Zhoukoudian Upper Cave personal ornaments and ochre: Rediscovery and reevaluation

Abstract

Personal ornaments have become a key cultural proxy to investigate cognitive evolution, modern human dispersal and population dynamics. Here we reassess personal ornaments found at Zhoukoudian Upper Cave and compare them with those from other Late Paleolithic Northern Chinese sites. We reappraise the information provided by Pei Wen Chung on Upper Cave personal ornaments lost during WWII and analyze casts of 17 of them, along with two unpublished objects displayed at the Zhoukoudian Site Museum and three original perforated teeth rediscovered at the Zhoukoudian Site Museum. We apply archeozoological, technological and use-wear analyses to document variation in ornamental practices and their change throughout the site stratigraphy. Badger, fox, red deer, sika deer, marten and tiger teeth as well as carp bone, bird bone, Anadara shell, limestone beads and perforated pebble appear to have been the preferred objects used as ornaments by Upper Cave visitors. Multivariate analysis of technological data highlights a correspondence between cultural layers and perforation techniques, with radial incising being typical of layer L2 and bidirectional incising of L4. The three rediscovered badger canines display features suggesting they were sewed on clothing rather than suspended from necklaces or bracelets. Elemental (SEM-EDS) and mineralogical (µ-Raman) analyses of red residues adhering to the rediscovered teeth indicate these objects were originally coated with ochre and identify variations that match differences in technology. The two ornaments exhibited at the Zhoukoudian Site Museum are ancient teeth that were recently perforated and should be excluded from the Upper Cave assemblage. A seriation of Late Paleolithic ornaments found at Northern Chinese sites identifies a clear-cut difference in preferred ornament types between western and eastern sites, interpreted as reflecting two longlasting traditions in garment symbolic codes.

An Upper Paleolithic Perforated Red Deer Canine With Geometric Engravings From QG10, Ningxia, Northwest China

“…Research on the variability of personal ornamentation practices, i.e., both the report of the ornament types and the detail description of the manufacturing process and use, is still at an incipient stage in China. Only a little more than a dozen sites yielded personal ornaments, and a handful of assemblages have been subjected to detailed analysis (Wei et al, 2016(Wei et al, , 2017Pitarch Martí et al, 2017;d'Errico et al, 2021). When cervid canine are concerned, only two sites had yielded such items until the present research, i.e., Zhoukoudian Upper Cave (Pei, 1939;d'Errico et al, 2021) and Xiaogushan (Huang et al, 1986).…”

“…Only a little more than a dozen sites yielded personal ornaments, and a handful of assemblages have been subjected to detailed analysis (Wei et al, 2016(Wei et al, , 2017Pitarch Martí et al, 2017;d'Errico et al, 2021). When cervid canine are concerned, only two sites had yielded such items until the present research, i.e., Zhoukoudian Upper Cave (Pei, 1939;d'Errico et al, 2021) and Xiaogushan (Huang et al, 1986). Our analysis of the QG10 perforated red deer canine contributes to documenting the technological know-hows solicited in the manufacture and use of this aspect of material culture, and providing a new outlook of the diversity in the adornment systems of the human groups that lived in arid and semi-arid regions of Northern China during the Late Glacial period.…”

“…Furthermore, despite being mentioned in reports, detailed technological analysis-and, whenever possible, the chemical characterization of adhering colorants-is available only for a handful of sites. Early evidence comes from Shuidonggou Localities 2, 7 and 8 (Pei et al, 2012;Wei et al, 2016;Wei et al, 2017;Pitarch Martí et al, 2017;Feng Li et al, 2019) in the Ordos Plateau and, Zhoukoudian Upper Cave near Beijing (Pei, 1939;d'Errico et al, 2021) as well as Xiaogushan, Liaoning Province (Huang et al, 1986). The Shuidonggou sites mainly yielded ostrich eggshell beads (OESBs) and some rare ornaments made from freshwater shells, while diversified ornamentation assemblages dominated by mammal teeth were found at sites located to the East.…”

Animals for Tools: The Origin and Development of Bone Technologies in China

“…In spite of being usually restricted to a single tool type (Stordeur-Yedid, 1979;d'Errico et al, 2018;Doyon, 2019;Doyon, 2020), these syntheses illustrate their aptitude to retrace cultural phylogenies, explore topic such as technological organization and population dynamics during the Pleistocene. Bone technologists may find inspiration in analogous projects undertaken to investigate the variation in personal ornaments McAdam, 2008;Rigaud et al, 2015;Rigaud et al, 2018;Balme and O'Connor, 2019;d'Errico et al, 2021), and confront their results to other aspects of material culture to provide a nuanced outlook on topics such as cultural innovations and transmission during the Pleistocene. From a chronological standpoint, a key question that needs to be tackled relates to the circumstances surrounding the circa 15-ka hiatus in "formal bone tools" between their first emergence and disappearance in the African record, and their convergent reappearance across the Old World around 45 ka.…”

“…Finally, a number of North Chinese sites suggests that the emergence of personal ornaments preceded the first occurrences of formal bone tools in the region by a few millennia. This is the case for instance at Shizitan, Shuidonggou and Zhoukoudian Upper Cave (Wei et al, 2016;Wei Y. et al, 2017;Song et al, 2017;d'Errico et al, 2018;d'Errico et al, 2021).…”