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Ark of Secrets - Neolithic spirit alive in the Middle Ages

The Ancient Celts, Barry Cunliffe

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<< Text Pages >> Shui Dong Gou - Ancient Village or Settlement in China

Submitted by bat400 on Monday, 21 October 2013  Page Views: 6318

Multi-periodSite Name: Shui Dong Gou Alternative Name: Shuidonggou
Country: China Type: Ancient Village or Settlement
Nearest Town: Yinchuan
Latitude: 38.293000N  Longitude: 106.516000E
Condition:
5Perfect
4Almost Perfect
3Reasonable but with some damage
2Ruined but still recognisable as an ancient site
1Pretty much destroyed, possibly visible as crop marks
0No data.
-1Completely destroyed
no data Ambience:
5Superb
4Good
3Ordinary
2Not Good
1Awful
0No data.
no data Access:
5Can be driven to, probably with disabled access
4Short walk on a footpath
3Requiring a bit more of a walk
2A long walk
1In the middle of nowhere, a nightmare to find
0No data.
no data Accuracy:
5co-ordinates taken by GPS or official recorded co-ordinates
4co-ordinates scaled from a detailed map
3co-ordinates scaled from a bad map
2co-ordinates of the nearest village
1co-ordinates of the nearest town
0no data
2
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Ancient Settlement in Ningxia, China.
One of the earliest Paleolithic site excavations of China, with human occupation dating to 32000 years ago.

"Some sites are characterized by small, irregular flakes, casually retouched tools and small numbers of blades or no blades. In addition to blades, microblades and hearths, perforated and polished ostrich egg-shell beads, mostly colored with red ochre, were recovered from three sites. Several worked bone needles and an awl were also uncovered from the youngest site, SDG12, in deposits dating about 13,000 years ago."
- phys.org/news/2012-08

Note: New excavations from Shuidonggou show initial appearance of the late Paleolithic in Northern China
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"Shui Dong Gou" | Login/Create an Account | 2 News and Comments
  
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Engraved stone artifact found at the Shuidonggou Paleolithic Site by bat400 on Monday, 21 October 2013
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Engraved objects are usually seen as a hallmark of cognition and symbolism, which are viewed as important features of modern human behavior. In recent years, engraved ochre, bones and ostrich eggs unearthed from various Paleolithic sites in Africa, the Near East and Europe have attracted great attentions. However, such items are rarely encountered at Paleolithic sites in East Asia.

According to article published in the journal of Chinese Science Bulletin (vol.57, No.26), Dr. GAO Xing, Institute of Vertebrate Paleontology and Paleoanthropology, Chinese Academy of Sciences, and his team reported an engraved stone artifact in a stone tool assemblage at the Shuidonggou Paleolithic site, Ningxia, Northwest China. The Shuidonggou Paleolithic site includes 12 localities, ranging in date from Early Late Paleolithic to Late Paleolithic. The engraved stone artifact was found at Locality 1, which is about 30000 years ago.

As the first Paleolithic site discovered in China, Shuidonggou Locality 1 is distinctive in Late Paleolithic industry of north China, because of its components of elongated tool blank production and Levallois-like technology. When analyzing the materials unearthed from the site during excavations in the 1920s, French archaeologist Henry Breuil observed parallel incisions on the surface of siliceous pebbles, but he did not provide details on those incised pebbles. This engraved stone artifact was found in a recent technological analysis of the stone tool assemblage unearthed at the Shuidonggou site in 1980. It is the first engraved non-organic artifact from the entire Paleolithic of China. Archaeologists used a digital microscope to observe all the incisions and obtain 3D images. After excluding the possibility of natural cracking, trampling and animal-induced damage, and unintentional human by-products, they believed that the incisions were made by intentional behavior. The straight shape of each line shows that it was incised once over a short time interval without repeated cutting, implying the possibility of counting or recording at that time. Furthermore, creation of such an engraved object may indicate the possible existence of complex communicative systems such as language. "Comparison studies indicate that the blade technology was probably introduced from the Altai region of Russian Siberia, and the flake technology is typical of the Late Paleolithic in north China. So, who created the incisions, the migrants from the west or the aborigines in north China? At this time, we cannot provide a clear scenario. More archaeological and anthropological evidences are needed to solve the puzzle", said Dr. PENG Fei, first author of the study at the IVPP. "This discovery provides important material for the study of symbolic and cognitive capability of humans in the Late Paleolithic of East Asia. As we know, so-called 'behavioral modernity' is often defined as changes of technology and subsistence strategies, expansion of activity areas, revolution in cognition, and other features. Most of these features have been identified at Paleolithic sites in Europe, the Near East and Africa. But in East Asia, the issue is more complex", said project lead GAO Xing, corresponding author of the study. This work was mainly supported by the National Basic Research Program of China, the Key Research Program of the Chinese Academy of Sciences, and the Strategic Priority Research Program of the Chinese Academy of Sciences. Provided by Institute of Vertebrate Paleontology and Paleoanthropology



