The
paleolithic archeology in China had laid solid foundation by the researches at Zhoukoudian region in 1930s.Since 1949
over 1000
paleolithic sites have been found and studied in this country.The specimens yielded include human fossils of different stages,over 100,000 pieces of the stone artifacts,about 1000 bone and antler tools made by polishing or scraping,some decorated ornaments,a few bone tools with carved designs as well as plenty of fire using remains.Important results have also been obtained in related sciences such as experimental archeology,taphonomy,chronology,paleoclimate studies etc.More than one thousand papers and books on the paleolithic research in China have been published in latter half of this century.\;In the previous 50 years,one of the important advancements of the paleolithic archeology in China is the expanse in space and time distribution.Before 1949 in addition to Zhoukoudian region only about 10 sites which are belonged to middle and upper paleolithic were found in Ningxia,Inner Mongolia,Shaanxi,Shanxi and Yunnan Provinces and Autonomous Regions.Now over 1000 sites belonging to the different stages of the paleolithic have been discovered in China.Among them the sites belonging to the early stage of the lower paleolithic (Early Pleistocene) have been found and distributed over rather wide region (101°58′-114°39′E.,25°14′-40°13′N.) in China,the earliest one was found in 1998 at Renzidong Cave near Xincun town in Fanchang county,Anhui Province.Some stone artifacts,bone tools and many mammalian fossils were found in situ .In comparison with well known early Pleistocene faunas and paleomagnetic dating of related sites,the Renzidong Cave site could be dated to earlier than 2Ma.This discovery indicates that humankind in China could be traced 0 3 million years earlier than the Yuanmou hominid who is dated as of 1 7Ma and had been thought as representing the earliest inhabitant of China for long time since his discovering in 1965.The distribution area of late stage of lower paleolithic (Middle Pleistocene) is slightly enlarged than that of earlier stage (105°55′? ?24°07′E .,23°39′—41°15′N.).The region with middle paleolithic cultural relics has no obvious change,but may extend westward for 2 degrees longitude in North China.The culture of the late paleolithic spreaded further westward and northward and have been propagated into Tibet and the most northern part of China(79°26′ _127°21′E.,18°17′_ 52°25′N.). \;The analysis of the stone artifacts shows that the paleolithic industrial basic frame in China consists of two main industries distributed in North and South China respectively together with several local industries.The
main industry designates the assemblages with common characters existed throughout the paleolithic age and distributed over wide area,while the local industry contains the assemblages with common characters but the distribution are rather limited in space and time.Following is a brief description of the main and local industries. \;Main industry of North China:Some general characters could be shown as follows:Most of the stone artifacts are small in size and less than 40mm in length.The flakes are produced by hard hammer percussion.The tools are mostly made of the flakes and can be subdivided into scraper,pointed tool,awl,graver,chopper and bolas.Among them the scraper is the main type and the pointed tool is important one.The chopper is more common in early paleolithic stage and played decreasing role upto middle and upper paleolithic.All tools are trimmed by hard hammer percussion and mainly retouched on the dorsal surface,therefore,they are not regular in shape and the working edges are zigzag.\;The main industry of North China distributed over a rather vast area (107°29′_ 122°10′E., 34°10′_41°15′N.) in the early and middle paleolithic.Upto late paleolithic it extended to further west and south in China.The artifacts of the industry have been discovered i