Hominin Behavioural Changes in the Nihewan Basin, Northern China

Susan G. Keates

The Nihewan Basin is one of the most productive archaeological regions in North China and East Asia as a whole. The open-air sites have yielded abundant lithic assemblages, animal fossils, and perhaps evidence for the early use of fire. The chronological record of sites ranges from the Early Pleistocene to the terminal Pleistocene based on a variety of methods and techniques. Of these, the palaeomagnetic method is the primary means for dating Early Pleistocene sites. A major concern in this regard is how the use of composite sections and marker layers can be tied into the sedimentary sequences of sites. The fewest hominin sites belong to the Middle Pleistocene, dated primarily employing luminescence methods, whereas the record of Late Pleistocene sites is the most reliable based mainly on radiocarbon dating. How chronological reconstructions affect the technological development in the Nihewan Basin will be examined.