Diachronic shifts in lithic technological transmission between the eastern Eurasian Steppe and northern China in the Late Pleistocene

The successful occupation of the eastern Eurasian Steppe in the Late Pleistocene improved cultural connections between western Eurasia and East Asia. We document multiple waves of lithic technological transmission between the eastern Eurasian Steppe and northern China during 50–11 cal. ka BP. These waves are apparent in the sequential appearance of three techno-complexes in northern China: (1) the Mousterian techno-complex, (2) the blade techno-complex mixed with Mousterian elements, (3) and the microlithized blade techno-complex. These lithic techno-complexes were transmitted under different paleoenvironmental conditions along different pathways through the eastern Eurasian Steppe. The Mousterian techno-complex and the blade techno-complex mixed with Mousterian elements were only dispersed in the north and west peripheries of northern China (50–33 cal. ka BP). We argue that these techno-complexes failed to penetrate into the hinterland of northern China because they were not well suited to local geographical conditions. In contrast, the microlithized blade technology which diffused from the eastern Eurasian Steppe was locally modified into a Microblade techno-complex which was highly suited to local environmental conditions, and proliferated across the hinterland of northern China (28/27-11 cal. ka BP). The subsequent spread of microblade technology over vast regions of Mongolia and Siberia indicates that the Pleistocene inhabitants of northern China not only adopted and modified technologies from their neighbors in the Eurasian Steppe, but these modified variants were subsequently transmitted back into the Eurasian Steppe. These episodes of technological transmission indicate complicated patterns of population dispersal and technological interaction across northern China and the eastern Eurasian Steppe.