Paleolithic Lithic Artifacts and Industries from Survey along the Muling River Basin, Heilongjiang, China

From April to May, 2016, an archaeological survey for Paleolithic sites along the Muling River Basin was carried out jointly by a team from the School of Archaeology of Jilin University, the Institute of Cultural Relics and Archaeology of Heilongjiang Province, and local city and county Cultural Relics Administrative institutes. A total of 21 Paleolithic localities and 974 stone artifacts were found. This paper presents the results of this survey and a typological classification of the stone artifacts found in these localities, which are divided into different industry types (Flake, Blade, and Microblade) through their characteristics. Stratigraphic methods are used to speculate on the ages of the collected assemblages. Then, their functions are discussed through considerations of percussion technique, tool processing, and toolkits. Finally, they are compared with Paleolithic sites of the same age from surrounding areas.