Experimental Insights into Technological Organization and Functional Strategies: A Multi-Proxy Analysis of Ground Stone Tools from the Lower Yangtze River Region

WU Shuang

This study investigates the technological organization and functional strategies of the stone tool assemblage from the Dongtantou site (ca. 6190–5950 BP) by integrating typological, use-wear, and residue analyses with systematic replication and functional experiments. The results demonstrate that the assemblage was characterized by the maintenance and utilization of finished tools rather than intensive on-site primary reduction. Experimental verification of dimensional standardization and production investment suggests that technological choices were dictated by a rational trade-off between labour costs and functional efficiency, demonstrating how Luotuodun communities optimized time, labour, and raw materials. Evidence suggests a subsistence economy highly adapted to freshwater wetland and forest environments, primarily supported by hunting, fishing, and gathering. Within this ecological niche, stone tools functioned as foundational instruments – rather than technological endpoints – enabling key operations such as watercraft construction and woodworking. By bridging material evidence with functional simulations, this study provides new empirical insights into the production organization and technological strategies of prehistoric communities in the Taihu Lake basin, highlighting the role of lithic technology in expanding wetland-forest resource exploitation.