A Prelimilery Study on the Upper Paleolithicin the Imjin River Area

In the Imjin River Area, 7 major sites related to the Upper Paleolithic were excavated. The sites are located on the lava plateau, fluvial terrace and on top of the hillslope. The sites related with the lava plateau and fluvial terrace show differences in colluvium after sedimentation of alluvial deposits. And underwent a stable process of soilification towards the upper levels. Many of the Upper Paleolithic artifacts are identified within the upper clay deposits. On the other hand, the site on the hillside was subjected to repeated colluvium, and the artifacts were likely re-deposited. Stratum comparisons of sites indicate that Upper Paleolithic artifacts occur in light brown, dark brown, and reddish brown clay layers and brown sandy clay or clay layers. The reddish brown clay and brown sandy clay or clay layers are the last Middle Paleolithic~30,000BP, the dark brown clay layers are primarily of the first half of MIS 2 : before 20,000BP, and the light brown clay layers are the second half of MIS 2 : after 20,000 BP. Throughout all time stages, quartz and quartzite lithic raw materials are heavily utilized and small stone tools are common. However, tuff and obsidian are identified in second artifact layer of Samgeo-ri site of the first half of MIS 2, which is related with the emergence of blade and micro-blade techniques. In other sites, these lithic technologies are not identified, suggesting that a variety of technological choices were made in response to the demand for shaped tools and the availability of raw materials. From the seond half of MIS 3 to MIS 2, the size of the flakes becomes smaller, and the types of small stone tools become more diverse and smaller. However, PESQ(pièce esquillée) remains constant in size and is looks like excluded from the miniaturization of stone tools because of its function

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