New progress and new understanding of Paleolithic archaeological research in Shuidonggou

New progress and new understanding of Paleolithic archaeological research in Shuidonggou

GAO Xing1,2, WANG Huimin3, GUAN Ying1,2

(1. Institute of Vertebrate Paleontology and Paleoanthropology, Chinese Academy of Sciences, Beijing 100044;

2. Key Laboratory of Vertebrate Evolution and Human Origin, Chinese Academy of Sciences, Beijing 100044; 3. Ningxia Institute of Cultural Relics and Archaeology, Yinchuan 750001)

Abstract: The Shuidonggou site has attracted much attention and controversy in the study of Paleolithic archaeology in China. At the heart of the controversy are the technical characteristics, cultural attributes, context, and relationship to Western Paleolithic cultures of its Paleolithic remains. The controversy stems from the limitations and ambiguity of the understanding and understanding of the stratigraphy, epoch, and cultural succession of the core site, Site 1. Based on the systematic investigation of the site area and the excavation and research of multiple site systems in recent years, this paper proposes a series of new understandings on the Paleolithic culture and related problems of the Shuidonggou site group, including that Shuidonggou is a large open-air site group composed of multiple sites. The survival activities of the ancestors are not limited to one period, and the cultural relics belong to at least 7 time periods, according to which the evolutionary sequence of regional populations over the past 40,000 years can be established; The human cultural heritage preserved at the site is rich and diverse, in addition to stone products of different technical systems, there are bone tools, ornaments, complex fire remains, and many information on the complex use of residential sites, heat treatment of stone materials and the consumption of plant-based ingredients, reflecting the strong survival ability and specific behavior of the ancient population; Archaeological and cultural combinations of different technical systems existed in the area at different times in the late Paleolithic period, and the technical system of Levalow + stone leaf and the technical system of small stone chips appeared, reflecting the complex and dynamic adaptation, migration and exchange process of Northeast Asian populations during the last ice age; The technical system of Levallowau + stone leaves in the region has no relationship with the local traditional stone tool industry, but should be the remnants of the ancient population migrating from the west-northwest direction, which may have appeared earlier than the original belief, and did not have a significant impact on the local culture after its disappearance; Although the stone leaf technology combination represents the migration and spread of an early modern population from the West, the migrants did not achieve an overall substitution for the native population, but were replaced by the latter; The latter maintains an inherent tradition in stone tool technology, but the behavior of early modern people such as small refined stone tools, ornaments, and stone heat treatment appears in cultural relics, reflecting that the origin and diffusion pattern of modern humans here are not simply replaced by immigrants, on the contrary, the continuous evolution of native populations is the main theme. Thus, the theory of "continuous evolution with hybridization" has a more solid archaeological foundation in the region.

Keywords: Shuidonggou; Late Paleolithic; Stone Leaf Technique; Population Migration; Cultural Traditions

Zhongtu method classification number: K871.11; document identification code: A

Article ID: 1000-3193 (2013) 02-121-12

1 Introduction

The Shuidonggou site has a unique historical status and academic value in the study of Paleolithic archaeology in China.

Mainland prehistory circles generally regard the 1920 French paleontologist Sang Zhihua's collection of three stone products from the loess layers of Zhaojiacha and Xinjiagou in Qingyang County, Gansu Province, as the prelude to Chinese paleolithic archaeology research, but in 1923, Sang Zhihua and another French paleontologist De Rijin discovered and excavated the Shuidonggou site near Yinchuan in Ningxia (and also found the Sara Wusu site in Wushen banner, Inner Mongolia) is the real beginning of this discipline in China. The two French scholars not only discovered the site of Shuidonggou, but also collected relics left by ancient humans on the surface, named 5 sites according to the exposure of cultural relics, and carried out excavation work, excavating a large number of stone products and animal fossils from the strata, revealing rich information about the survival activities of the paleolithic ancestors. Subsequently, French scholars published the first paper and the first monograph on China's Paleolithic culture on the basis of the study of stone products and animal fossils excavated from Shuidonggou and Sarausu, announcing that there were human beings living here in the distant Paleolithic Age, and the root system of the primitive culture of the Chinese land could be greatly extended forward. French scholars also established a link between the ancient cultures of the East and the West, based on the types and technical characteristics of shuidonggou stone products, declaring that the materials excavated in Shuidonggou marked by long and regular stone leaves "can be compared with the materials of our evolved most human habitat in Europe, West Asia and North Africa", and that the Shuidonggou culture "seems to be in the middle of the road between the very developed Moster culture and the growing Orina culture, or a mixture of these two cultures", and "the assimilation effects of large-distance migration" It is believed to be the cause of this cultural convergence [1,2].

