Lithic assemblage from the Jingshuiwan Paleolithic site of the early Late Pleistocene in the Three Gorges, China

The Jingshuiwan Paleolithic site lies in the second terrace of the Changjiang (Yangtze) River and has a complete geomorphological section. Archaeological materials from early Late Pleistocene fluvial deposits of silt and sand are dated by optically stimulated luminescence (OSL) to ca. 70 ka. The stone assemblage from layer 7 includes retouched tools (118), cores (304), flakes (281), flake fragments (101), stone hammers (four) and chunks (102). Artifacts were made from lithic sources locally available from the former riverbed. The main type used was silicarenite; quartzite, hypabyssal intrusive rock, extrusive rock and volcanic breccia were also used. The principal flaking technique was direct hammer percussion without prepared striking platforms. Major blanks for tool fabrication were complete flakes (67.0%), followed by cores and incomplete flakes. Most tools were large. Chopper-chopping tools and scrapers were the dominant tool types, followed by points and notches. Modified tools were mostly retouched unifacially on the surface of blanks by direct hammer percussion. Jingshuiwan provides evidence that South China was occupied during MIS 4. Because of the similarity of the stone tool assemblage with earlier ones associated with Homo erectus, it may also provide indirect evidence that H. erectus persisted into the early Late Pleistocene.