New findings from the archaeological survey of Paleolithic artifacts in the eastern foothills of Sun Mountain in Changde, Hunan Province

<p indent="0mm">From June to October 2023, Hunan Provincial Institute of Cultural Relics and Archaeology and other organizations carried out a rescue excavation of Paleolithic sites in Yangbian’an Village, Zhoujiadian Town, Dingcheng District, Changde. During the intervals of the excavation, an archaeological survey was conducted within a 10-kilometer radius around the site, resulting in the discovery of three new Paleolithic open-air localities distributed on the edge of the ancient alluvial fan in front of Sun Mountain’s eastern foothills, temporarily named as “Yangbian’an Paleolithic Site Group”. A total of 16 stone artifacts were collected during the survey, half from surface collection and the other half from the original strata. The raw materials of the stone artifacts include quartzite, vein quartz, siliceous rock, etc. The types of stone artifacts include cores, flakes, and fragments. The main production technique was the hammer percussion method, with the stone tools being of medium and small sizes, overall belonging to the flake stone industry. Based on the burial strata and characteristics of the stone artifacts, it is preliminarily speculated that the newly discovered Paleolithic localities date back to the early to middle period of the Late Pleistocene. This survey has added new materials for the study of the development of Paleolithic culture in the northwestern region of Hunan and even the regional types of Paleolithic culture in South China during the Late Pleistocene.