Re-examination of the Yanjiagang Paleolithic Campsite, Northeastern China

The Yanjiagang Paleolithic site near Harbin，the capital city of Heilongjiang Province
is located on the broad fluvial plain of Songhuajiang， a main river in northeastern China. Excavation during the 1980s defined it as a campsite of Upper Paleolithic hunters，which consists of two semi-circle structures made of bone fragments from animals such as bison， woolly rhinoceros，mammoth，deer，horse，and gazelle. Some researchers，however，have argued that the circles are not artifacts but a result of natural river movement.
A re-examination of the site by the authors reports that Yanjiagang is indeed a campsite of ancient hunters. The artificial nature of the animal bone circle structures does not have any support from the re-examination. The present report corrects the radioactive dating of the site as 14 C cal BP 26957 ± 626，which can be compared with late MIS 3 and is older than the previously published result of 22370 ± 300 BP.