structural:scholar_edition
Stone tools

The Zhoukoudian Locality 1 has produced more than 100,000 lithic pieces. In 1979, to highlight technological evolution, Péi and Zhang partitioned the Zhoukoudian industry into three stages: the early stage typified by the simple hammer and anvil technique (slamming the core against a rock) which produced large flakes namely from soft minerals such as sandstone, weighing up to 50 g (1.8 oz) and measuring 60 mm (2.4 in) from Layer 11; the middle stage typified by the bipolar technique (smashing the core into several flakes with a hammerstone, out of which at least a few should be the correct size and shape) which made smaller flakes up to 20 g (0.71 oz) in weight and 40 mm (1.6 in) in length; and the late stage above Layer 5 typified by even smaller flakes made with harder and higher quality quartz and flint among other cobble. Quartz had to be collected some distance from the cave from local granite outcrops by the hills and riverbed. In addition to simple flakes, they also manufactured scrapers, choppers, and, towards the later end of occupation, points, burins, and awls. Nonetheless, these techniques produced highly ununiform tools, and Binford was skeptical of any evidence of cultural evolution at all. There is scanty and indefinite evidence for the modification of bones into tools. Productive contemporaneous Chinese stone tool sites include Xiǎochángliáng (similar to Zhoukoudian), Jīgōng Shān, Bose Basin (which produced large tools often in excess of 10 cm, or 4 in), Jinniushan, Dingcun, and Panxian Dadong.