A Late Acheulean Culture on the Chinese Loess Plateau: The techno-economic behavior of the Dingcun lithic industry

Abstract

The Chinese Loess Plateau is the largest loess area in the world, andcovers ~400,000 km 2 , with a loess-palaeosol sequence that is comparable with Marine Isotope Stages (MIS) as a Quaternary terrestrial timescale of climatostratigraphy and chronology. The Dingcun lithic industry was recovered in 1954 inthe Loess Plateau, and has been known for its Large Flake Acheulean tools. Technological analysisbased onthe concept of chaîneopératoirewas applied in this paper to update our knowledge of the techno-economic behaviours at thissite and in the Loess Plateau area. The results show that there are two chaîneopératoires: 1) one focused on the production of large flake blanks (façonnage) for making Large Cutting Tools (LCTs); and 2) a small to medium débitage to obtain flakes for light duty tools.Experiments were applied to check the knapping technique. The results confirmed the probability that hard hammers were used to produce large flakes on hornfels blanks, and soft-hammer techniques were not used. When compared with the Acheulian LCTs of other sites in China, Dingcun is different from the Acheulian culture of south China (Danjiangkou Reservoir Region [DRR] and the Bose Basin), and more similar to the Luonan Acheulian industry. Therefore, it seems that a Large Flake Acheulean was developed the Loess Plateau area in the Late Middle Pleistocene.

Study on the Coupled and Coordinated Development of Village Cultural Industry and Ecological Environment in the Context of Rural Revitalization

“…Yang, S.X. [18] applied technology analysis to update China's understanding of the site and the technological [19,20] economic behavior of the cultural industry in the Loess Plateau region. Ye, C. [21] presented the spatial production of rural culture in three dimensions: ideational space, superficial space, and daily life space based on the theory of spatial production, and analyzed the rural culture The reasons for the gradual decline of rural culture.…”