Hostname: page-component-78c5997874-dh8gc Total loading time: 0 Render date: 2024-11-17T18:01:23.188Z Has data issue: false hasContentIssue false
  • English
  • Français

Shuidonggou localities 1 and 2 in northern China: archaeology and chronology of the Initial Upper Palaeolithic in north-east Asia

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  05 June 2015

Susan G. Keates  and
Yaroslav V. Kuzmin
Susan G. Keates
Affiliation:
Düsseldorf 40625, Germany (Email: anthres15@yahoo.com)
Yaroslav V. Kuzmin
Affiliation:
Institute of Geology & Mineralogy, Siberian Branch of the Russian Academy of Sciences, Koptyug Avenue 3, Novosibirsk 630090, Russia; andTomsk State University, Tomsk 634050, Russia
Get access Rights & Permissions [Opens in a new window]

Abstract

Shuidonggou localities 1 and 2 provide key evidence for the Initial Upper Palaeolithic of north-east Asia. In a recent article in Antiquity (87 (2013), 368–383), Li et al. proposed a new chronology, building on the earlier results of Madsen et al. (Antiquity 75 (2001), 705–716). Here Susan Keates and Yaroslav Kuzmin take issue with the new chronology. The article is followed by a response from Li and Gao.

Type
Debate
Information
Antiquity , Volume 89 , Issue 345 , June 2015 , pp. 714 - 720
Copyright
Copyright © Antiquity Publications Ltd, 2015 

Access options

Get access to the full version of this content by using one of the access options below. (Log in options will check for institutional or personal access. Content may require purchase if you do not have access.)

