Beijing, October 19-23, 2009

FIRST CIRCULAR

Dear colleagues,

In commemoration of the 80^th anniversary of the discovery of the first skull of Peking Man, the International Symposium on Paleoanthropology and the First Conference on Quaternary Research of Asia will be jointly held in Beijing, October 19-23, 2009. Special session “Suyanggae and Her Neighbors” sponsored by the Asian Paleolithic Association will be held during the symposium. The organizing committee warmly invites colleagues and friends around the world to join the symposium. The theme of the symposium is: Human Evolution in Asia and Environment Changes. Both oral and poster contributions are welcome. Scientific sessions on the following topics will be organized:

1.      New discoveries of hominid fossil and Paleolithic sites

2.      Origin and evolution of humans in Asia

3.      Migration and cultural interactions between east and west in Pleistocene

4.      Interaction between geological environmental changes and human activities

5.      The 80^th Anniversary celebration of the foundation of the IVPP

Persons interested in attending the symposium are kindly asked to fill in the FIRST CIRCULAR REPLY form and return it before Jan.31, 2009 to the secretariat via email (kjc@ivpp.ac.cn), fax (+86-10-68337001) or normal mailing address:

Institute of Vertebrate Paleontology and Paleoanthropology

Xiwai Street 142, Beijing 100044, China

Sponsors:

Institute of Vertebrate Paleontology and Paleoanthropology, Chinese Academy of 

    Sciences

Chinese Association for Quaternary Research

Institute of Geology and Geophysics, Chinese Academy of Sciences

Organizing Committee:

Chairman: Ding Zhongli

Vice Chairmen: Wu Xinzhi, Liu Jiaqi, Zhu Rixiang, Gao Xing 

Members: Chai Yucheng, Ding Zhongli, Fu Bojie, Gao Xing, Guo Zhengtang，

Han Jiamao，Hou Yamei，Jin Changzhu，Liu Jiaqi，Liu Wu，Wu Xinzhi，Xiao Jule，Wang Youping，Yao Yupeng，Zhou Liping，Zhou Shaoping，Zhu Rixiang，A. Derevianko， H. Kumai，Y. Lavrushin，Y. J. Lee，K. Okumura，Y.A. Park，Y. Saito，A.K. Singhvi，I. Takashi，A. Velichko，K.Y. Wei

Secretariat:  Xiao Jule，Zhang Yi，Cui Ning，Che Jianguo

Arrangements of the Symposium

1.      Schedule

October 19, 2009:              Registration, Xiyuan Hotel, Beijing

October 20, 2009:              Opening ceremony and scientific sessions

October 21, 2009:              Scientific sessions

October 22, 2009:              Mid-Excursion (Zhoukoudian Peking Man Site)

October 23, 2009:              Scientific session and closing ceremony

2.      Accommodation

       The symposium will be held at Xiyuan Hotel which is close to the IVPP. The price at Xiyuan Hotel is estimated to be about $ 40 per day for single and about $70 for double (standard) room in the wing building and about $ 100 in the main building.   

3.      Registration

Registration fee will be $400 for formal participants, $250 for students and accompanying persons. The registration fee will cover the symposium documents, meals and mid-excursion.

4.      Post-symposium excursion

       We are planning to arrange two post-symposium excursions that are still under consideration. The tentatively excursion routes are as follows: 

Route 1 (about 3 days): Nihewan Paleolithic Site (Yangyuan county, Hebei), Xujiaoyao Paleolithic Site (Yanggao county, Datong, Shanxi), the Huayan Monastery of Datong and the world cultural heritage-Yungang Grottoes (Datong, Shanxi).

Route 2 (about 4-5 days): Guangxi Bose Basin Paleolithic sites, the karst landform and Detian waterfall near the China-Vietnam border. 

The post-symposium excursions will be decided in the second circular according to the responses, so we welcome any comments and suggestions for our proposed arrangements.

5.      Call for Abstracts

All prospective participants are asked to submit an abstract in English (within 1 A4 page) no later than July 1, 2009. The abstract should include: title, authors’ names (capitalized family names), their institutions and addresses, and main-body of abstracts (see example below). The abstract should be submitted 1.5 spaced in 11-point, Times New Roman font, with 2.5 cm margins top, left and right, 2.0 cm bottom margin. Family names of the authors should be in capitals. The email of the corresponding author must be included on the abstract. Figures are not permitted. The abstract should be created in, or converted to, Microsoft Word 2000 or 2003.

Preliminary Report on the Excavations of Shuidonggou Localities 3,4,5 in Ningxia

WANG Huimin¹, PEI Shuwen², MA Xiaoling¹, FENG Xingwu²

1. Institute of Archeology of Ningxia Hui Autonomous Region, Yinchuan 750001;

2. Institute of Vertebrate Paleontology and Paleoanthropology, Chinese Academy of Sciences     Beijing 100044

hmwang@gmail.com

    The Localities 3, 4 and 5, which distributed in the southwest margin of the Shuidonggou basin, are the important localities of Shuidonggou site. These localities were not formally excavated since discovered in 1923. The three localities were excavated from August to October 2004, as a salvage archeological project due to the construction of the diversion channel of Ningdong Heavy Chemical Base. The excavations exposed an area of about 80 m². More than thousand of stone artifacts and ostrich egg fragments were excavated and collected from the three localities.

The upper cultural layer and surface lithic assemblage: a total of 928 pieces (479 from surface and 347 from layer ① of locality 4; 102 from upper layer and surface of localities 3,5) of stone artifacts were excavated and collected from the localities 3,4,and 5. More than 30% of blade and high percent of chert as the raw material is the main character. Preliminary analysis of retouched tools and technique as well as the stage of fossilization of ostrich egg fragments and extinction age of the ostrich in the region indicate that the lithic assemblage stage of localities 3,4 and 5 can be put to the end Upper Paleolithic to early Lower Neolithic of China.

The lower cultural layer lithic assemblage: about 85 pieces of stone artifacts were excavated from the layer ⑥ of the three localities, which seems more primitive in the cultural feature than the upper cultural layer by analyzing the type, morphology and technique of the stone artifacts. About 61.5% of the raw materials were dolomite, which shows similar to the Shuidonggou cultural of Upper Paleolithic in North China. Cores, flakes, blade and biface retouched tools are the main classes without typical microlith and levallois-style cores. The principal technique is direct hammer percussion with commonly core preparation, which the bipolar and soft-hammer percussion are seldom flaking technique. 

FIRST CIRCULAR REPLY FORM

Family Name:               Given Name:                 Country:            

Gender:                                 Title:                              

Institution:________________________    _________________________      

Mailing Address:________________________________________________     

Telephone:_________________ Fax: _______________  Email:__________       

Please insert YES or NO before:

        I want to receive the Second Circular

        I plan to attend the symposium

        I plan to give an oral presentation

        (Provide the title of the presentation here, if possible)

        I plan to give a poster presentation

        I plan to go to post-symposium excursion ONE

        I plan to go to post-symposium excursion TWO

Suggestions: