Excavations at Panxian Dadong

在美国国家科学基金会的支持下，Lynne Schepartz和Sari Miller-Antonio以及一个国际合作团队将在位于中国南部贵州省的盘县大东遗址进行一个季节的考古发掘。这个巨大的洞穴位于一个230米高的山上，是一系列三个洞穴的中间。其面向东方的入口宽55米，高50米，主室平均宽35米，长220米。中美联合科学家小组的初步工作揭示了分层考古沉积物，其中包含保存完好的动物遗骸和石器。一颗原始人类牙齿的碎片也被发现。为铀系列定年而收集的大量样品表明，矿床最上面的2-3米形成于20万至13万年前，在此基础上，大部分矿床可能超过25万年。我们对中国北方旧石器时代的上半期和中期所知甚少，研究人员希望进行长期的多季节发掘，以重建地质、考古和环境序列，并将它们置于绝对的时间背景中。在1998年的实地季节，他们将扩大目前挖掘的深度，并开辟更多的壕沟。这将有助于最大限度地扩大暴露矿床的面积。它们将取代测量土壤辐射的剂量计，并为一套测年技术收集样本。已经确定了几个石灰华层，但它们的地层背景尚不清楚，地质学家将努力解决这个问题。将收集和分析岩石和动物遗骸。虽然中国已经发现了重要的古人类化石和大量的考古组合，但大多数的年代都很不准确。正因为如此，很难确定这片广阔的地区在人类文化和生物发展的大浪潮中所起的作用，也不清楚目前把非洲作为一个关键地区的关注是否仅仅是因为在那里进行了更多的考古工作。这个项目应该有助于纠正这种情况。它将提供一个重要的平衡，产生许多考古学家感兴趣的数据，并建立一个区域框架，其中可能包含其他遗址。它将进一步发展两位有前途的年轻考古学家的事业，并加强中美之间的科学合作

With National Science Foundation support, Drs. Lynne Schepartz and Sari Miller-Antonio and an international team of collaborators will conduct one season of archaeological excavation at the site of Panxian Dadong, located in Guizhou Province, Southern China. This large cavern is the middle in a series of three stacked within a 230 meter high hill. Its eastward facing entrance is 55 meters wide and 50 meters high and the main chamber averages 35 meters wide by 220 meters in length. Preliminary work by a joint Chinese US team of scientists has revealed stratified archaeological deposits which contain both well preserved faunal remains and stone tools. One fragmentary hominid tooth has also been recovered. A large series of samples collected for Uranium series dating suggests that the uppermost 2-3 meters of the deposits formed between 200,000 and 130,000 years ago and that on this basis it is likely that the bulk of the deposits may be older that 250,000 years. Very little is known about the Upper and Middle Paleolithic periods in Northern China and the investigators wish to conduct a long term multi-season excavation to reconstruct the geological, archaeological and environmental sequence and to place these into an absolute chronological context. During the 1998 field season they will expand the depth of the current excavation and also open additional trench units. This will serve to maximize the area of exposed deposits. They will replace dosimeters which measure soil radiation and collect samples for a suite of dating techniques. Several travertine layers have been located but their stratigraphic context is not clear and geologists will work to resolve this issue. Lithics and faunal remains will be collected and analyzed. While China has yielded important hominid fossils and numerous archaeological assemblages, most are poorly dated. Because of this it is difficult to determine the role this vast area played in the broad sweep of human cultural and biological development and it is unclear whether the current focus on Africa as a crucial area results merely from the fact that much more archaeological work has been conducted there. This project should help to remedy this situation. It will provide an important counterbalance, yield data of interest to many archaeologists, and establish a regional framework within which other sites may be encompassed. It will further the careers of two promising young archaeologists and enhance scientific collaboration between China and the US