The absence of Acheulean: Qiliting Mode 1 site and the Mode 1 occupations in southeast China

Qiliting is an Early to Middle Pleistocene open-air site sealed within Vermiculated Laterite and Xiashu Loess in Zhejiang Province, southeast China. Based on palaeomagnetic work at this site and stratigraphic comparisons, the position of the artifacts in the Xiashu Loess indicates that human activities occurred in an upper cultural layer ca 0.30-0.12 Ma. A lower cultural layer in the Vermiculated Laterite is dated palaeomagentically by the Kamikatsura Event above this horizon in comparative section and the Santa Rosa Event below it, which estimated its age to 0.94-0.886 Ma BP. The flaking and tool modification strategies in the Qiliting assemblages are those of a typical Mode 1 industry, which includes simple flakes and cores, with limited modification of the modified tools, scrapers and picks. These features are also characteristic of the other regional sites, as well as of many other early sites in south China. No core preparation occurs, nor any extensively retouched specimens. The stone working is represented by a system of débitage sensu stricto and not by a compound system of débitage and shaping as occurs in Mode 2 industry.