The Early Paleolithic Go Da Site and the Bifacial Lithic Industries of Southeast Asia

The Early Paleolithic Go Da Site and the Bifacial Lithic Industries of Southeast Asia

The Early Paleolithic Go Da Site and the Bifacial Lithic Industries
of Southeast Asia

doi:10.17746/1563-0110.2021.49.4.003-014

A.V. Kandyba1, A.M. Chekha1, Nguyen Gia Doi2, Nguyen Khac Su2, S.A. Gladyshev1, and A.P. Derevianko1
1Institute of Archaeology and Ethnography, Siberian Branch, Russian Academy of Sciences, Pr. Akademika Lavrentieva 17, Novosibirsk, 630090, Russia
2Institute of Archaeology, Vietnam Academy of Social Sciences, Phan Chu Chin 61, Hanoi, Vietnam

The lithic industry of the stratified site Go Da in Central Vietnam is described, and its place among the contemporaneous Early Paleolithic sites of East and Southeast Asia is determined. Results of a morphological techno-typological analysis of the Go Da assemblage are provided. Go Da is attributed to the An Khe-type sites situated in the eponymous area of Vietnam. Cores and tools were made from pebbles, less often from flakes. Primary reduction focused on simple pebble cores with natural striking-platforms, whereas radial cores were less common. Predominant among the tools are picks, scrapers of various modifications, choppers, and chopping tools, as well as denticulate and notched tools; also, bifaces occur. These tools belong to a single homogeneous industry, showing common features in primary reduction, preparation, and design of key artifacts. On the basis of analysis of the stratigraphic sequence of Go Da and the absolute date of 806 ± 22 ka BP, generated by the potassium-argon analysis of tektites, it is proposed that the site is older than other dated locations with the An Khe industry. Apparently, it resulted from a convergent evolution of the pebble-flake industry introduced by the first wave of Homo erectus from Africa. Go Da and other An Khe sites likely belong to a vast habitation zone of Southeast Asian hominins with technologically and typologically similar industries dating to the boundary between the Lower and the Middle Pleistocene.

Keywords: Vietnam, Early Paleolithic, An Khe industry, handaxes, bifacial tools