References

Brantingham, P.J., Krivoshapkin, A.I., Li, J. & Tserendagva, Y.. 2001. The initial Upper Paleolithic in northeast Asia. Current Anthropology 42: 735–46. http://dx.doi.org/10.1086/323817 Google Scholar
Brantingham, P.J., Gao, X., Madsen, D.B., Bettinger, R.L. & Elston, R.G.. 2004. The initial Upper Paleolithic at Shuidonggou, northwestern China, in Brantingham, P.J., Kuhn, S.L. & Kerry, K.W. (ed.) The early Upper Paleolithic beyond western Europe: 223–41. Berkeley: University of California Press.Google Scholar
Derevianko, A.P., Zenin, A.N., Rybin, E.P., Gladyshev, S.A., Tsibankov, A.A., Olsen, J.W., Tsevendorj, D. & Gunchinsuren, B.. 2007. The technology of early Upper Paleolithic lithic reduction in northern Mongolia: the Tolbor 4 site. Archaeology, Ethnology & Anthropology of Eurasia 1 (29): 16–38. http://dx.doi.org/10.1134/S1563011007010021 Google Scholar
Fu, Q., Meyer, M., Gao, X., Stenzel, U., Burbano, H.A., Kelso, J. & Pääbo, S.. 2013. DNA analysis of an early modern human from Tianyuan Cave, China. Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences of the USA 110: 2223–27. http://dx.doi.org/10.1073/pnas.1221359110 CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Fu, Q., Li, H., Moorjani, P., Jay, F., Slepchenko, S.M., Bondarev, A.A., Johnson, P.L.F., Petri, A.A., Prüfer, K., de Filippo, C., Meyer, M., Zwyns, N., Salazar-Garcia, D.C., Kuzmin, Y.V., Keates, S.G., Kosintsev, P.A., Razhev, D.I., Richards, M.P., Peristov, N.V., Lachmann, L., Douka, K., Higham, T.F.G., Slatkin, M., Hublin, J.-J., Reich, D., Kelso, J., Viola, T.B. & Pääbo, S.. 2014. The genome sequence of a 45,000-year-old modern human from western Siberia. Nature 514: 445–50. http://dx.doi.org/10.1038/nature13810 CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed
Gao, X., Yuan, B., Pei, S., Wang, H., Chen, F. & Feng, X.. 2008. Analysis of sedimentary-geomorphologic variation and the living environment of hominids at the Shuidonggou Paleolithic site. Chinese Science Bulletin 53: 2025–32. http://dx.doi.org/10.1007/s11434-008-0264-y Google Scholar
Gao, X., Wang, H., Pei, S., Chen, F. et al. 2013. Shuidonggou—excavation and research (2003–2007) report. Yinchuan: Institute of Cultural Relics & Archaeology of the Ningxia Hui Autonomous Region (in Chinese with English summary).Google Scholar
Gladyshev, S.A., Tsibankov, A.A. & Kandyba, A.V.. 2010. The initial Upper Paleolithic assemblages of northern Mongolia: cultural unity and variability. Vestnik of the Novosibirsk State University. Series History, Philology 9 (5): 97–110 (in Russian with English summary).Google Scholar
Gladyshev, S.A., Olsen, J.W., Tabarev, A.V. & Jull, A.J.T.. 2012. The Upper Paleolithic of Mongolia: recent finds and new perspectives. Quaternary International 281: 36–46. http://dx.doi.org/10.1016/j.quaint.2012.01.032 Google Scholar
Krause, J., Orlando, L., Serre, D., Viola, B., Prüfer, K., Richards, M.P., Hublin, J.-J., Hänni, C., Derevianko, A.P. & Pääbo, S.. 2007. Neanderthals in central Asia and Siberia. Nature 449: 902–904. http://dx.doi.org/10.1038/nature06193 CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed
Kuhn, S.L. & Zwyns, N.. 2014. Rethinking the initial Upper Paleolithic. Quaternary International 347: 29–38. http://dx.doi.org/10.1016/j.quaint.2014.05.040 CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Li, F., Gao, X., Chen, F., Pei, S., Zhang, Y., Zhang, X., Liu, D., Zhang, S., Guan, Y., Wang, H. & Kuhn, S.L.. 2013a. The development of Upper Palaeolithic China: new results from the Shuidonggou site. Antiquity 87: 368–83. http://dx.doi.org/10.1017/S0003598X00049000 Google Scholar
Li, F., Kuhn, S.L., Gao, X. & Chen, F.. 2013b. Re-examination of the dates of large blade technology in China: a comparison of Shuidonggou locality 1 and locality 2. Journal of Human Evolution 64: 161–68. http://dx.doi.org/10.1016/j.jhevol.2012.11.001 Google Scholar
Li, F., Kuhn, S.L., Olsen, J.W., Chen, F. & Gao, X.. 2014. Disparate Stone Age technological evolution in north China: lithic technological variability and relations between populations during MIS 3. Journal of Anthropological Research 70: 35–67. http://dx.doi.org/10.3998/jar.0521004.0070.103 Google Scholar
Madsen, D.B., Li, J., Brantingham, P.J., Gao, X., Elston, R.G. & Bettinger, R.L.. 2001. Dating Shuidonggou and the Upper Palaeolithic blade industry in China. Antiquity 75: 706–16. http://dx.doi.org/10.1017/S0003598X00089213 CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Madsen, D.B., Oviatt, C.G., Zhu, Y., Brantingham, P.J., Elston, R.G., Chen, F., Bettinger, R.L. & Rhode, D.. 2014. The early appearance of Shuidonggou core-and-blade technology in north China: implications for the spread of anatomically modern humans in northeast Asia? Quaternary International 347: 21–28. http://dx.doi.org/10.1016/j.quaint.2014.03.051 Google Scholar
Morgan, C., Barton, L., Yi, M., Bettinger, R.L., Gao, X. & Peng, F.. 2014. Redating Shuidonggou locality 1 and implications for the Initial Upper Paleolithic in East Asia. Radiocarbon 56: 165–79. http://dx.doi.org/10.2458/56.16270 Google Scholar
Nian, X., Gao, X. & Zhou, L.. 2014. Chronological studies of Shuidonggou (SDG) locality 1 and their significance for archaeology. Quaternary International 347: 5–11. http://dx.doi.org/10.1016/j.quaint.2014.03.050 CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Pei, S., Gao, X., Wang, H., Kuman, K., Bae, C.J., Chen, F., Guan, Y., Zhang, Y., Zhang, X., Peng, F. & Li, X.. 2012. The Shuidonggou site complex: new excavations and implications for the earliest Late Paleolithic in North China. Journal of Archaeological Science 39: 3610–26. http://dx.doi.org/10.1016/j.jas.2012.06.028 Google Scholar
Peng, F., Wang, H. & Gao, X.. 2014. Blade production of Shuidonggou locality 1 (northwest China): a technological perspective. Quaternary International 347: 12–20. http://dx.doi.org/10.1016/j.quaint.2014.04.041 Google Scholar
Reich, D., Green, R.E., Kircher, M., Krause, J., Patterson, N., Durand, E.Y., Viola, B., Briggs, A.W., Stenzel, U., Johnson, P.E., Maricic, T., Good, J.M., Marques-Bonet, T., Alkan, C., Fu, Q., Mallick, S., Li, H., Meyer, M., Eichler, E.E., Stoneking, M., Richards, M., Talamo, S., Shunkov, M.V., Derevianko, A.P., Hublin, J.-J., Kelso, J., Slatkin, M. & Pääbo, S.. 2010. Genetic history of an archaic hominin group from Denisova Cave in Siberia. Nature 468: 1053–60. http://dx.doi.org/10.1038/nature09710 Google Scholar
Reimer, P.J., Bard, E., Bayliss, A., Beck, J.W., Blackwell, P.G., Bronk Ramsey, C., Buck, C.E., Cheng, H., Edwards, R.L., Friedrich, M., Grootes, P.M., Guilderson, T.P., Haflidason, H., Hajdas, I., Hatté, C., Heaton, T.J., Hoffmann, D.I., Hogg, A.G., Hughen, K.A., Kaiser, K.F., Kromer, B., Manning, S.W., Niu, M., Reimer, R.W., Richards, D.A., Scott, E.M., Southon, J.R., Staff, R.A., Turney, C.S.M. & van der Plicht, J.. 2013. IntCal13 and Marine13 radiocarbon age calibration curves 0–50,000 years cal BP. Radiocarbon 55: 1869–87. http://dx.doi.org/10.2458/azu_js_rc.55.16947 Google Scholar
Rybin, E.P. 2014. Tools, beads, and migrations: specific cultural traits in the initial Upper Paleolithic of southern Siberia and central Asia. Quaternary International 347: 39–52. http://dx.doi.org/10.1016/j.quaint.2014.04.031 CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Vishnyatsky, L.B. 2004. Evolutionary ranking of the late Middle and early Upper Paleolithic industries: a trial. Archaeology, Ethnology & Anthropology of Eurasia 3 (23): 41–50.Google Scholar