The investigation and research of French scholars in the early days of the Shuidonggou site only opened the prelude to a great academic activity. Since then, Shuidonggou has become an academic mecca and hot land, where inquisitive inquiries and fiery debates continue to play out. In the summer of 1960, the Sino-Soviet paleontology joint expedition team carried out the second excavation; In the summer of 1963, Pei Wenzhong, the father of Chinese paleolithic archaeology, led a team to carry out the third excavation of the site; In 1980, the Ningxia Museum and the Ningxia Geological Bureau jointly carried out four excavations at the site; Between 2003 and 2007, the Ningxia Institute of Cultural Relics and Archaeology and the Institute of Vertebrate Paleontology and Paleoanthropology of the Chinese Academy of Sciences jointly formed a team to conduct systematic excavations of the site for several consecutive years, and expanded the scope of excavation to sites 2, 3, 4, 5, 7, 8, 9 and 12.

After the French scholars, Chinese scholars paid special attention to the Shuidonggou site and constantly discussed related issues. They note that the site's Paleolithic archaeological remains have a unique technical and cultural face, but disagree on their cultural traditions. Regarding the origin of the unique Shuidonggou Paleolithic culture, some scholars follow the opinions of early French scholars, believing that the source can be found in the middle and late Technical System of the Western Paleolithic; Another group of scholars advocates indigenous origins, believing that its germination can be seen in the remains of the Paleolithic culture in DingCun, Shanxi; Some scholars have tried to reconcile the two, arguing that the spread and exchange of prehistoric cultures produced a Shuidonggou culture that combined east and west. So far, there are still controversies in the academic circles about the era, connotation, nature, attribution, origin and even its significance to the origin and diffusion of modern people, and the Shuidonggou site is still a hot spot that highly attracts the attention of scholars at home and abroad, continuously produces new academic propositions and achievements, and is still an engine to promote the development of Chinese paleolithic archaeology and related disciplines and promote academic exchanges between the East and the West.

2 In the past, the academic community's understanding and discussion of the Shuidonggou site

The knowledge and comments of the Paleolithic archaeologists on the Shuidonggou site in the past are based entirely on the excavations and research results of site 1. The phased understanding and focused discussions around the site can be summarized as follows:

1) Shuidonggou is an important site of the late Paleolithic period in northern China. In the initial stage of Chinese Paleolithic archaeological research, Pei Wenzhong once bundled the cultural remains of Shuidonggou and SaraWusu ruins as "Hetao Culture", as a representative of the middle Paleolithic period in China, and based on this, he established a sequence of early, middle and late Chinese Paleolithic development sequences represented by the 13th and 1st sites of Zhoukoudian, the two sites on which the Hetao culture relied, and the ruins of The Peak Cave[7]. Subsequently, Pei Wenzhong recognized that the stone culture of Shuidonggou and Sarawusu was different and should not be collectively called the "Hetao culture", pointing out that the former represented a primitive human culture of the Loess Period, and the latter may belong to the late Paleolithic period. Subsequently, Jia Lanpo et al. proposed that the Shuidonggou culture should be placed in the late Paleolithic period (that is, the late period)[9], and other scholars also made adjustments and reached a consensus.

2) The Paleolithic culture at the Shuidonggou site belongs to a single era. Early excavations and studies of the Shuidonggou site have treated the stone tools excavated from the site and their associated remains as a single era and the same cultural system. According to the field records excavated in 1960, Jia Lanpo et al. divided the exposed strata into eight natural layers, but the stone products described and studied were from the second layer, the gray-yellow (reddish) colored silt soil layer, which was called the "Shuidonggou First Cultural Layer" [9], and there was no description of other layers. Excavations in 1963 found polished stone tools and stone millstone discs from the bottom gravel under the river and lake phase silt, which are considered to belong to the Neolithic age, and for the first time it was clear that Shuidonggou was not a single Paleolithic site, it contained two periods of Paleolithic and Neolithic remains,[10] but did not further demarcate the Paleolithic strata. Excavations in 1980 divided 16 natural layers (in descending order), the 16th to 4th layers of holocene accumulation, of which several layers unearthed stone tools, fine stone tools, and ground stone tools, while layers 2–3 were merged together to call the "Shuidonggou Cultural Layer" or "Lower Cultural Layer".

3) The main information carrier of "Shuidonggou culture" is stone products. The remains obtained from several excavations are mainly stonework and animal fossils. An ornament made from ostrich egg slices and a bone cone were found during excavations in 1963; De Rijin and Sang Zhihua mentioned the discovery of "stoves" in their earlier reports, and excavations in 1980 revealed concentrated ash distribution, but neither of the traces of fire was described in detail. Stonework has been at the heart of research and discussion on the site.

4) There is uncertainty in the dating of the Shuidonggou site. Although there is basically no controversy about the judgment that the remains of the "lower cultural layer" of the Shuidonggou site belong to the late Paleolithic period, it is not certain which period to put into, and there are different opinions on the period of inference from the cultural nature, and the emergence of absolute dating data has not settled the dust, because the data obtained by different methods and different materials are less consistent. There are four most commonly cited data: 17250±210BP or 16760±210BP (14C upper layer 3 deer bone). It is actually an almanac, 2 data given due to the use of different half-lives), 26190±800BP or 25450±800BP (14C of lower calcium tuberculosis in layer 3). It is actually an almanac, with 2 data given due to the use of different half-lives), 34000±2000BP, and 38000±2000BP (both of which are 2nd layer horsetooth uranium dating)[3,11].

