Lithic artifacts and industry of the Xiaoyushu Site, Heilongjiang Province, China

Abstract

The Xiaoyushu site (47°52’17.5 N, 124°28’15.9 E, 171 masl) is located on the left bank of the Nengjiang River. It was excavated jointly by the Heilongjiang Provincial Archaeology and Cultural Relics Institute and Heilongjiang University in 2011, with an excavation area of more than 2,300 m². A total of 352 lithic artifacts were excavated, including cores (n = 17, 5%), flakes (n = 71, 20%), tools (n = 55, 16%), and debitage (n = 209, 59%). Noteworthy among the core debitage are atypical microblade cores exhibiting indeterminate production of microblades. This site lacks standard wedge-shaped, boat-shaped, or prismatic microblade cores, and microblade or microblade tools are absent, with only microblade-like flakes present. The toolkit includes various types of scrapers (n = 38), notches (n = 11), and borers (n = 5). The raw material of this site is mainly siliceous rock and agate. The site is dated ca. 15 − 10 ka uncal BP by comparative geostratigraphy, ranging from the Bølling-Allerød and across the Younger Dryas. The relatively limited presence of systematic microblade production, the lack of complete tools and high percentage of debitage within the site suggests its potential role as a short-term occupation camp or lithic manufacturing site utilized by ancient humans.