Japanese Paleolithic

The Japanese Paleolithic covers a period from around 500,000 BCE, when the earliest stone tool implements have been found, to around 12,000 BCE, at the end of the last Ice-age, which corresponds to the beginning of the Mesolithic Jomon Period.

Contents

1 Paleolithic environment 2 Earliest Japanese tools 3 Ground tools and polished tools 4 Paleo-anthropology 5 Japanese archeology of the Paleolithic period 6 References

Paleolithic environment

The Japanese islands were probably connected to the Asian continent on several occasions in the past, especially during the coldest periods of the Ice Age, when the level of the sea would recede considerably, by around 100-120 meters. This point is not totally clear of controversy however since the Korea-Tsushima straits between Japan and Korea, as well as the Tsugaru strait between the Japanese main island of Honshu and Hokkaido are around 140 meters deep. It seems the straits sometimes cleared, and sometimes did not clear, during the various Ice Age peaks.

Earliest Japanese tools

The earliest Japanese stone tools, chipped stone hand axes and cleavers, were found at the site of Kami-Takamori in Miyagi prefecture, and dated to c. 500,000 BCE, by thermoluminescence, electron spin resonance and paleomagnetic methods. These tools show some similarities with continental and Western European paleolithic tools, although they are smaller in size. Most of the early Japanese Paleolithic finds however start from around 200,000 BCE, making this date the most generally accepted for the first occupation of Japan.

Ground tools and polished tools

The Japanese Paleolithic is also highly original in that in incorporates the earliest known ground stone tools and polished stone tools in the world, dated to around 30,000 BCE, a technology typically associated with the beginning of the Neolithic, around 10,000 BCE, in the rest of the world. It is not known why such tools were created so early in Japan, although the period is associated with a warmer climate worldwide (30,000-20,000 before present), and the islands may have particularly benefited from it.

Because of this originality, the Japanese Paleolithic period in Japan does not exactly match the traditional definition of Paleolithic based on stone technology (chipped stone tools). Japanese Paleolithic tool implements thus display Mesolithic and Neolithic traits as early as 30,000 BCE.

Paleo-anthropology

The Paleolithic populations of Japan, as well as the later Jomon populations, appear to relate to an ancient Paleo-Asian group which occupied large parts of Asia before the expansion of the Mongoloid populations characteristic of today's people of China, Korea or Japan.

Skeletal characteristics point to many similarities with other aboriginal people of the Asian continent. Dental structures belong to the Sundadont group, mainly distributed in ancient populations of South-East Asia (whether Mongoloid populations belong to the Sinodont group). Skull features tend to be stronger, with comparatively recessed eyes.

The aboriginal populations of the Ainu, today mostly circumscribed to the northern island of Hokkaido, appear to be the descendants of these Paleolithic populations, and display features that have, in the past, been interpreted as Caucasoid, but today tend to be considered more generally as part of that early Paleolithic human stock.

Genetic analysis on today's populations is not clear cut and tend to indicate a fair amount of genetic intermixing between the original populations of Japan and later Mongoloid arrivals (Cavalli-Sforza). It is estimated that 10 to 20% of the genetic capital of the Japanese population today derives from aboriginal Paleolithic-Jomon ancestry, the remainder coming from later Mongoloid contributions from the continent, especially during the Yayoi period.

Japanese archeology of the Paleolithic period

The study of the Paleolithic period in Japan is quite recent: the first Paleolithic site was discovered right after the end of the Second World War. The past assumption being that humans did not live in Japan before Jomon, excavations usually stopped at the beginning of the Jomon level (12,000 BCE), and were not carried on further. Since then, around 5,000 Paleolithic sites have been discovered, some of them at existing Jomon archeological locations. The study of the Japanese Paleolithic period is characterized by a high-level of stratigraphic information due to the volcanic nature of the archipelago: large eruptions tend to cover the islands with levels of ash, which are easily datable and can be found throughout the country as a reference. A very important such layer is the AT (Aira-Tanzawa) pumice, which covered all Japan around 21,000-22,000 years ago.

References

• Prehistoric Japan, New perspectives on insular East Asia, Keiji Imamura, University of Hawai Press, Honolulu, ISBN 0824818539
• The History and Geography of Human Genes, Cavalli-Sforza, Princeton University Press, ISBN 0691087504
• Ainu:Spirit of a Northern People, National Museum of Natural History, Smithsonian Insitution, ISBN 0967342902