Microlithic Technology in Northern Asia: A Risk‐Minimizing Strategy of the Late Paleolithic and Early Holocene

Abstract

Microblade technology was important in hunter‐gatherer adaptations throughout northern Asia from the late Pleistocene through the Pleistocene/Holocene transition and beyond. To date, most studies from the region are concerned with origins, technological lineages, and culture history. In contrast, we direct attention to issues involving the role of microlithic technology in adaptive strategies and problem solution among north Asian hunter‐gatherers by looking at artifact design and risk analysis. First we discuss the function of Asian microblades and outline the general costs and benefits of organic points with microblade insets over simple organic points and flaked stone points, as well as the relative advantages of wedge‐shaped and split‐pebble microcores in terms of the Z‐score model. We conclude with a review of the role of microlithic technology as a risk‐minimizing strategy of Arctic and sub‐Arctic large‐game hunters in northern Asia and suggest further lines of inquiry.

The origins of food production in north China: A different kind of agricultural revolution

“…The North China Microlithic most likely represents a hunting adaptation centered on large game 29 that required moving camp often enough and over distances long enough to preclude effective storage in a delayed-return economy. It was, by necessity, an immediate-return economy, dependent enough on sharing to discourage intensification.…”

“…The miniature microblade cores include the wedge-and boat-shaped variants noted elsewhere in northern China. 29,[56][57][58] They are triangular in cross section and vary in taper to take maximum advantage of raw material (Fig. 5).…”

“…The upper Yellow River desert version of the North China Microlithic featured small, highly mobile hunting groups that are difficult to detect in the archeological record. 29 Maintaining this adaptation as they moved south required smaller social units, more frequent residential moves, and extreme conservation of traditional weaponry made from raw materials largely unavailable in the Loess Plateau, to the point that they left almost no archeological record at all. However, these same circumstances encouraged social and behavioral innovation, increased regional adaptive variability, and hastened the transition first to incipient and later to intensive agriculture.…”

Stone tool analysis and human origins research: Some advice from uncle Screwtape

“…[49][50][51] Mobility, in particular, is seen as a key factor in determining whether prehistoric humans provisioned places (habitation sites) in bulk with lithic raw materials or whether they equipped personnel with efficiently transportable general-purpose tools. 52,53 Other studies focus on the countervailing selective pressures for devising artifact maintainability versus reliability in artifact design [54][55][56] and the optimal design of mobile toolkits. [57][58][59][60] Evolutionary archeology (or Darwinian archeology) focuses on the historical, quasi-phylogenetic dimension of lithic variation.…”

The cultural context of biological adaptation to high elevation Tibet

“…Assuming hypoxia was not an issue for at least some groups of people within striking distance of the Tibetan Plateau during the late Pleistocene and early Holocene, what would it take for them to survive in such an environment? Highly adapted tool kits, the capacity for fire making, high quality clothing, winter mobility, storage, coordinated organizational procedures for marriage, alliance, and sharing have all been implicated in the successful occupation of marginal, resource-poor, highly seasonal environments throughout northern Eurasia (Barton et al, 2007;Elston and Brantingham, 2002;Elston et al, 2011;Goebel, 1999;Hoffecker, 2005;Madsen, 2016-in this issue;Rhode, 2016-in this issue;Yi et al, 2013), and in Andean South America (Aldenderfer 1998(Aldenderfer , 2003(Aldenderfer , 2004. Unfortunately, the archaeology of the Tibetan Plateau during this period is silent on most of these issues.…”