5) The Shuidonggou culture is unique in the Paleolithic cultural system of China, but its attributes are controversial. The Paleolithic remains of the Shuidonggou site are considered to be unique in The Paleolithic culture of China because of their inclusion of stone leaves (or feldspar tablets) and levarowa-style artifacts, which are distinct from the traditional northern stone tool industry. Zhang Senshui divides the late Paleolithic culture of northern China into two main industries, one is the industry of small stone tools that are directly attacked, and the other is the feldspar-fine stone tool industry, and Shuidonggou is representative of the latter. Zhang Senshui later pointed out that the characteristics of the industrial type of Shuidonggou are more complex, including both the main characteristics of the main industry in northern China and some stone products produced by non-northern main industrial technologies, so "The Shuidonggou culture is a new industrial type composed of the main characteristics of the two industrial types" [13]; Li Yanxian divided the Chinese late Paleolithic culture into four sequences, and Shuidonggou was used as a representative of the "cultural series with stone leaves as the main feature". Of course, the academic community on the Shuidonggou stone products combination and technical characteristics of the understanding is not uniform, some scholars emphasize the proportion of stone leaf (feldspar) products and the particularity of their production technology, some scholars put forward that ordinary stone cores, stone chips occupy the main position in the site, so the "Shuidonggou industry" is still a member of China's stone chip industry family.

6) There are different views and changes in understanding of the origin of Shuidonggou culture. In the early stages of excavation and research at the site, French scholars such as Bruzier associated the site's stonework with the European middle and late Paleolithic cultures they were familiar with, and used the term "assimilation effects of large-distance migration" to explain the similarity of this off-site culture. Another French Paleolithic archaeologist, Boulder, later supported this view. But Chinese scholars have suggested the possibility of indigenous origins. Pei Wenzhong pointed out in 1955: "The culture represented by the Shuidonggou site should be a primitive human culture in the Loess period on Chinese soil, which is not the same as the cultural nature of the Paleolithic era in Europe" [8]. Jia Lanpo pointed out in 1964 that "the stone tools of Shuidonggou seem to be closer in nature to Ding Village than other known stone tools existing on the mainland, and they seem to have a certain inheritance relationship", but at the same time, it is believed that "it is also impossible to ignore the comparison with the sites of foreign countries that are closer to each other, such as those in Siberia and Central Asia". Gai Pei and Huang Wanbo, after comparing the material of Shuidonggou with the "Jingwei culture" represented by The Changwu Kiln Tougou in Shaanxi, pointed out: "Among the middle Paleolithic cultures in North China, the Shuidonggou culture is the closest to the Jingwei culture, which may have originated from the Jingwei culture" [16]. Li Yanxian argues that the Moster technique in the Shuidonggou culture "can already be clearly seen in specimens found in Dingcun and Banjingzi in the middle of the Paleolithic period in China" [14]. Zhang Senshui believes that the Shuidonggou site used artifacts processed by the Moster technique and feldspar tablets similar to the Orina period and tools made from it, as well as more ancient "quadrilateral" cores, which should be the result of cultural exchanges [12,17]. The Shuidonggou – 1980 Excavation Report states that the Shuidonggou culture "has distinct characteristics that are different from the late Paleolithic cultures of north China on the mainland, and it is very difficult to classify it into any type of late Paleolithic that has been found on the mainland... We consider the Shuidonggou culture to be the single type on the continent with the most European Paleolithic cultural traditions that can be comprehensively compared..."[3].

3 New research and new understanding of the Shuidonggou site and its Paleolithic cultural connotations

The author's Paleolithic archaeological team has carried out systematic investigations of the Shuidonggou site in recent years, including systematic surveys of the site and its surrounding areas in 2002 and 2003, and the official excavations of sites 2, 3, 4, 5, 7, 8, 9 and 12 of the site in 2003, 2004, 2005 and 2007. Excavation uses the overall disclosure method to extract materials and information in an all-round way, uses instruments and tools such as total stations to make accurate coordinates and production measurement records for excavated specimens, ensures that tiny specimens are not missed through dry screening, washing, flotation, etc., and systematically extracts stratigraphic sediment samples and relics such as charcoal and ashes. During this period, local clean-up and sampling analysis were also performed on the lower part of the section of site 1. During the excavation and after the completion of the field work, detailed observational studies were made on various specimens such as excavated stone products, analytical tests were made on sedimentary, environmental and dating samples, a large amount of information and data were obtained, and more than ten bulletins and papers were published successively. At present, "Shuidonggou - Archaeological Excavations and Research Reports from 2003 to 2007" has been compiled and put into use. Through long-term systematic large-scale investigation, excavation and research, on the basis of the work results of previous generations, we have achieved the following series of new understandings of the Shuidonggou site and its archaeological and cultural connotations.

