Lithic raw material exploitation strategies and mobility patterns of microblade populations in the Gobi Desert of eastern arid Central Asia

Abstract

The adaptation of prehistoric humans to extreme arid environments is a focus of past human–environment interaction research. The Eastern Tianshan piedmont (Xinjiang, China), located in the Gobi Desert of Eastern Arid Central Asia (EACA), is critical for understanding the adaptive behaviors and human-land relationships of microblade populations in arid settings. Lithic raw material (LRM) analyses reflect prehistoric resource exploitation strategies, environmental cognitive adaptability, mobility, and land use patterns. This study systematically reconstructs these aspects of microblade populations in the Gobi Desert of Eastern Tianshan piedmont areas, using petrologic and lithic cortex analysis, geological source survey, and preliminary lithic techno-typological analysis of 5427 lithic artifacts from 15 microblade sites. The results show that microblade population activity spanned at least two phases: the Terminal Pleistocene and Early–Middle Holocene, with an overall preference for local high-quality chert and siliceous rocks. During the Terminal Pleistocene, cold and arid conditions and very patchily distributed resources caused the Late Upper Paleolithic (LUP) foragers on the western Balikun Plateau to adopt high residential mobility, establishing bases at high-quality resource patches. Leveraging local high-quality siliceous rock availability, they used provisioning place strategies to exploit local chert and siliceous rocks. The Sanquan site exhibited a diversified LRM strategy, focusing on local Gobi Desert deposits (e.g., chert, siliceous rock, tuffaceous sandstone), while dispatching highly mobile task-specific groups to transport or exchange a few high-quality exotic raw materials (e.g., chalcedony, agate, crystal) from distant sources via individual provisioning strategies. During the Early–Middle Holocene, a warm and humid climate and growing populations caused a reduction in group mobility, promoting settlement in dunefield or wetland environments. Microblade groups adopted logistical mobility strategies and established permanent base camps near high-quality rock sources, dune fields, and wetlands. Since the Terminal Pleistocene, across EACA, microblade populations have favored homogeneous cryptocrystalline rocks (e.g., chert, chalcedony, jasper), with widespread long-distance raw materials’ exploitation, exchange, and even trade. By the Early–Middle Holocene, numerous lithic workshops were established near chert sources, indicating a clearer Neolithic labor division. In response to climate change, microblade groups in the Gobi Desert of EACA showed reduced group mobility but significantly increased individual mobility from the Terminal Pleistocene to the Early–Middle Holocene. We conclude that LRM exploitation strategy research holds great potential for revealing the mobility and land use patterns of East Asian prehistoric populations, warranting greater research attention in the future.