注：本文将在美国一大百科全书发表，未经允许，请勿转载！
中国旧石器时代
考古学家把属于新世晚期更新世、以打制石器为主要工具的文化，称为旧石器时代文化。就中国至今发现的资料及研究结果来看，旧石器时代持续时间从距今约180万年前开始，延续到距今1万年左右止，时间极其漫长。其时期可以分为三个阶段，即旧石器时代早期、中期和晚期，大体上相当于人类体质进化的能人阶段、早期智人阶段、晚期智人阶段。人类在这一时期主要成就，一是学会了制造石器，二是学会了使用火和管理火。然而由于地域和时代不同，以及发展的不平衡性，中国地区的旧石器文化面貌存在着相当大的差异。
中国境内最早的旧石器时代文化当属山西西侯度文化（距今180万年）和云南元谋人文化（距今170万年）。旧石器时代早期的文化特征是：石片和用石片制造的各种石器在全部石制品中占有重要的比例，石核石器相对较少；各类石器以单面加工为主，器型以刮削器为主。除了上述基本特征外，根据目前的材料，中国旧石器时代早期文化至少可以分为三个文化区。第一个文化区以西侯度文化、匼\河文化和蓝田人文化为代表，大致分布范围在山西南部、陕西东部和河南西部，石器类型比较简单，个体相对较大，砍砸器比例稍高；第二个文化区以北京周口店第一地点为代表，分布范围在河北北部、山西北部和辽宁西南部一带。这个区域的洞穴遗址较为发达，石器大多数个体较小，刮削器占绝对优势；第三个文化区以观音洞石器为代表，其前身可能与元谋人文化有联系，分布范围偏于西南地区。其石器特点是个体大小相差悬殊，类型繁多而不甚固定，多数石器有较细致的加工。
旧石器时代中期文化较早期文化有所进步，主要表现在打制石器的形状比较规整，类型比较确定，种类也有所增加，这都表明当时的技术和生产力水平较旧石器早期有一定提高。正如旧石器早期文化已表现出明显的地区性特征一样，旧石器中期文化也有地方性差别，例如许家窑文化多小型石器，类型较多，小型刮削器占绝大多数，丁村文化则多大型石器，大三棱尖状器是其突出特点。许家窑文化很明显是从旧石器时代早期的北京人文化发展而来的。丁村文化则是从匼\河文化发展而来，许家窑文化和丁村文化分布范围华北地区。华南旧石器中期文化遗存至今发现甚少。
旧石器时代晚期文化又有明显的进步。例如在石器制作中普遍修理台面，许多地方出现了细石器，能用间接打击法生产出细长石片，还能用压制法加工石器。石器的种类更加多样化，往往有各种类型的刮削器、尖状器、雕刻器、锥或钻等，甚至还有个别的箭头。其中不少应为复合工具。这些石器技术的进步和类型的分化，反映了狩猎经济的进一步发展。在石器工艺发生明显进步的同时，骨角器和装饰品增加很多，周口店山顶洞和海城小孤山都发现了许多这类物品。至今发现的旧石器时代晚期遗址分布范围除华北、西南等传统地区外，最北达黑龙江北部，东到江浙、台湾，南达云贵、两广，西抵青藏高原。旧石器时代晚期文化在全国不同地区呈现不同特征，并进一步分化，酝酿出新石器时代形成诸多文化区系的基础。
参考资料：
白寿彝主编 中国通史 第2卷 远古时代 上海人民出版社 , 2004
王幼平 旧石器时代考古 文物出版社 , 2000
张森水 中国旧石器文化 天津科学技术出版社 ，1987
张之恒等著 中国旧石器时代考古 南京大学出版社 , 2003
吕遵谔主编 中国考古学研究的世纪回顾 旧石器时代考古卷 科学出版社 , 2004
谢燕萍, 游学华编著 中国旧石器时代文化遗址 中文大学出版社 , 1984
China’s Paleolithic Era
“Paleolithic,” literally meaning the “Old Stone Age,” is a prehistoric era characterized by the use of percussion stone tools by human beings. In geological term, this period falls within the Pleistocene phrase, which began about two or three million years ago. The archaeological materials suggest that China’s Paleolithic era started some 2 million years before present, and ended about 10,000 years ago. It was followed by the Neolithic, or New Stone, era.
