (1991).
27. In the early Acheulean (before 500 ka), LCT shape was also influenced by initial form; minimal secondary flaking of large flakes, for example, yielded the standard thin, ovate form typical of Acheulean bifaces.
28. R. L. Hay, Geology of the Olduvai Gorge (Univ. of California Press, Berkeley, CA, 1976).
29. R. Potts, A. K. Behrensmeyer, P. Ditchfield, J. Hum. Evol. 37, 747 (1999).
30. Bose LCTs (unifacial and bifacial) are significantly larger in mean maximum dimension than Oldowan (t = 22.56, df = 270, P < 0.001) and Developed Oldowan (t = 24.59, df = 551, P < 0.001) flaked pieces, Developed Oldowan LCTs (t = 6.94, df = 120, P < 0.001), and even Acheulean LCTs from Olorgesailie, Kenya (t = 4.32, df = 994, P < 0.001). Bose bifacial Las, however, do not differ significantly from Acheulean LCTs from Olorgesailie (t = 1.95, df = 946, P > 0.05). The mean weight of Bose LCTs is greater than that of Oldowan and Developed Oldowan flaked pieces and of African Acheulean LCTs. Bose LCTs made on large flakes fall at the upper end of the range of mean weight variation at Olorgesailie.
31. Bose LCTs made on flakes (16.4 cm, n = 12) differ little in mean maximum dimension from Acheulean LCTs from Olorgesailie (16.3 cm, n = 859). The mean length of the largest flake scar for all Bose LCTs (9.6 cm, n = 96) indicates regular manufacture of flakes ≥10 cm. The mean scar length is significantly greater than that for Oldowan flaked pieces (4.2 cm; t = 10.51, df = 216, P < 0.001); for Developed Oldowan flaked pieces (4.2 cm; t = 17.09, df = 337, P < 0.001); and for Developed Oldowan bifacial LCTs (6.1 cm; t = 4.62, df = 107, P < 0.001).
32. G. Ll. Isaac, Olorgesailie (Univ. of Chicago Press, Chicago, IL, 1977).
33. M. D. Leakey, Olduvai Gorge, vol. 5 (Cambridge Univ. Press, Cambridge, 1994).
34. M. Roberts and S. Parfitt, Boxgrove: A Middle Pleistocene Hominid Site at Eartham Quarry, Boxgrove, West Sussex (English Heritage, London, 1999).
35. The overall thickness of Bose LCTs was determined by the size and shape of the original cobble (71% of LCTs were made on cobbles) or by flake size (29% were made on large flakes). Tip morphology, however, was determined by repetitive flaking procedures that thinned one end, produced a straight edge (viewed edge-on), and aligned the axis connecting the tip to the butt with the maximum dimension of the piece (99% of LCTs). On 75% of the LCTs, tip thinning produced a central ridge 25 to 60 mm from the tip, due to the intersection of flake scars from the converging edges. On the remainder, a single flake was usually detached at the tip, removing the central ridge. LCT shape ratios (for example, thickness/width at 20% of length from the tip and thickness 20%/thickness 50% of length from the tip) all had extremely low variances (range: 0.011 to 0.033), a level that Isaac (32) considered indicative of modal shaping of Acheulean LCTs.
36. The mean flake scar count for Bose LCTs (17.2, n = 94 LCTs) was significantly higher than for Oldowan flaked pieces (6.2, t = 7.78, df = 265, P < 0.001), Developed Oldowan flaked pieces (6.5, t = 11.59, df = 470, P < 0.001), and Developed Oldowan bifacial LCTs (9.8, t = 4.19, df = 123, P < 0.001). The mean scar count for bifacial LCTs from Bose (24.7, n = 33 LCTs) was higher than for Acheulean bifacial LCTs from Olorgesailie (20.0, t = 3.17, df = 890, P < 0.01).
37. Ninety-one percent of the bifacial LCT sample (n = 35 specimens) was from the western third of the Bose basin (Fig. 1, sites 1 through 14).
