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Fact or fiction: the Middle Palaeolithic in China

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  19 January 2015

Feng Li
Feng Li*
Affiliation:
Key Laboratory of Vertebrate Evolution and Human Origins of the Chinese Academy of Sciences, Institute of Vertebrate Paleontology and Paleoanthropology, Chinese Academy of Sciences, 142 Xizhimenwai Street, Beijing 100044, China (Email: lifeng@ivpp.ac.cn)
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Abstract

The subdivision of the Chinese Palaeolithic is a controversial topic. A recent article in Antiquity (Yee 2012) critiqued Gao’s two-stage model that distinguished only an Early and a Late Palaeolithic. Yee argued that the two-stage model should be abandoned, and that a distinct Middle Palaeolithic phase can be identified. Responding to Yee, Feng Li argues that there is no solid evidence of distinctive and widespread technological changes before the Late Palaeolithic, and that it is hence premature to abandon Gao’s two-stage model at present.

Keywords

ChinaEarly PalaeolithicMiddle PalaeolithicLate Palaeolithic

Information

Type
Debate
Information
Antiquity , Volume 88 , Issue 342 , December 2014, pp. 1303 - 1309
Copyright
Copyright © Antiquity Publications Ltd. 2014

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