Technological Analysis Of The Lithic Industry Of Bailian Cave,Zhuang Autonomous Region

The prehistoric research in Lingnan area of south China has largely focused on the early Paleolithic and Neolithic periods since decades,the period between the two has never been fully discussed,this situation causes that we have few knowledge about the culture and behavior of hominins during the late Pleistocene,thus it's difficult to understand the emergence and development of Neolithic cultures in this area because we have no clear picture of its technological,environmental and cultural background.The late Paleolithic(<30ka)research of Lingnan region is alwalys the concern of Chinese neolithic archaeologists,especially the topic about the transition from Paleolithic to Neolithic has been hotly debated in the past 30 years by Chinese specialists.By contrast,the paleolithic archaeologists show little interest in this time period.The research on lithic industries was mainly conducted by archeologists who utilized typology as the main method of analysis,the results were always presented as classification and simple description of the knapped stones.Although the comparative study of lithic industry within and among regions had long been established,unfortunately those studies themselves were not systematic enough,comparison among lithic industries was not under the same criteria as well.Due to these,the technological characteristics and the cultural process of late Paleolithic-early Neolithic society in this area remain unclear.To re-reveal the lithic technology and its tendency of development in Lingnan region since late Paleolithic,we have re-studied the lithic material of Bailian cave.It is one of the most representative sites in Lingnan whose cultural layers were dated to 36-7ka after a series of dating results.This paper presents the result of technological analysis using the methods(chaine operatoire,technological and techno-functional approach)created by French archaeologists for the first time regarding this site.We identified that concepts of debitage and faconnage coexisted through the early and late periods of the site,models of debitage can be represented by Type C1(simple debitage),Type C2 and Type F3(bipolar debitage),while Type C2 was the major speciality,and it was called Bailiandong knapping methodby some Chinese specialists.The operational sequence of faconnage is very variable,there are 5 different types of operational sequences including simple-bevel,knapped hammer stone,tool with curbed edge on the sagittal view,dumpling and unifacial discoid tool.The former 3 types were very common through the lower to the upper units,while the latter 2 types were rare.Among them,the dumplings existed only in the lower unit while the unifacial discoid tool was discovered merely in the upper unit.This is the manifestation of continuity of lithic technological tradition.During the late period of the site,polished stone implements and bone tools witnessed a development,the technique of knapping and polishing coexisted for a long time.However,hominins of the late period practiced and used more often the polishing technique and non-lithic materials(bone tools)compared with the early period,while the knapping technology of the knapped tools had no development.Based on the result of technological analysis of the lithic industry of Bailian cave,we have compared it with other 3 sites(Luobi cave,Xiaodong rockshelter and Laang Spean cave)from south(west)China and mainland Southeast Asia.Comparative study shows that the lithic industry of Bailian cave has more similarities with those of Luobi cave,while less with those of Xiaodong and Laang Spean.In fact,the latter two belong to the Hoabinhian techno-complex.According to this and the contrast difference of lithic technology of the nearby region(Yunnan-Guizhou Plateau and Hunan Province),we propose that Lingnan area seems to have become an independent techno-cultural unit since the end of Last Glacial Maximum(-14.5ka),its techno-cultural trait and the trajectory of techno-cultural development were different from the nearby regions,and communication of lithic technology with people from nearby areas was not obvious either.We also indicate that the routes of cultural exchange of Hoabinhian techno-complex between southwest China and mainland Southeast Aisa should be the major rivers running from Yun-Gui Plateau into mainland Southeast Asia.Because of certain limitations,this research is mainly a qualitative analysis on the lithic assemblages,comparison among sites is also limited to those which have been analyzed within the framework of technological approach,so the speculation and conclusion in this paper remain to be tested as more sites will be studied using the same method later on.However our studies on the lithic technology of Lingnan region can be used as the strating point and reference for further study,especially the new perspective in this thesis for inter-regional and intra-regional comparative study.