A newly discovered cache of large biface lithics from northern Honshu, Japan

Abstract

The discovery of eight biface lithic artefacts at Kashiwabara in Japan demonstrates the use of lithic reduction strategies, and suggests that mobile hunter-gatherers on the Japanese Islands were caching artefacts during the Incipient period of Jomon ( c . 15–11 500 cal BP). This has parallels with hunter-gatherer behaviour in North America, and indicates that caching strategies may not have been unique to Palaeoindians.