Upper Palaeolithic microblade technology Begun in 2000, this
research project investigates the origin and development of
microblade technology in the Upper Palaeolithic of north-central
China (30,000 - 8,000 BC). The microblade technique is a unique
flint-knapping method of manufacturing thin small tools
(microblades). This prehistoric technology is one common feature
of cultural manifestations of the early hunter-gatherers in
northeastern Asia and northwestern North America. Most scholars
regard microblade technology as compelling evidence for the
peopling of the New World at the end of the Late Pleistocene
epoch (12,000 - 8,000 BC); they believe that the technology
originated in northeastern Asia (the exact area is debatable)
and spread into North America (i.e. Alaska and Yukon) via
Beringia. The Shandong province in China represents an
intermediate area where the technology may have been transmitted
from north-central China to northeastern Siberia or Japan.
Although previous studies have suggested that a l