More than 200 Paleolithic sites have been excavated in a total of 27 provinces and autonomous regions in China. These sites can be divided into the Lower, Middle, and Upper Paleolithic cultures, each correlating in general with the evolution of humans: Homo erectus (upright man), Homo sapiens (knowing man), and Homo sapiens sapiens (Modern Humans). In the world context, the earliest Hominids emerged in Africa, dating to 7-6 million years ago, while the earliest Homo was Homo habilis (skillful person), whose fossils were found only in Africa. Slightly later, Homo erectus (upright man) emerged in East Africa. Their fossils were also discovered in Asia. Homo erectus were thus the earliest human fossils found beyond Africa.
Most of the Lower Paleolithic human fossils or cultural layers were above ground. Since it is difficult to determine whether certain stone objects from early Pleistocene sites were human-made or natural, when the earliest Pleistocene hominids emerged in China remains an open question. Dated to 2 to 2.4 million years ago, the the Renzidong Cave, Anhui, would be the earliest Paleolithic place ever found in China, if the stone objects from this site were indeed human-made tools. The other one, the Xihoudu Culture in Shanxi, was dated to about 1.8 millions years ago on paleomagnetic analysis. Unfortunately the Xihoudu relics suffered from severe erosion, which often blurred traces of human processing on the stone objects. Another famous site at Shangnabang, Yuanmou, Yunnan, was initially dated to 1.7 millions years according to paleomagnetic evidence. A few scholars have recently reexamined the paleomagnetic evidence and modified the two human incisors from Yuanmou to 0.5-0.6 million years old.
People during the Lower Paleolithic period either settled down at certain areas for an extended amount of time, or stayed temporarily in a place. Close examination of the animal bones illustrates their hunting and scavenging methods. Stone tools were used to cut animal meat; sometimes the broken animal limbs suggest that marrow was dipped out of these bones. Probably fire was used as well, because the Shangnabang and Xihoudu sites yielded ashes, although natural, rather than human fire, could have caused such ashes.
China’s Lower Paleolithic Period can be further divided into at least three cultural zones. Zone 1 includes the Xihoudu and Qiahe Cultures in Shanxi, and the Lantian Culture in Shaanxi. These cultures were distributed mainly in southern Shanxi, eastern Shaanxi, and western Henan. Although large in size, stone tools manufactured in Zone 1 are rather simple in type. A high percentage of these tools are choppers. In particular, a pithecanthropoid mandible (lower cheek bone) near the village of Chenjiawo was found in Lantian, Shaanxi, dated to about 0.65 million years ago. In 1964, a human skull was discovered in Gongzhuling of the same county. Paleomagnetic analysis suggests that the Gongzhuling fossil was 1.1 to 1.15 million years old. Both fossils were probably female.
Zone 2 covers northern Hebei, northern Shanxi, and southeastern Liaoning, and is populated with cave sites. Many of the stone tools from Zone 2 are small in size, and the main types are scrapers. Among Zone 2 sites, Zhoukoudian locality 1 is the most renowned of all Paleolithic sites in China. Its occupants were collectively called the Peking Man. Located 48 kilometers southwest of modern-day Beijing, it was first found in 1921 and the excavation began in 1927. Prior to 1941 a total of five nearly complete crania were found at the Zhoukoudian cave site. Unfortunately these fossils mysteriously disappeared in 1941. Since 1950 a few teeth, a skullcap, a mandible and several long bones of human fossils from Zhoukoudian were discovered. Taken together, locality 1 yielded fossils that represented a population of more than 40 Homo erectus. Obviously the Peking Man had used this site for a long time, accumulating more than 30 meters of cultural remains in a total of 13 different layers. Multiple dating methods, including paleomegnetic analysis and uranium fission technique, place these layers between 0.5 and 0.2 million years old. The Peking Man’s main food source was the meat of wild animals, among which 70 percent were deer with heavy horns, although over 90 kinds of mammal fossils were found, such as leopard, cave bear, Chinese hyena, elephant, rhinoceros, water buffalo, and ostrich. Many pieces of charcoal, burned bone fragments, and hearths suggest that the Peking Man had clearly used fire and cooked the meat, although there is no direct evidence to indicate that he deliberately made fire. The Peking Man made six kinds of stone tools, including scrapers, points, chopper-hammers, awls, engravers, and balls. Many are multi-purpose objects.
