Patreon: https://www.patreon.com/primnathis?fan_landing=true

Marine Oxygen Isotope Stage 4 dates from around 71,000 to 57,000 years ago and remains one of the poorly understood time periods in Chinese archaeology. One which suffered the effects of the eruption of Mount Toba, roughly 4,000 years earlier. In March of 2021, a team of scientists published the results of dating and pollen research from a site in north central China.
The site of Loufangzi, is located SW of Beijing, in the Chinese Province of Gansu. First excavated in 1963, it contained a variety of fossil fauna, stone tools and a wealthy plant remains. Herbivores like, horse, deer, aurochs, antelope, sheep and cattle were all found at the site.

At over 14 m, the stratigraphic sequence bares witness to over 130,000 years of changing environmental conditions and the resilience of humans to cope with those conditions. The lowest player - Layer three contained a substantial amount of the faunal remains and some stone tools.

Further up the sequence, Layer 2 contained nearly 1632 quartzite stone tools produced through the hard hammer percussion technique. While the tools shared some similarities with a Mousterian tool kit, they lacked the definitive Mousterian-style retouching and Levallois technique.

The fine-grained sediments included silt, sand and clay, could not be dated using the classic radiometric dating techniques, so Optically Stimulated Luminescence was chosen. Simply put, it measures the last time a sample was exposed to ionizing radiation. Stainless steel tubes were hammered into the sediments at 50cm intervals. To prevent sunlight bleaching the samples, they were sealed in black plastic bags and delivered to the laboratory for darkroom analysis.

Sediments below 11.5 m dated to Marine Oxygen Stage 5, while sediments between 11.5m and 7 m, dated to MIS 4. Pollen analysis noted two abrupt changes in environmental conditions from MIS 5 to MIS 4 and from MIS 4 to MIS 3. Prior to MIS 4, the landscape was lush with forest steppe landscapes. MIS 4 marked a time of increased desertification indicated by the size reduction of pollen grains and a reduction in pollen production generally.

Remember, it is important to seek clues to the age of the site. That is why archaeologists and geologists use multiple methods to date an archaeological site. One additional method of dating used here was Biostratigraphic dating. This is done by noting the biodiversity within archaeological layers and comparing that diversity to that of other archaeological sites in the region. The lowest layers of Loufangzi appeared to have a similar biodiversity compared to the Salawusu River site, Inner Mongolia China, which had been dated to Marine Oxygen Stage 5 (130 – 71,000 years ago)

This research added further evidence to the idea that the Late Glacial period caused an expansion of desert-like conditions in north central China, conditions.

► SOCIAL MEDIA AND LINKS!
• Facebook Page - https://www.facebook.com/Primnathis
• Blog: https://primnathis.com/
• Podcasts:
Apple Podcasts: https://podcasts.apple.com/us/podcast/reframed-origins-season-one/id964666622?uo=4
Spotify: https://open.spotify.com/show/2iut8VsuMgIFCIiV46lcpw
Google Podcasts: https://www.google.com/podcasts?feed=aHR0cHM6Ly93d3cuc3ByZWFrZXIuY29tL3Nob3cvMTM3Mjg4My9lcGlzb2Rlcy9mZWVk
Castbox: https://castbox.fm/channel/id3551625
Deezer: https://www.deezer.com/show/1570812
Podcast Addict: https://podcastaddict.com/podcast/3053550
Podchaser: https://www.podchaser.com/podcasts/reframed-origins-season-1-56770
JioSaavn: https://www.jiosaavn.com/shows/Reframed-Origins---Season-One/1/XajTsfEpIUE_
Spreaker: https://www.spreaker.com/show/reframed-origins-our-evolution-refined