3.1 Distribution range of Shuidonggou site and its radiation impact area

The new scientific expedition work shows that the Shuidonggou site is not limited to a narrow area composed of sites 1-5 originally discovered, but a large open-air site group composed of multiple sites, known to have expanded to a range of about 22 km along the border ditch, and the relics are widely distributed and have had a radiation impact on the surrounding area. After the investigation in 2002 and 2003, the research group found 14 sites where newly discovered relics were concentrated in Shuidonggou, Shijiayao and Zhangjiayao adjacent to the Biangou River Basin of Lingwu City, and sparsely distributed stone products, ornaments and animal fossils were seen on the surface of many places, and some cultural relics had the characteristics of different eras, indicating that ancient humans lived frequently and for a long time in a large area of the region. The research team also found three Paleolithic sites on both sides of the Yellow River tributaries in Zhongwei County, in central and western Ningxia, and five sites on both sides of the Ru River in Pengyang County, far away from Shuidonggou and located in southern Ningxia. These efforts have expanded the distribution of Shuidonggou and even Paleolithic sites in Ningxia, tracing the footprints of ancient human activities to the upper reaches of the RuShui River in the Liupan Mountains in the south and the southern foothills of the Helan Mountains in the west.

3.2 Chronology of the era and cultural development of the Shuidonggou site group

One of the key elements of the new round of work is the dating of the site. We use different methods to analyze and test multiple samples at various levels in various locations, and strive to cross-verify the data to be reliable and the chronological framework is credible. A breakthrough conclusion reached by chronological work is that the human survival activities of the Shuidonggou site and the relics and relics left behind are not limited to one period, but belong to multiple time periods; The Shuidonggou Paleolithic site group contains multiple strata and multiple epochs, and human activities occur intensively in the late Paleolithic period, but the individual strata in the lower parts may belong to earlier periods, where a chronological framework for the survival and evolution of ancestors can be established.[19] Among them, site 2 contains multiple cultural strata, with the most complete stratigraphic sequence and the richest dating data obtained among the various points, which has become the core and pillar of the establishment of the era framework of the site group; Other locations can be compared to it and offer important additions.

The 7th cultural layer in the 2nd place is formed between 34.39ka and 41.44kaBP, the 5th-6th cultural layer is formed between 34.39ka and 32.8kaBP, the 3rd-4 cultural layer is formed between 31.38ka and 32.56kaBP, the second cultural layer is formed between 29.9ka and 31.3kaBP, and the first cultural layer is formed around 20.3kaBP.[20,21]. The age of the lower cultural layer at sites 3, 4, and 5 should belong to a large period of time with the second cultural layer at site 2, while the age of the upper cultural layer is unknown, perhaps mixed with some late remains (e.g., fine stone tools). There may be a disturbance in the strata of site 7, and there may be a superposition of cultural remains at different times, but the main remains should be at the same time as or slightly later than the second layer of site 2. The cultural layer of site 8 is thin and simple, consistent with the era and cultural attributes of site 2 and layer 2. The cultural layer of the 9th site was single, and multiple light-emitting data were obtained, pointing to the interval of (42.5±3.2) ka~(24.4±2.5)kaBP. There were two older people in the dating data, 42.5ka±3.2kaBP, and 35.9ka±6.2kaBP, and the other data were within 30kaBP [20,21]. Considering that the cultural layer of the site is shallow from the surface, the overlay layer is only about 10 cm, and the photoreflective dating sample has the possibility of late exposure, which will make the dating results biased towards young, and the older data seem to reflect the authenticity of the cultural stratigraphy, so the cultural age of the 9th site should be equivalent to the 7th layer of the 2nd site, at least no later than the age of the 5th layer. This also coincides with the cultural connotations of the two. Site 12 is a new link in the epoch sequence of the Shuidonggou site group, and is an important link (fine stone tool layer) that has been missing and constantly being searched for before. The site has only one cultural layer, and the photolumination age data points to the range of 12ka to 11kaBP [20,21], which is in the transition period between the Pleistocene and Holocene. As for site 1, it is clear that it is a site with different eras similar to site 2, and its stone leaf-bearing layer should be consistent with the cultural layer of site 7 and the cultural layer of site 9, and the recent AMS dating data (36kaBP) using charcoal collected from the section of site 1 also supports this conclusion [22,23]. The layers of ostrich egg fillet ornaments, bone tools and "stoves" unearthed on them should be equivalent to the cultural layers of the 2nd and 7th and 8th sites. The elaborate cultural stratification and exact chronological framework of the first site have yet to be thoroughly resolved by future rediscovery and research on the site.

