Final Pleistocene-Early Holocene (40-8 ka) Lithic Industries in Southern China and Their Implications for Understanding the Prehistory of Mainland Southeast Asia

The cultural relationship between southern China and mainland Southeast Asia during the final Pleistocene-early Holocene is a major concern in prehistoric studies among scholars in both regions. During this period, the lithic assemblages are known to be predominantly cobble-based industries, grouped under the term "chopper-chopping tools tradition". The analytical simplification of different assemblages may make typological sense, and this could explain why local technical expressions are not well documented; while the Hoabinhian technocomplex is a good example of cobble diversity and technological variability. To provide information on the various techno-cultural expressions on cobbles in southern China, this paper presents the results of four representative cobble assemblages from southern China studied from the chaine operatoire perspective, and the inter-site comparison allowed us to identify their similarities and differences qualitatively and quantitatively. Finally, we discussed the strategic importance of southern China in the interpretation of techno-cultural phenomena in mainland Southeast Asia.