Archaeology, Ethnology & Anthropology of Eurasia 46 (3) 2018   DOI: 10.17746/1563-0110.2018.46.3.003-021

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The Discovery of a Bifacial Industry in Vietnam

A.P. Derevianko¹, A.V. Kandyba¹, Nguyen Khac Su², S.A. Gladyshev¹, Nguyen Gia Doi², V.A. Lebedev³, A.M. Chekha¹, A.G. Rybalko¹, V.M. Kharevich¹, and A.A. Tsybankov¹

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

³Institute of Geology of Ore Deposits, Petrography, Mineralogy and Geochemistry, Russian Academy of Sciences, Staromonetny per. 35, bldg. 2, Moscow, 119017, Russia

This study investigates the origin of bifacial lithic industry in the Lower Paleolithic of Southeast Asia. We describe stone tools from the stratified sites of Go Da and Roc Tung near the town of An Khe, Vietnam. The lithics represent a homogeneous industry, characterized by Lower Paleolithic primary and secondary reduction techniques. Cores and tools were made using pebbles, and some tools were manufactured on flakes. The tool-kit includes bifaces, picks, spurred implements, carinated end-scrapers, various types of side-scrapers, choppers and chopping tools, and denticulate and notched pieces. Bifaces and picks are the predominant tool types. Primary reduction was aimed at manufacturing simple pebble cores with cortex striking platforms, while radial and orthogonal cores occur less frequently. Tektites found with the lithics were dated by 40K/38Ar-method to 806 ± 22 and 782 ± 20 ka BP. We propose to name this industry the An Khe culture. We suggest that the An Khe emerged through convergent evolution of the pebble-flake industry associated with the first wave of Homo erectus migration from Africa 1.8–1.6 Ma years ago, and is unrelated to the Acheulean tradition introduced by the second wave of migration to Eurasia.

Keywords: Vietnam, Lower Paleolithic, An Khe culture, bifaces, convergent evolution.