3.3 The formation process, burial characteristics and the living environment of ancient humans reflected in the Shuidonggou site

Previous studies have disputed the geological landforms, stratigraphic development and terraced division of the area. The new research basically clarifies the geological history and formation process and mechanism of the landform of the Shuidonggou site area, and has a deeper understanding of the stratigraphic accumulation process, camping force and burial characteristics of the main sites [24-27]. The strata of this area are mainly composed of river and lake facies and their underlying bedrock, which is closely related to the activity of the Yellow River and its tributaries. A total of 6 terraces developed in the area, reflecting 6 different stages of sedimentary processes. Remnants of paleogenous activity are buried in tier 2 terraces. The sites are mainly distributed on both sides of the Biangou River, mainly because the river cuts down to expose the strata on both sides of the river, making it easier to find the remains of ancient human activities. The stratigraphic accumulation at various points is mainly composed of river and lake facies gravel layers with silty sand as the main body, and the horizontal stratigraphy develops. From the perspective of burial science, the 1st, 2nd, 3rd, 4th, 5th and 8th sites are native burials, and the Chinese remains of the formation process of the site are basically not disturbed by the later stages, while the cultural layers of the 7th, 9th and 12th sites should have experienced disturbances during the formation process, and the water flow has a certain displacement, handling and sorting of the relics and relics, but the degree of disturbance is not large, and the cultural outlook is basically preserved.

From the early to late Pleistocene stage of the deep-sea oxygen isotope MIS3 stage (60ka-25kaBP), the area was generally relatively arid, manifesting itself as a desert grassland environment of savanna trees. The vegetation species in the strata are mainly herbaceous plants such as Quinoa, Tyrannosa, Artemisia, and Ephedra that are suitable for growing in desert grasslands; There are coniferous forests such as spruce, fir and pine in the nearby mountains, which flourished at the end of the MIS3 stage, but degraded and disappeared after the last ice peak. The climate is generally dry and cold, with less rainfall. Around the site, there are elm, oak genus, willow genus and other warm and humid tree species, aquatic and wet grass, duckweed, sedge, etc. appear from time to time, indicating that there is a local small environment with relatively suitable hydrothermal conditions in the site area. This relatively suitable small environment provides favorable conditions for the survival of animals, and many small animal bones appear in the cultural layer, indicating that animal resources are relatively rich. The sediment characteristics of the human activity area and the sparse vegetation indicate that the area is relatively open and flat, and it is an area where the lake water in the lakeside area repeatedly advances and retreats.

Around the early days of the MIS3 phase, the Shuidonggou Basin began to form, and swamp depressions of all sizes were distributed within the basin. With the development of the terrain, the basin water deepens, forming a shallow lake, the hydrothermal conditions on the lakeside are relatively suitable, the lake or lakeside depression grows elms, willows, oaks and other trees, not far away also grows spruce, fir, pine and other cold-loving forests, the outside of the lake is a vast desert grassland. Diverse natural conditions provide the living conditions for wild animals such as wild donkeys, antelopes, bison, rhinos, wild horses, hyenas, ostriches and so on. In addition, there are a large number of rockstones such as siliceous dolomite, siliceous limestone, quartz sandstone, quartzite, quartzite and flint in the nearby gullies, high terraces and ancient riverbeds that can be selected as raw materials for making stone tools. The abundant water, animal and plant resources and stone tool raw material resources provided convenient material conditions for the production and life of the ancestors, so that they could live endlessly and survive here from generation to generation. During the period around the 18,000-year-old Glacial Peak (LGM), the climate and environment here deteriorated dramatically, forcing humans to leave and make a living elsewhere. It was not until about 12,000 years ago that some people relocated here, and the torch of ancient culture was passed. It can be seen that the comings and goings of ancestors in the Shuidonggou area over the past 40,000 years and the passing on of the torch are not accidental and random, but have internal mechanisms and laws to follow, which is the result of the interaction between changes in the ecological environment and human adaptation and survival.

3.4 The richness and diversity of the human heritage of the Shuidonggou site

At various points and times of the Shuidonggou Paleolithic site group, the cultural remains of mankind are rich and colorful. Stone products are the most numerous and informative category, including ordinary stone products, fine stone tool combinations and ground stone products. Ordinary stone products also include stone cores and stone chips in the Levalova style, stone cores and stone leaves in the stone leaf technology system, and small stone chip types with traditional styles. Some stonework shows signs of heat treatment [28,29], while others retain traces from wear and tear from use and residues of processed plants [30,31]. In addition, clear artificially deliberately carved (drawn) lines were found on the stonework at site 1, which became an important material for the study of early human cognitive abilities [22,23]. At sites 1, 2, 7 and 8, a beautiful beaded ornament made from ostrich egg slices was polished and rounded, with ochre dyeing; Irregular, unpolished, small but equally perforated ostrich egg patch ornaments were collected in many parts of the site's surface, apparently from a different era than those excavated from the formation. At sites 1 and 2, rough bone cones were unearthed, at site 2 a bone needle with a pinhole (remnant) at one end, and at site 12, a beautifully made bone cone, bone needle, fusiform, grooved bone stalk with uniform notch marks, and stone cake with decorative holes were unearthed. There are abundant fire remnants at sites 1, 2, 8, and 12, including stove ponds and burnt bones, burnt stones, and ashes, and fire remains at site 12 point to the practice of boiling water and cooking by boiling water by stone.[34] Several sites have unearthed a certain number of animal fossils, providing information on the living environment and resource conditions of ancient humans. Each site strata also contains a large number of materials (such as pollen, phytosilicas, magnetism) and information about the formation process of the site, the paleo environment and the spatial use of the site by the ancestors. The richness and diversity of these cultural relics is currently unmatched in the same region of the continent and at the same time, showing the complexity and pluralism of the region's late Paleolithic ancestors in terms of ethnic affiliation, social structure, migration integration, cultural technology and survival strategies.