Thanks to coldrum for this link. Read more at: This is a link
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New excavations from Shuidonggou show initial appearance of the late Paleolithic in N by bat400 on Monday, 21 October 2013
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Many behavioral and technological innovations appear in the archaeological record of Eurasia between about 45,000 and 24,000 years ago. This period has been termed the "initial Upper Paleolithic" and is largely associated with movements of modern humans into that part of the world and/or the complex interplay between population movements and environmental, demographic and cultural influences.

Paleolithic cultural development in eastern Asia is generally thought significantly different from that of the western Old World. In particular, the Chinese Paleolithic was dominated by simple core and flake tool industries, and Middle Paleolithic technologies (e.g., Levallois) were absent or appear very late in the record. In contrast with the western Old World, a distinct “Middle” Paleolithic has not yet been identified in China and broader eastern Asia.
Shuidonggou is presently the most important site complex for the initial Late Paleolithic in northern China. In a paper published online July 10, 2012 in the Journal of Archaeological Science, an international research team reported new findings from a multidisciplinary research project led by Drs. GAO Xin and PEI Shuwen at the Shuidonggou site complex in northern China, a series of localities that date from the initial Late Paleolithic to the Neolithic, helping better understand the development of Paleolithic culture and the movement of modern human populations in North China.
Since 2002, a research program has focused on geomorphology, excavation and optically stimulated luminescence (OSL) dating of the Shuidonggou site complex, covering an area of over 50 km2. Six new Paleolithic sites (designated SDG7–12) were discovered and more than 100 artifacts were surface collected. Large scale excavations were conducted at five of the sites (SDG2, SDG7-9, and SDG12). During these recent excavations, new cultural horizons have been identified and more than 50,000 Paleolithic stone artifacts recovered. The assemblages include blades and microblades, large numbers of vertebrate fossils, some ostrich eggshell beads, hearths, pigments and bone tools.

Dating results suggest that human occupation of the Shuidonggou area occurred during the Late Pleistocene to Middle Holocene (∼32,000–6000 years ago). At two sites, higher quality or exotic raw materials were exploited, but at the majority of sites locally-available river cobbles were used. In addition to blades, microblades and hearths, more than 80 finely-perforated and polished ostrich egg-shell beads, mostly colored with red ochre, were recovered from three sites. Several worked bone needles and an awl were also uncovered from the youngest site, SDG12, in deposits dating about 13,000 years ago.

“The new discoveries and dates indicate that modern humans are present at Shuidonggou close to 33,000 years ago, while the youngest occupation occurs in the terminal Pleistocene, about 13,000 years ago”, said PEI Shuwen, first author of the study, “The earliest human occupation at Shuidonggou is substantially younger than in the initial Upper Paleolithic from western Eurasia. Thus, it is quite plausible that modern humans migrated into northern China from western Eurasia during this time period, though there appears to be growing evidence that modern humans were present in Northeast Asia well before the occupation of Shuidonggou”.
. “The SDG9 site suggests an abrupt appearance of blade technology about 29,000 years ago, likely coinciding with the eastward movement of modern human populations into the region”, said GAO Xin, coauthor of the study, “It is clear that modern humans were responsible for the Shuidonggou initial Late Paleolithic in North China, but the pattern of more advanced small tool industries in the rest of China still remains to be explained”.



Thanks to coldrum for the link. Read more at:
[url=phys.org/news/2012-08-excavations-shuidonggou-late-paleolithic-northern.html#jCp]http://phys.org/news/2012-08-excavations-shuidonggou-late-paleolithic-nort

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