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

Abstract

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. modern human behavior, engraved artifact, cognition and symbolism, Shuidonggou, Early Late Paleolithic

From number sense to number symbols. An archaeological perspective

“…A number of sequentially marked bones, antlers, shells and stones are reported from Middle and Lower Palaeolithic sites [24, [58][59][60][61][62]. Some were reinterpreted as the result of natural processes [63], few were studied in detail and many are unpublished.…”

Early human symbolic behavior in the Late Pleistocene of Wallacea

“…The practice of incising abstract patterns on stones either before the knapping process or afterward is rare worldwide (38,39) and, to our knowledge, unique within ISEA (and Sahul)-the closest examples in Asia being a stone core engraved with crossed and parallel lines, which dates to 30 ka in China (40), and five incised stones from Xom Trai Cave in Vietnam (22-19 ka) (41). Similar objects occur in UP France (42) and at Clovis sites (39).…”

Clovis Lithic Technology: The Devil Is in the Details

“…These connections include not just blades but skill in tool manufacture, production of lithic items like finely flaked end scrapers, gravers=piercers and apparently burins, and use of organic items such as the shaft wrench from Murray Springs and beveled base points. Even the line engraved stones from Gault have counterparts and a long history, in the Asian Upper Paleolithic (e.g., Dikov 1996: Figure 4.18v;Peng et al 2012), and the recently reported, if Clovis, Florida mammoth engraving (Purdy et al 2011) also has Asian equivalents (Bednarik 1994:369). These similarities indicate Clovis has relatively recent historical ties to Asia=Alaska and reflects a significant population movement in the Americas even though there is some compelling evidence for earlier or relatively contemporary non-Clovis peoples.…”