An engraved artifact from Shuidonggou, an Early Late Paleolithic Site in Northwest China

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	An engraved artifact from Shuidonggou, an Early Late Paleolithic Site in Northwest China
	Peng Fei 1,2; Gao Xing 1; Wang HuiMin 3; Chen FuYou 1; Liu DeCheng 1; Pei ShuWen 1; gaoxing@ivpp.ac.cn
刊名	CHINESE SCIENCE BULLETIN
	2012-12-01
卷号	57 期号:35 页码:4594-4599
关键词	Modern Human Behavior Engraved Artifact Cognition And Symbolism Shuidonggou Early Late Paleolithic
ISSN号	1001-6538
文献子类	Article
英文摘要	Cognition and symbolic thinking are viewed as important features of modern human behavior. Engraved objects are seen as a hallmark of cognition and symbolism, and even as evidence for language. Accumulated evidences including engraved bones, ochre, ostrich eggshells and stone artifacts were unearthed from Africa, Europe, Levant even Siberia Paleolithic sites. But the archaeological evidence for this, including beads, ornaments, burials, performed objects and engraved objects, is rarely discovered in the Pleistocene of East Asia. The present paper reports an engraved stone object unearthed in the Early Late Paleolithic levels about 30 ka BP at the Shuidonggou site (SDG) in northwestern China. It was unearthed in the 1980's excavation from Lower culture unit of SDG1 but was identified in 2011 when the first author of this article observed the collection from the 1980's excavations stored in the Institute of Archaeology of Ningxia Hui Autonomous Region for further detailed lithic analysis. This lithic artifact is the first engraved non-organic object of the Paleolithic period found in China. In order to clarify the details of the incisions and to document the human intentional modifications, we used a KEYENCE VHX-600 Digital Microscope to measure and observe all the incisions in 3-dimensional perspective. Comparing the natural cracks and analyzing many details of the incisions, we argue that incisions on this stone artifact are the result of intentional behaviors by ancient humans. Also, we exclude the possible other causes including animal-induced damages, post-depositional phenomenon and unintentional by-products. Combining all these features, we suggest that the incisions were made by an intentional behavior and were probably of a non-utilitarian character. Because the nature of most other engraved objects in China is debate, we cannot get a clear scenario of the emergence and progress of modern human behavior in North China. But we infer the possible existence of a counting or recording system, or other symbolic behaviors, which reflect considerably evolved cognitive capacities or modern human behavior in the Early Late Paleolithic of East Asia.
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WOS关键词	MODERN HUMAN-BEHAVIOR ; SOUTH-AFRICA ; ORIGIN ; REVOLUTION ; EMERGENCE ; ASIA ; ART ; EVOLUTION ; LANGUAGE ; CRITIQUE
WOS研究方向	Science & Technology - Other Topics
语种	英语
WOS记录号	WOS:000312275400009
公开日期	2013-11-27
内容类型	期刊论文
源URL	[http://119.78.100.205/handle/311034/4238]
专题	古脊椎动物与古人类研究所_图书馆1
通讯作者	gaoxing@ivpp.ac.cn
作者单位	1.Chinese Acad Sci, Inst Vertebrate Paleontol & Paleoanthropol, Lab Human Evolut, Beijing 100044, Peoples R China 2.Chinese Acad Sci, Grad Univ, Beijing 100049, Peoples R China 3.Inst Archaeol Ningxia Hui Autonomous Reg, Yinchuan 750001, Peoples R China
推荐引用方式 GB/T 7714	Peng Fei,Gao Xing,Wang HuiMin,et al. An engraved artifact from Shuidonggou, an Early Late Paleolithic Site in Northwest China[J]. CHINESE SCIENCE BULLETIN,2012,57(35):4594-4599.
APA	Peng Fei.,Gao Xing.,Wang HuiMin.,Chen FuYou.,Liu DeCheng.,...&gaoxing@ivpp.ac.cn.(2012).An engraved artifact from Shuidonggou, an Early Late Paleolithic Site in Northwest China.CHINESE SCIENCE BULLETIN,57(35),4594-4599.
MLA	Peng Fei,et al."An engraved artifact from Shuidonggou, an Early Late Paleolithic Site in Northwest China".CHINESE SCIENCE BULLETIN 57.35(2012):4594-4599.