Human adaptations during MIS 2: Evidence from microblade industries of Northeast China

The geographic and ecological background behind the development and spread of microblade technologies in Asia is a topic of considerable research interest. Microblade technologies are geographically widespread, and present in southern Siberia, the Russian Far East, Mongolia, northern China, the Korean Peninsula and the Japanese archipelago. Here we examine microblade sites of Northeast China which date to from ~28,000 years ago to the end of the Pleistocene. Though microblade assemblages in Northeast China are found to share a number of technological traits, regional divergences are identifiable on account of raw material differences. Technological changes through time correspond with climatic and environmental shifts during Marine Isotope Stage 2 (MIS 2). Microblade technology has its root in southern Siberia on the basis of early age ranges, and thereafter, these assemblages diffused widely, both southward and eastward into China. Microblade industries subsequently underwent a standardization process in Northeast China, leading to the formation of pressure flaking microblade technology on typical wedge-shaped cores of the Northern Microblade Industry (NMI). The NMI appears to have then diffused relatively rapidly across northern and eastern Asia, perhaps representing population movements and cultural interactions. •An up-to-date examination of microblade assemblages of Northeastern China.•The distribution, availability and size of raw materials influenced lithic assemblages.•The development of microblade industries is related to climatic shifts in MIS 2.