38. T. Liu, Z. Ding, N. Rutter, Quat. Sci. Rev. 18, 1205 (1999).
39. Z. Cuo, T. Liu, N. Federoff, Z. An, Chin. Sci. Bull. 38, 586 (1993).
40. P. Wang, Quat. Sci. 2, 111 (1990).
41. K.-F. Wang, Y.-L. Zhang, H. Jian, Chin. Sci. Bull. 36, 1721 (1991).
42. Z. Zhu et al., Quat. Sci. 8, 276 (1995).
43. C. C. Swisher Jr. et al., Science 263, 1118 (1994).
44. N. Toth and K. Schick, in Tools, Language and Cognition in Human Evolution, K. R. Gibson and T. Ingold, Eds. (Cambridge Univ. Press, Cambridge, 1992), pp. 346-362.
45. P. Teilhard de Chardin, C. C. Young, W. C. Pei, H. C. Chang, Bull. Geol. Soc. China 14, 179 (1935).
46. K. Hutterer, in Sunda and Sahul: Prehistoric Studies in Southeast Asia, Melanesia and Australia, J. Allen, J. Golson, R. Jones, Eds. (Academic Press, New York, 1977), pp. 31-72.
47. G. G. Pope, in The Palaeoenvironment of East Asia from the Mid-Tertiary, J. S. Aigner, N. G. Jablonski, G. Taylor, D. Walker, P. Wang, Eds. (Centre of Asian Studies, Univ. of Hong Kong, Hong Kong, 1988), pp. 1097-1123.
48. H. Watanabe, J. Anthropol. Archaeol. 4, 1 (1985).
49. J. D. Clark, Trans. R. Soc. London Ser. B 337, 201 (1992).
50. K. Bai, thesis, University of California, Berkeley (1988).
51. T. Chen and S. Yuan, Archaeometry 30, 59 (1988).
52. H. Kajiwara, S. Fujimura, T. Kamada, V. Yokoyama, http://tfu-www.tfu.ac.jp/kenkyushitsu/kajiwara/KAJIWARA.html (1999).
53. W. Huang, Quat. Res. 28, 237 (1989).
54. _, J. Leng, X. Yuan, G. Xie, Acta Anthropol. Sin. 9, 105 (1990).
55. S.-L. Guo, W. Huang, X.-H. Hao, B.-L. Chen, Radiat. Meas. 28, 565 (1997).
56. W. Sharp and A. L. Deino, Eos 77, F773 (1996).
57. G. A. Izett and J. D. Obradovich, J. Geophys. Res. 99, 2925 (1992).
58. P. R. Renne et al., Chem. Geol. 145, 117 (1998).
59. D. A. Schneider, D. V. Kent, G. A. Mello, Earth Planet. Sci. Lett. 111, 395 (1992).
60. B. S. Singer and M. S. Pringle, Earth Planet. Sci. Lett. 139, 41 (1996).
61. R. Potts, unpublished data on Oldowan and Developed Oldowan sites.
62. P. Callow, in Olduvai Gorge, vol. 5, M. D. Leakey, Ed. (Cambridge Univ. Press, Cambridge, 1994), pp. 235-253.
63. P. R. Jones, in Olduvai Gorge, vol. 5, M. D. Leakey, Ed. (Cambridge Univ. Press, Cambridge, 1994), pp. 254-298.
64. M. N. Noll, thesis, University of Illinois, Urbana-Champaign (2000).
65. We thank the government of the Guangxi Zhuang Autonomous Region and the Chinese Academy of Sciences for permission to conduct the Bose basin research. Supported by funds from the Smithsonian Institution's Human Origins Program and Scholarly Studies Program, by Chinese Academy of Sciences grant SEPP 9812, by National Natural Science Foundation of China grant 49894176, and by NSF. We thank W. G. Melson and F. M. Hueber for analytical assistance, M. N. Noll for data on Olorgesailie LCTs, and A. K. Behrensmeyer and A. S. Brooks for helpful discussions.