The Functional Analysis Of Endscrapers In The Upper Paleolithic Of Nihewan Basin

The Yangyuan Basin belongs to the Nihewan Basin,which is located the northeast end of the Fen-Wei Graben system.So Yangyuan Basin is a graben basin.A series of mountains are located at the north of the Yangyuan Basin.Just like a screen,these mountains make the winter monsoon,being from the Siberia Plateau,become weaker,so that Yangyuan Basin is less cool than other areas,which are located in the same latitude with Yangyuan Basin.During the Pleistocene,the Yangyuan Basin was the part of the Ancient Nihewan Lake,and there had been many mammalian animals around the lake.Since about 1.7 Ma,hominid came around here.With climate change and the fluctuation of the Ancient Nihewan Lake,hominid had been changing their regions of life.And they created many Paleolithic sites,such as the Majuangou site,the Shigou site,the Xiaochangliang site and so on.During the Upper Paleolithic,besides the traditional small lithic industry of North China,a lot of typical microlithic industry sites are found in the Yangyuan Basin,such as the Erdaoliang site,the Jijitan site,the Hutouliang complex.Many typical micro-cores are found at these sites,which provides a key piece of evidence about the communication between the human,being from the East Asia and the human who come from the Northeast Asia.But,besides the fine micro-cores,burins,endscrapers,and bifaces are also essential elements of the microlithic industry.However,the most researchers put their focus on the micro-core technology,ignoring the endscrpers.However,we must acknowledge that the endscraper is an important element of the microlithic industry,and numerous endscrapers were found at these sites which belong to the microlithic industry.Because of the simple technique and single form,the endscraper has long not been put adequate attention by the Chinese researchers.But foreign researchers have acquired abundant scientific fruits,such as the classification of typology,experiments about the function of the endscraper,lithic refiting,micro-wear analysis,ethnoarchaeology and so on.Contrary to foreign countries,Chinese researches just did little work about the function of the endscraper by the method of high-power microwear analysis,and it is far from the level where foreign researchers have arrived.We found sixteen endscrapers which all were collected from the surface at the Xiabuzhuang site,when Hebei Normal University Archaeology Team investigated in the Yangyuan Basin,2017.And the Xiabuzhuang site is a typical microlithic industry,where many microcores were found.About the microwear analysis,it is the first for Semenov to use this way to analyses the function of lithics,which were observed under the microscope,by telling the micro scars which were left by using.And if the tools are used for different materials,the tools will be left different scars.By microwear analysis,we can infer what the stone tools were used for.Though the Prehistory Technology was introduced into China firstly,there is nobody who realized the important of the microwear analysis.Microwear analysis was developed quickly with helps which were from the George Odell and Lawrence H.Keely in the North American.In 1980 s,Profession Zhang Senshui went to American,and he visited Keely in Chicago with the Profession Kwang-chih Chang’s help.When he back to China,he wrote a paper which introduced the way of the microwear analysis.However,only little work was done by few researchers.Then Beijing Use-wear Workshop was conduct by IVPP in Beijing,2004.It is the first time for the method of the microwear analysis to be introduced systematically into China.And a series of achievements were edited a book,Archaeological Study of Lithic Use-wear Experiments,which was published in 2008,making more researchers get access of the microwear analysis.Since 2004,there are numerous achievements have been acquired,and the microwear has been got great progress in China.In the thesis,I plan to use the experimental method,which was designed scientifically by referring to many aspects,such as environment archaeology,zooarchaeology,stonekapping and so on.In the experiment,we try to restore ancient humans how to use endscrapers.After the experiment,we compare the microwears between the experimental samples and artefacts,which were collected form the Xiabuzhuang site.During the experiment,we found that endscrapers were knapped by many methods besides pressure.And the materials,being knapped into endscrapers,can be selected from many forms,such as wide flakes,long flakes and chunks,which must have the adequate thick.And the thickness is a key piece of element when someone uses any kind material to make endscrapers.By the microwear analysis,Luckily,we found the twelve endscrapers were used for dryhide,then were used for wood or were discarded.Referring the ethnoarchaeology,and the achievements of Keely and Binford,we make a bold speculation about the attribute of the Xiabuzhuang site.Meanwhile,we classified the endscrapers,collected from the Xiabuzhuang site,into three endscrapers,according to technology.And we found type A and type B had different microwears,indicating they were used for different materials,proving that classification was right.