Zone 3 is located in southwestern China, and is represented by the Guanyindong Culture in Guizhou. The predecessors of the Guanyindong Culture were probably related to the Yuanmou Culture, Yunnan. Stone tools from this cultural zone differ to a great degree, and there are quite a few different types. Most stone artifacts were fabricated rather carefully.
The Middle Paleolithic period was between 128,000 to 3,5000 years ago. During this time, the natural environments changed dramatically. In north China, weather became drier and cooler. As a result, Smilodon，Trogontherium Giant Beaver, and Pachycrocuta Sinensis became extinct, while wild donkeys, horses, deer, Bos primigenius (a kind of cattle) and many other species gradually emerged. The Malan loess transformed north China. By comparison, changes in the tropical and sub-tropical natural environment in south China were less significant. Giant panda, oriental stegodon，Elephas maximus (Asiatic Elephant), Rhesus Monkey，Sambar deer and water buffalo were the typical animal species living here.
Different from the Lower Paleolithic period, the Middle Paleolithic stone tools were shaped more regularly. The Middle Paleolithic cultures showed varying characters. For instance, the Xujiayao Culture in Shaanxi and Hebei produced small stone tools in a number of types, most of which were small scrapers. By comparison, the Dingcun Culture from Shanxi had larger stone tools. The typical Dingcun tools were points with three ridges. The Xujiayao Culture might have developed from the Peking Man Culture, while the Dingcun from the Qiahe Culture.
The Middle Paleolithic people lived in caves, or camps above ground near water. The cave sites during the Middle Paleolithic period were used mainly for dwelling rather than slaughtering animals. Many caves have hearths inside. But buildings that were clearly constructed and reworked by humans were not found. As to the lifestyle, in the tropical and sub-tropical forest areas, food gathering was probably the main method; in the temperate zone grasslands, a combination of hunting and food gathering were more viable. Sometimes certain stone tools, including balls, characterized a specific site, suggesting that people were engaged in specialized hunting or food gathering activity. Small, well-polished tools, such as engravers, were produced at this time in China. Such tools could be used to process other small-scale and more refined objects, suggesting some kind of artistic activity at this time. Overall, there is no large-scale discovery of bone and stone artifacts. Globally, at this time in Europe and West Asia, graves emerged, but so far no tombs were found in Asia and Africa. The Middle Paleolithic period also saw an increase in human population.
The Upper Paleolithic period began in about 35,000 years ago and ended in approximately 10,000 years before present. This period witnessed the peak of the glacial period. Many parts of northwest China changed into frozen zones, deserts, or grasslands, while sub-tropical forests gave way to temperate zone forest-grassland or semiarid grasslands north of the Nanling mountains in south China. After this peak, weather gradually warmed up until the end of the Pleistocene period, followed by the Holocene period, in which the weather pattern in China generally remains what we see today. This was the end of the Paleolithic period and the beginning of the Neolithic period in China. Bone and horn artifacts became increasingly popular during this time, and human beings evolved into Homo sapiens sapiens, or modern humans.
The Upper Paleolithic sites were found not only in northern and southwestern China where Paleolithic cultures were normally discovered, they were also excavated from across Heilongjiang in the north, Jiangsu, Zhejiang and Taiwan in the east, Yunnan, Guizhou, Guangdong and Guangxi in the south, and the Tibetan Plateau in the west.
