Zooarchaeological perspectives on the Chinese Early and Late Paleolithic from the Ma’anshan site (Guizhou, South China)

Abstract

Ma’anshan is a Paleolithic cave site in the Guizhou province of southern China. The total area of the excavations is ca. 48 m², and the cultural deposit is divided into two layers representing the Chinese Late Paleolithic and the later part of the Early Paleolithic. The upper layer dates between 19,295  BP and 31,155 BP by AMS technique, and the lower layer is dated to around 53,000 BP by U-Series technique. Thousands of bone fragments were recovered from the two layers. Species abundance, bone surface modifications, skeletal element representation, and mortality patterns were studied in an investigation of assemblage formation history and patterns of prey selection and meat consumption by hominins. Interpretations of the faunal data are strengthened by reference to experimental studies and ethnoarchaeological data. The zooarchaeological data indicate that the later occupants of Ma’anshan Cave hunted mainly medium and small game animals, while the earlier occupants tended to prey upon larger animals. In the later period, hominins also made fuller use of the carcasses. The breadth of the meat diet increased with time, due to the inclusion of quick small animals (bamboo rats and birds) in the later period. The differences between the two faunal assemblages are consistent with the chronologic boundary currently drawn between the Chinese Early and Late Paleolithic ca. 30–27 ka BP, based on technological and other evidence.

Introduction

The Chinese Paleolithic has been divided into two cultural stages, the Early and Late Paleolithic. This terminology contrasts with those commonly used in western Eurasia and Africa. The boundary between these periods in China conventionally is drawn at about 30–27 ka BP, based on the appearance in the latter of blade and microblade technology, formal bone tools, ornaments (Gao and Norton, 2002), or a combination of these. This study examines whether differences in the faunal assemblages from Ma’anshan Cave differ between the Chinese Early and Late Paleolithic as determined by the artifactual record. Zooarchaeological and taphonomic studies of Chinese Paleolithic sites are still few in number (e.g., Norton and Gao, 2008, Prendergast et al., 2009). Usually, only a species list is provided for the faunal assemblages, and there is little or no information on relative species abundance, frequencies of skeletal parts, prey mortality patterns or bone surface modification (e.g., Pei, 1940, Zhang, 1988). It has been almost impossible to distinguish between the Chinese early and late Paleolithic game use from such limited criteria.

Some of the Pleistocene bone collections for which species lists are available are housed in the Institute of Vertebrate Palaeontology and Paleoanthropology (IVPP) in Beijing. Of these, the Ma’anshan collections are very suitable for re-examination because of the recovery of all specimens, including microfauna and long bone mid-shaft fragments of large animals. The cave of Ma’anshan yielded thousands of bone fragments (the ratio of NISP to non-identified specimens is 4358/40,000) and artifacts. The ages of the assemblages range from 15 to 53 ka BP (Zhang, 1988, Zhang, 2001, Long, 1992). Though excavated under conditions that would not be considered optimal today, these collections nonetheless provide an important opportunity to examine whether differences exist between the faunal assemblages of the Chinese late Early Paleolithic and the Late Paleolithic at one location.