The Middle Palaeolithic site Lingjing (Xuchang, Henan, China): preliminary new results

Thijs van Kolfschoten (1) , Zhanyang Li (2) , Hua Wang (2) , Luc Doyon (2, 3)

1 Universiteit Leiden = Leiden University
2 Shandong University
3 PACEA - De la Préhistoire à l'Actuel : Culture, Environnement et Anthropologie

Lingjing is an open-air archaic hominin site in northern China where, apart from two incomplete Human skulls, thousands of lithic artefacts as well as abundant, well-preserved mammalian remains with and OSL ages ranging between ≈105 ka and ≈125 ka. It has been excavated yearly since 2005. The mammalian faunal assemblage from the site is very diverse with 22 different taxa. Equids and a large bovid Bos primigenius dominate the fauna; the mortality profiles of these herbivores indicate hominin/human hunting. Detailed taphonomic analyses demonstrate that Lingjing is a kill-butchery site and not a base camp. The Lingjing fauna and bone tool record shows remarkable similarities with the archaeological record from the Lower Paleolithic site of Schöningen 13 II-4, Germany, i.e., the Schöningen Spear Horizon, which is ca. 200 ka older than the Lingjing site. Both sites yielded well-preserved material, a very diverse fauna and a large amount of bone tools with identical features.

Mots clés: Stone tools; bone tools; mammalian fauna; kill-butchery site

Domaines: Archéologie et Préhistoire

Thijs van Kolfschoten, Zhanyang Li, Hua Wang, Luc Doyon. The Middle Palaeolithic site Lingjing (Xuchang, Henan, China): preliminary new results. Faculty of Archaeology, Leiden University. A Human Environment. Studies in honour of 20 years Analecta editorship by prof. dr. Corrie Bakels, Sidestone Press, pp.21-28, 2020, 978-90-8890-906-1. ⟨hal-03358578⟩