The development of the Upper Paleolithic cultures were highlighted by the making and use of microlithic tools, but more types emerged, including scrapers, points, engravers, awls, drills, or occasionally even arrowheads. Many of these artifacts are composite tools. The advancement of stone technology, the use of many new and efficient tools, and the specialization of the tool types thus reflect a further development of the hunting and foraging industry. The use of microlithic tools suggests a profound understanding of the physical qualities of stones and the ability to modify them into intended shapes, while composite tools also indicate a possible specialization in stone making. Such a specialization required organization and coordination among the stone workers. At the same time, we also see highly specialized hunters during the Upper Paleolithic period, including the “horse-hunters” in the Zhiyu Culture, Shanxi. The other achievement made during the Upper Paleolithic period was the manufacturing of bone and horn artifacts. For example, many such items were excavated from the Upper Cave, Zhoukoudian, Beijing and Haicheng, Zhejiang. Fish forks, spares, daggers and shovels made of animal bone and horns were manufactured by applying sawing, cutting, scraping, surface polishing, and drilling methods. Large quantities of ornaments, of a variety of materials, were used, including many kinds of animal bones, teeth, stone, shell, and ostrich eggshells.
Another aspect of this period was the multiplicity of lifestyles in China, including hunting, fishing, gathering methods. The society at this time was composed of small units. Often the existence of a hearth in a dwelling suggests a possible social unit, perhaps a family, while several units form some sorts of clan or tribe. A very remarkable development during the Upper Paleolithic period was the rapid expansion of human population. Although the death rate of new babies remained high, and the lifespan of women and men was seldom over 50 to 60 years old (with that of the women less than 40 years), in general this period saw more old-aged people, and people lived a healthier life.
In the Upper Paleolithic period, modern humans showed an increasingly complex treatment of the deceased. They not only buried the dead in a specified location, thus marking a kind of “resting” place for the deceased, but also placed artifacts into the tombs to accompany them. In the Upper Cave of the Zhoukoudian site, in addition to burial goods, hematite powder was also spread around the bodies. Such treatment of the dead suggests that humans at this time probably developed a concept of afterlife or the other world to live in after one physically died. Primitive religious ideas might have developed from this period, too.
In short, China’s Paleolithic era was characterized by regional differences and saw different development phrases. Changes in weather and natural environment had huge impact on people’s lifestyle and migration routes. With the development of tools and the sophistication of the brain, people evolved into modern humans. The improved stone, bone, horn, and shell industry contributed to a better living quality and the unprecedented prosperity of regional cultures. Toward the end of the Paleolithic age, around 10,000 years ago, human beings began to cultivate plants and domesticate animals, make ceramic vessels to cook food, and settle down, hence the beginning of the Neolithic era.
Further Reading：
Aigner, J S. (1981). Archaeological remains in Pleistocene China. Munchen: Verlag C. H. Beck.
Bai, S.Y. (ed.) (2004). A general history of China, Shanghai: Shanghai People’s Press, vol. 2, Ancient Period. (In Chinese)
Brooks, A. S. & Bernard W. (1990). Paleoanthropology: the Chinese side of the story. Nature 344, 288-298.
Chang, K. C. (1986). The Archaeology of ancient China, 4[sup]th[/sup] edition. New Haven and London: Yale University Press, 22-70.
Chen, T. M. & Zhang Y.Y. (1991). Palaeolithic chronology and possible coexistence of Homo Erectus and Homo Sapiens in China, World Archaeology 23 (2), 147-154.
Lu, Z.E. et al. (2004). A century-end reflection of China’s archaeological studies (archaeology of the Paleolithic era), Beijing: Science Press. (In Chinese)
Shapiro, H. (1975). Peking Man, New York: Simon and Shuster.
Wang, Y. P. (2000). Archaeology of the Paleolithic Era, Beijing: Wenwu Press. (In Chinese)
Wang, Y. P. (2005). Roots of Pleistocene hominids and cultures in China. Beijing: Science Press.
Xie, Y. P. & You X. H. (ed.) (1984). China’s Paleolithic culture sites. Hong Kong: The Chinese University Press. (In Chinese)
Zhang, S. S. (1987). China’s Paleolithic cultures. Tianjin: Tianjin Science and Technology Press. (In Chinese)
Zhang, Z. H. et al. (2003). The archaeology of China’s Paleolithic era, Nanjing: Nanjing University Press. (In Chinese)
|
发表于 2007-10-26 18:22:03
发表于 2007-10-26 18:33:00
