A REVIEW OF PALEOLITHIC ENVIRONMENTAL ARCHAEOLOGY IN NORTH CHINA

Paleolithic environmental archaeology, which aims at the study of the interaction between mankind and the environment, in North China has significantly developed in the past two to three decades, owing to the enormous accumulation of archaeological materials, big advances in scientific technology and rapid improvement of study methods. The aim of environmental archaeology is to understand how the mankind adapted to the environment, or how the mankind used natural resources to responde to environment changes. This paper reviewed the studies about the human history of the utilization of geological resources, raw material resources, plant and animal resources, and discussed the response of human being to environment changes through migratian and technology development. The further development of paleolithic environmental archaeology requius close collaboration between archaeologists, geologists and geographers.