Qingshuiyuan Dadong: A newly discovered Late Paleolithic site in Guizhou province, China

Qingshuiyuan Dadong (QSYDD) cave is located in Baijin town, Huishui county, Guizhou province. For several years, stone artifacts, bone tools, and fragments of animal bones attracted Paleolithic researchers to the site. A systematic excavation was conducted in 2013 by a joint archaeological team of Institute of Vertebrate Paleontology and Paleoanthropology, Chinese Academy of Sciences and the Institute of Archaeology and Cultural Relics of Guizhou Province. In Area A, a depositional sequence of gray, grayish-yellow, and grayish-black sandy clay with a thickness of 0.90 m was exposed. A total of 2398 stone artifacts and > 2000 animal bones were uncovered. The lithic assemblage includes cores demonstrating direct percussion, retouched tools, debitage, and stone hammers that characterize the small Flake Tool Tradition in China. The bipolar technique was rare. Chert is the predominant raw material and was locally available from the weathering of the surrounding rocky outcrops. Most of the stone artifacts are small, and flake scrapers were the most common retouched item, followed by notches. Two well-shaped bone tools were also found. Radiocarbon dates on charcoal place the Late Paleolithic occupation of QSYDD at ca. 14-11 ka BP, and reveal that the use of core and flake industries persisted in South China during through the Terminal Pleistocene.