3.5 The adaptive viability and behavior of the ancestors of Shuidonggou

The ancient populations living here had strong adaptive viability and specific behaviors. The information contained in the second cultural layer of site 2 shows that ancient humans had a complex way of using the site, making repair tools, processing ornaments, processing food, and so on around the fire pit, so that the fire pit became the core of the central camp.[35,36] Crowds will repeatedly use the same camp, leaving behind many simple stove pits that are very close to each other, even overlapping and breaking relationships. A small amount of stone products retain plant residues such as starch granules and phytosilicates on the surface, indicating that the ancients developed and utilized plant-based ingredients [30,31]. Not only that, but humans at this time have learned to heat specific stones in a fire to change their physical properties, making it easier to be stripped and processed into tools. Site 12 preserves a large number of fire relics and relics, and the entire cultural layer is smoked and dyed tan. A large number of rubble blocks have been excavated here, and the lithology has been selected and does not contain the limestone that can be found everywhere in the local area. Simulation tests have shown that these rubble blocks are broken up by bursting in water (liquid) after undergoing high-temperature grilling. This is the first specific use of fire identified in a mainland Paleolithic site,[34] and is a testament to the ethnographic record of heating stones for boiling water and cooked food (stone boiling), a testament to the ingenuity of ancient humans. This discovery makes us realize that the ancestors continued to explore and innovate in the process of adapting to the environment and using nature, and gradually moved from the era of flood famine to civilization. From the simple use of fire nearly 30,000 years ago at site 2 to the complex use of fire at site 12, 12,000 years ago, the pace of human evolution and progress is moving forward with sonorous force.

3.6 Attribution of stone tool technology system and cultural traditions at the Shuidonggou site

For a long time, the mainland paleolithic archaeology community has disputed the technical characteristics and cultural properties of the "Shuidonggou culture" stone products, and has different views on its classification attributes and status in the Chinese paleolithic cultural system and its inheritance. New research shows that the Shuidonggou site group contains sites at different times in the late Paleolithic period, and there are archaeological cultural systems of different periods, so there is no single "Shuidonggou culture", and this unscientific term should be discarded. The stone products excavated in a certain interval of the lower cultural layer of the first site, the 7-5 cultural layer of the second site, the cultural layer of the 9th site and the "lower cultural layer" of the 3rd and 5th sites have distinct Levallowal relics and the initial stage of stone leaf technology style, showing the technical and cultural characteristics of the early Upper Paleolithic in Europe, and is the first appearance of this technology and its products in the remains of Chinese Paleolithic archaeological culture. It should be earlier than originally thought, probably between 34ka and 38kaBP,[37] and belong to a different technical and cultural system from the traditional gravel industry and the small stone chip industry. The stone products excavated from the 4-1 cultural layer and the 7th and 8th cultural layers of the second site belong to the traditional small stone tablet cultural system in northern China, which does not show the influence of levaroowa technology and stone leaf technology, but new cultural factors such as ornaments and exquisitely processed scrapers have emerged, showing another face of the culture of the late Paleolithic period, and they are constantly evolving, and the decorations are no longer seen in the first cultural layer of the second site about 20,000 years ago. The cultural combination of a certain interval of the cultural layer of the 12th site and the "upper cultural layer" of the 3-5 site has distinct technical characteristics of fine stone leaves, indicating that the ancient culture of the region has entered a new stage. Therefore, when discussing the technical nature and cultural affiliation of the Shuidonggou site, we must distinguish the location and time period, otherwise the burlesque play of "Guan Gong Zhan Qin Qiong" will be staged.

3.7 The source flow of stone leaf technology

The focus of academic attention on the Shuidonggou stone tool industry is not only its technical characteristics and cultural affiliation, but also the ins and outs of stone leaf technology. In this regard, there has long been a debate in the academic community about the "indigenous origin theory" and the "Western origin theory". New research suggests that the stone leaf technology of Shuidonggou did not originate natively, but was introduced from the west and northwest, and should have been brought south by some groups of ancestors who lived in Siberia during the cold period of the last glacial period. Here's why:

1) The two basic technical elements of stone cores and stone leaves (formerly known as feldspar pieces) with the technical characteristics of Levalova, namely systematic prefabrication of stone cores and directional stripping techniques (continuous stripping in one direction or opposite direction), cannot be found in the traditional Paleolithic culture in China, even in the Dingcun ruins and Changwu Yaotougou sites that are considered to be related to the Shuidonggou industry, there are no examples of the application of these two technical systems in stone products;

