Aspects of Middie-Upper Palaeolithic Transition in Northeast ASIA

While the patterning in the assemblage composition during the Upper Pleistocene is only vaguely understood in Northeast Asia, Korean evidence suggests the possibility of change in the stone tool industry around ca. 75,000 and 40,000 bp, which might serve as temporal boundaries for an adoption of the three-stage scheme of the regional palaeolithic While the `Middle Palaolithic` may be characterized with the appearance of Moustenan-hke elements in more northerly locales, their distribution is limited, To the south, the period might be characterized with heavier, less formalized, and more or less `expedient` pieces made on `resilient` raw materials. Nevertheless, Upper Pleistocene assemblages may show continuity in their composition through time, Differences in the degree of morphological refinement of stone tools decrease markedly with the beginning of the Upper Palaeohthic, during which hthic manufacture was done with the same kinds of technological complexity and sophistication as one may observe at other parts of the world.