The Hoabinhian technocomplex in southwest China: Preliminary report on new discoveries in recent decades

Abstract

Recent discoveries in Yunnan province have confirmed the presence of the Hoabinhian technocomplex in this southern part of China. Compared with the history of Hoabinhian research in Southeast Asia, which goes back almost a century with numerous Hoabinhian sites dating back to the late Upper Pleistocene and Holocene, southwest China is still a blank page on the Hoabinhian question until recent years. For the vast territory of Yunnan (394,000 km²), we currently have only two published ancient Hoabinhian sites (Xiaodong rockshelter and Dedan cave) with reliable dating and typo-technological studies. To test the “Chinese Hoabinhian Homeland” hypothesis and the geo-strategic importance of Yunnan in migration routes to Southeast Asia, proposed in previous studies, modern archaeological methods should enable more sites in these southern Chinese regions to be discovered, excavated and studied. Firstly, fieldwork carried out in southwestern Yunnan in recent years (investigation, prospecting, excavation, etc.), where numerous lithic artefacts with Hoabinhian affinities have been collected, is discussed. The aim of this article is to present the typo-technological composition of these unpublished lithic assemblages from nine caves and open-air localities. Although we do not yet have precise stratigraphic information, their presence could nonetheless confirm the presence of the Hoabinhian lithic tradition in this region located in the upper reaches of the Mekong and Salween rivers within the most northerly humid tropical forest environment in Southeast Asia. Finally, we will discuss the diffusion strategy of Hoabinhian settlements in East Asia in a specific environmental and geographical context, as well as their possible dispersal along the river routes that irrigate and structure the relief of Southwest China and Peninsular Asia.