2) The stone leaf products of the Shuidonggou site have technical and morphological similarities with those of several sites in the Altai region of Siberia (which can be further extended to Central Asia and Europe), while the latter is earlier than the former, has a before-after relationship with the sequence of times, and has the temporal conditions for the occurrence of population migration and technological transmission; The geographical proximity of the two, there is no natural barrier to migration or transmission; Moreover, very typical Levarowa stone cores and stone leaf products have been found in the camel stone site in northern Xinjiang and the Gouxi site in the central part of Xinjiang, and similar discoveries have been made in the survey near Qinghai Lake, which makes the vacuum zone between Shuidonggou and Altai no longer exist in the stone leaf distribution area, and the route of ancestor migration and cultural dissemination and exchange is clearer. Of course, migration and transmission are not necessarily straight and one-way, and the presence of stone leaf remains in Mongolia, some sites in Heilongjiang, China, and the Yanbian area of Jilin have also been found, indicating that there are frequent migrations and interactions among late Paleolithic people in Northeast Asia.

Scholars who hold the "indigenous origin theory" of stone leaf technology should be limited by the lack of a comprehensive understanding of the Shuidonggou stone tool industry. Because previous studies have mixed the cultural relics of different eras and different technical systems of the Shuidonggou site, to a large extent, the technical characteristics and proportion of Levallowa products and stone leaf products have been diluted, and the position of local traditional technical products has been overemphasized, thus blurring the understanding of cultural nature and thus blurring the direction of finding its source.

3.8 Inspiration and reflection on location 1

For a long time, there were different understandings and debates in the academic community about the "Shuidonggou culture", involving its age, technical characteristics and cultural system attribution, and these discussions were all directed at site 1. The ringer must also be tied to the ringer, and it is necessary to return to the first place to clarify the relevant problems. Although no new excavations were carried out at site 1 in this round, local (lower strata) clean-ups were carried out, and a small number of samples were collected for chronological and environmental analysis, and some new understanding was obtained. At the same time, the results of the work at other sites, in particular site 2, which is only 100 metres across the river (Biangou River), provided useful enlightenment for the seminar on issues related to site 1.

As mentioned earlier, previous studies of cultural remains at Site 1 were based on the assumption that all specimens belonged to the same layer, the same era, and the same cultural system. Although the last two excavations have divided different natural layers, cultural remains are still mixed together and studied, which should be the source of different views and vague understandings.

The strata of site 1 and site 2 of Shuidonggou should be basically able to correspond. The biangou river in the middle is a very narrow seasonal river that develops very late, and when the late Paleolithic population lived here, the river did not exist and did not have any impact on the life of the ancestors and the formation of the ruins. Layers 7-5 of site 2 unearthed sporadic Levalois and stone leaf cores, although small in number, but with obvious characteristics. When we cleaned up the lower strata of Site 1, we found stone leaves, indicating that this formation is the original layer of the production of stone leaf technology products, that is, the so-called typical "Shuidonggou culture" layer. From this, it can be judged that the products of Levallow and Stone Leaf technology are buried only in specific layers in the lower part at site 1 and should not be distributed in Paleolithic accumulations. According to records, previous excavations have encountered concentrated ash and burnt bones, burnt stones, etc., and also found an ornament made of ostrich egg slices with an outer round middle hole, which is very similar to the second layer of the second site, and should belong to a layer and an era. In this way, there are at least two Paleolithic cultural remains at different levels and at different times in the first site, and they belong to different technical systems. It is uncertain whether there are other cultural layers at site 1 (4, 3, 1), but previous records indicate that cultural relics at site 1 are distributed from top to bottom, indicating that these layers at site 2 should also be included in the accumulation of site 1. However, the strata of the two sites do not correspond exactly, the Neolithic strata of site 1 is missing at site 2, and the thick and pure silt sand accumulation on site 2 is absent at site 1. This should be caused by different erosion and re-sedimentation of different parts of the site after formation.

It can be seen that as the core of the Shuidonggou site, there are prehistoric cultural remains of different layers, different eras and different technical systems at site 1, and should not be treated as a single site or a single archaeological culture. The so-called "Shuidonggou culture" is a confusing and vague concept that should be discontinued. Confusing the cultural heritage of different eras and different technical systems has affected the proper sorting, judgment and understanding of the heritage connotation, technological evolution, cultural attributes and their origins, as well as the positioning of the site in the paleolithic cultural framework of China and even Northeast Asia and the discussion of the relationship with related sites and cultural systems. Therefore, in the future, limited high-tech archaeological excavations should be carried out at site 1, fine cultural layers should be divided, the exact three-dimensional coordinates and buried information of specimens should be recorded, systematic lithological strata, paleoenvironment and chronological analysis tests should be carried out, and the background and behavior information of ancient human survival and evolution should be extracted in an all-round way, so that the relevant controversies can be settled, and the research work will be deepened and refined.

