ADVANCES IN CHINESE PALEOLITHIC ARCHAEOLOGY IN THE PAST 20 YEARS AND SOME COMMENTS
近20年来中国旧石器考古学的进展与思考

Paleolithic research in China has reached a new zenith in the past 20 years, indicated by the discovery of a large quantity of paleolithic sites in the middle and lower reaches of the Changjiang River. From the unearthed materials archaeologists identified a northern and a southern principal paleolithic industry (PPI), as well as some regional industries. So far at least 1 000 paleolithic sites have been discovered in China. Over 80% were found in the past 20 years, distributed mainly in the middle and lower reaches of the Changjiang River; a few were found in the Zhujiang and Minjiang River systems. In the meantime, some new sites were also discovered in the vast North China region. In Xinjiang, the history without verified paleolithic remains has been changed; in the Ali district of Xizang:the roof of the world, several archaeological localities, possible of paleolithic age, have been found. These new discoveries have broadened the temporal and spatial distributions of the paleolithic cultures in China, the distribution area of paleolithic sites expanded 8 degrees to the west in longitude and 1 degree to the south in latitude. The discovery and study of such large quantity of paleolithic remains have brought about substantial changes in the understanding of paleolithic industries in China. The search of lower Pleistocene archaeological remains has achieved satisfactory results. The number of sites belonging to this age was enlarged from 6 to 25. Although the distribution area remains same, more artifacts were collected, and more details of lithic technology have become known. Most of early artifacts are small ones; Around 1 MaB.P. some assemblages dominated by large artifacts came to the horizon. Direct hammer percussion was the major method for flake production, and the bipolar technique was employed occasionally. No evidence of platform preparation has been detected from these cores and flakes. Tool types include scrapers, choppers, chopping tools, pointed tools, burins and awls. They were made on flakes, cores and pebbles. The composition of these lithic assemblages varies in some degree from place to place and from time to time. Bone artifacts have been collected from a few sites. No fire use has been diagnosed from these sites. Because of discovery of many new sites in South China, Zhoukoudian was no longer the sole center of paleolithic cultures in China, and the concept of cultural variability has been commonly accepted. It is clear that there are two principal paleolithic industries exist in China, one in the North and the other in the South. The North PPI is dominated by small artifacts, while the South PPI is characterized by large artifacts, distributed mainly in the low elevation areas south to the Changjiang River. New discoveries indicate that the two PPIs began to take their shapes 1 MaB.P. or slightly later. A smaller quantity of new data has been collected for the middle paleolithic. Some of the new materials came from high mou