Paleolithic archaeology in Japan

Abstract

In spite of the relatively short history of systematic research that started in the late 1940s, and the negative impact of the Fujimura’s frauds exposed in 2000, Paleolithic remains are known from over 14,500 sites in the Japanese Archipelago today. During the cold phases of the Pleistocene, the four major islands of the Japanese Archipelago merged into two: the Paleo-Honshu Island, consisting of the present Honshu, Shikoku, and Kyushu Islands, and the Paleo-Sakhalin-Hokkaido-Kurile Peninsula, connected to the Russian Continent. Due to the volcanic nature of the soils, however, hominin fossils are recovered from only a handful of the sites. They suggest that the Ryukyu Islands were populated by people with affinities with Southeast Asia and/or Austro-Melanesian region by about 25,000 cal. years ago, who seem to have co-existed with another group who arrived later in the Pleistocene from elsewhere in Asia. Two waves of population arrivals are also indicated by the available evidence from the single hominid site of Mikkabi on Honshu. The archaeological assemblages, consisting almost exclusively of stone tools, may be divided into 3 segments: Early Paleolithic (until 40,000 cal. BP), Late Paleolithic I (40,000-30,000 cal. BP), and Late Paleolithic II (30,000-16,000/10,000 cal. BP). The Early Paleolithic segment is represented by about 50 assemblages, composed of amorphous flakes and pebble tools. While they are not dissimilar to early assemblages elsewhere in Asia, archaeological opinions are divided as to their artifactual nature. There is consensus as to the occupation of the Archipelago by the behaviorally modern humans during the Late Peleolithic, after 40,000 cal. BP. During Late Paleolithic I, represented by about 500 assemblages, amorphous flakes continue, with the addition of blade-like tools, and edge-ground axes in some parts of the Archipelago. Trap-pits and indirect evidence for the use of watercraft are also present. The Aira-Tanzawa Tephra, the widespread horizon-marker tephra originating from the massive volcanic eruption in southern Kyushu, marks the beginning of Late Paleolithic II, to which the overwhelming majority of the Paleolithic assemblages belongs. The densely packed human groups, more sedentary after the extinction of large mammals, are highly diversified, in terms of the primary as well as secondary reduction techniques. Active interaction with the Asian mainland via the Korean Peninsula and through the Hokkaido-Sakhalin Peninsula is indicated by similarities in lithic artifacts and by the movement of lithic raw materials. The Paleolithic Period ends with the appearance of ceramics in the Paleo-Honshu about 16,000 cal. BP, and in Hokkaido and the Ryukyus about 10,000 cal. BP.