Progress, problem and prospect: An overview of lithic use-wear study in China

Lithic use-wear analysis, became one of the major techniques of lithic studies in Europe and North America during 1980–1990s, was not fully and widely adopted in China until the beginning of 21st century. Over the past decades, the lithic use-wear study in China has made significant progress. This article reviews the history and development of lithic use-wear analysis in China, investigates recent international improvements and trends briefly, and then attempts to find new directions and suggestions. On the one hand, Chinese use-wear specialists have being contributed to world archaeology by: 1) supplementing the database of use-wear, and providing more regional case studies which promoted the knowledge of the prehistoric human evolution and adaptation; 2) conducting experiments on special raw materials, and providing a partial set of references of tool usage patterns in China to foreign colleagues; 3) improving understanding of subsistence strategies and origin of agriculture in China. On the other hand, some problems or limitations are still need to be considered by Chinese colleagues for lithic functional studies. And then, I suggested that we can make some adjustments and improvements through multi-disciplinary approaches, as well as train more young specialists and students and investigate more regional cases in China.