3.9 Implications and significance for the study of the origin and diffusion of modern humans

The origin and diffusion of modern humans is currently a hot topic in anthropological and archaeological research, and the "from Africa" theory and the "continuous evolutionary hybridization" theory continue for more than 20 years. Research on the origin and diffusion of modern humans is currently underway in several fields, each with a different evidence system and research perspective. Fossil anthropology is committed to finding anatomical evidence that human fossils are preserved that distinguish them from Homo erectus and early Homo sapiens and can be defined as "modern humans", and determine the time, place and diffusion process of the origin of early modern humans by preserving the spatio-temporal distribution of fossils with such evidence; Molecular biology traces the genetic variation of living populations through hypothetical molecular clocks, and strives to extract ancient DNA from human fossils to compare with living populations, thereby determining the time of origin and the route of diffusion of early modern humans; Paleolithic archaeology speculates on the time, region, and migration routes of the origin of early modern humans by finding and identifying a series of so-called "evidence of modern human behavior", including stone leaf technology, exquisite stone tools, grinding bone tools, composite tools, ornaments, artworks, tombs, the ability to hunt large animals, heat treatment of stone materials, and the complex use of residential sites. Some sites at the Shuidonggou site have unearthed cultural relics with the technical characteristics of the late Paleolithic period in the West, and there is evidence or possibility of migration and cultural exchange between eastern and western peoples in ancient times, so it is considered by many scholars to be of great value for the study of the origin and spread of modern humans. New research suggests that the site's study of this proposition does provide unique implications and contributions.

The combination of stone artifacts preserved at the site with the technical characteristics of Levallow and Stone Leaf should be left over from the migration of people living in the west and northwest in the early late Paleolithic period. These groups have the skilled technology and ability to peel stone leaves and make exquisite tools, which are consistent with the technical and behavioral characteristics of early modern populations in western Eurasia and Africa, and meet the cultural standards of early modern populations determined by Western scholars, so they are important evidence left by the migration and diffusion process of early modern people from west to east in northern China. But this cultural combination quickly disappeared, and did not have a clear impact on the later culture, how to continue the story of the evolution of modern people here?

At the Shuidonggou site, the combination of stone leaf technology is continued and replaced by a combination of small stone tablets with the characteristics of local traditional culture. The distinctive features of this combination are well reflected in the cultural layers of the 2nd place and the cultural layers of the 7th and 8th locations. Their main body is an irregular small stone piece randomly peeled from an unprepared stone core and a tool made from which it is processed; There are no stone leaf technology products. If you look at the stone leaves alone, these small stone combinations will be excluded from the "modern" culture, but heat treatment, ornaments, grinding bone tools, exquisite scrapers and the complex use of the site centered on the fire pit are all behavioral characteristics of the so-called "modern people", so early modern people still lived here, but changed the group, changed the way of cultural and technological expression.

This substitution and continuation between early modern people with different cultural characteristics is thought-provoking. The so-called "modern man" is an unscientific and broad concept, and it is not easy to determine its criteria from the perspective of physical morphology and genetic variation, and it is more difficult to define and distinguish it from the perspective of technology, culture and behavior. An important reason is that human evolution is continuous, there is no jump between different stages, and it is impossible to suddenly appear biological characteristics and cultural attributes that are completely different from those of predecessors in a certain era and a certain group; Human evolution is diverse, and it is impossible to find a unified standard and pattern of physique and behavior that is universal. There has been a lot of reflection and criticism in the academic community recently on the list of so-called "evidence of modern human behavior", and its applicability and consensus are being challenged and are being abandoned. The combination of stone leaf techniques unearthed at a specific time at the Shuidonggou site certainly represents the migration and spread of an early modern population from the West, but it is not the whole story, and they do not replace the indigenous population as a whole; After their disappearance, the indigenous people who have maintained the old traditions in stone tool technology, but there are new elements in the way they behave, and there is the inheritance and innovation of the indigenous traditional culture. Like the population of Zhoukoudian Mountaintop Cave and Tianyuan Cave 30,000-40,000 years ago, they were members of the early modern human family, and later evolved into a large living population of east Asian Mongol races. It can be seen that the origin and diffusion model of modern humans here is not a simple substitution of immigrants, on the contrary, the continuous evolution of native populations is the main theme. Thus, the theory of "continuous evolution with hybridization" has a more solid archaeological foundation in the region.

Acknowledgements: Other team members who have participated in the recent excavation and research of the Shuidonggou site, including Zhong Kan, Pei Shuwen, Chen Fuyou, Yi Mingjie, Feng Xingwu, Zhang Xiaoling, Zhang Le, Zhang Shuangquan, Liu Decheng, Wang Chunxue, Ma Xiaoling, Cao Mingming, Zhu Zhiyong, Peng Fei, Li Feng, etc., have made many contributions to the development of this project and the writing of this article, and the authors also thank you.

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This article is from the Journal of Anthropology, May 2013, Vol. 32, No. 2, pp. 121-132.