ENVIRONMENT ADAPTATION AND DIFFUSION OF NORTH CHINA HUMANS IN LATE PLEISTOCENE

Chen Shengqian(Institute of Vertebrate Paleontology and Paleoanthropology,Chinese Academy of Sciences,Beijing 100044)  

It is in the Late Pleistocene that modern humans globally established their exclusive domination in the ecological system of the Earth.A large number of archaeological sites of that time has been discovered in North China,published data and current research,however,have not yet been able to answer in details the living situation and environment adaptive patterns of human beings of that time in that area.From a cultural-ecological perspective,based on Eurasian human evolution,this study analyzes the environment adaptation of human beings in North China.Based on the review of the Upper Paleolithic discoveries,a division of two stages is proposed for the development of the Upper Paleolithic in North China: the Early Upper Paleolithic(EUP) characterized by bone-antler tools,decorated materials,and a better retouched lithic assemblages;and the Late Upper Paleolithic(LUP) represented by the microblade technology.During human evolutionary process of Late Pleistocene in North China,at least two revolutionary changes namely the "Upper Paleolithic Revolution" and the "Food Production Revolution" of human adaptation have been recognized.In comparison with the Upper Paleolithic innovations in the western side of the Eurasian continent,it has been found out that North China displayed most of those features that characterized a revolutionary change of adaptation of the Upper Paleolithic hunter-gatherers.Observations have indicated that the Upper Paleolithic techno-cultural complex in North China had manifested the following tendencies: 1) Hunter-gatherers attempted to cover geographical regions as large as possible, responding to the resource decreasing and population increasing with the termination of the Last Glacier Maximum(LGM).2) They created toolkits with high versatility and portability to adapt to their frequent migration.3) High maintainability of toolkits was also stressed as their migration habit increased.4) To enhance the efficiency of tools is another crucial factor which fitted the increased seasonality of resources leading to more risk and uncertainty of food hunting.5) Interestingly,they did not pay much attention to the durability of tools until LUP when part of hunter-gatherers tended to settle down.The emergence of microblade technology sufficiently proves these tendencies at that time in the eastern side of Eurasian continent.During the Late Pleistocene period in North China,there are at least four environment adaptive patterns responding to local ecological condition changes,that is,the Shuidonggou Pattern that represents a specialized hunting strategy in the transitional zone between forest and grassland,the Upper Cave-Oriental Square-Xiaonanhai(UOX) Pattern in which plant resource utility was enhanced,the Shiyu Pattern that intermediates between the former two patterns,and the Xiaogushan Pattern that initialized aquatic resource utility.The differentiation of adaptive patterns highly corresponds to local environmental changes.Furthermore,with the termination of Pleistocene the number of regional stone tool industries increased and tools varied in a higher degree with clearer regional style.Human diffusion of Late Pleistocene in North China has the following four main aspects: 1) The possible twice enterings of the Upper Paleolithic Revolution into the New World,respectively before the LGM and slightly before Holocene;2) the invention of microblade technology and its rapid radiation into Eastern Eurasia and Northwestern America;3) the regionalization of hunter-gatherers;4) the initial development of food production at the end of Pleistocene and the followed population diffusion,especially into extreme environments.

【Fund】： 国家自然科学基金项目(批准号:40472016)资助
【CateGory Index】： K871

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