Japanese Paleolithic
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The Japanese Paleolithic (旧石器時代, kyū-sekki-jidai) covers a period from around 100,000[1] to 30,000 BC, when the earliest stone tool implements have been found, to around 12,000 BC, at the end of the last Ice-age, which corresponds to the beginning of the Mesolithic Jōmon period. The 35,000 BC date is most generally accepted: any date of human presence before 30,000-35,000 BC is controversial, with artifacts supporting a pre-35,000 BC human presence on the archipelago still being of questionable authenticity.[2]
Paleolithic environment
The Japanese archipelago was probably connected to the Asian mainland 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 Strait between the Japanese islands and Korean peninsula, as well as the Tsugaru Strait between the Japanese main island of Honshū and Hokkaidō 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 BC, but were later found to have been forgeries planted by Fujimura Shinichi.[3] Most of the early Japanese Paleolithic finds however start after 35,000 BC, making this date the most generally accepted for the first occupation of Japan.[4]
Ground tools and polished tools
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The Japanese Paleolithic is also highly original in that it incorporates the earliest known ground stone tools and polished stone tools in the world,[5] dated to around 30,000 BC, a technology typically associated with the beginning of the Neolithic, around 10,000 BCE, in the rest f 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 BC.
Paleo-anthropology
The Paleolithic populations of Japan, as well as the later Jōmon populations, appear to relate to an ancient Paleo-Asian group which occupied large parts of Asia before the expansion of the populations characteristic of today's people of China, Korea and Japan[citation needed]
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 (where current populations belong to the Sinodont group). Skull features tend to be stronger, with comparatively recessed eyes.
The aboriginal populations of the Ainu, today mostly confined to the northern island of Hokkaidō, 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 tends to indicate a fair amount of genetic intermixing between the earliest populations of Japan and later arrivals (Cavalli-Sforza). It is estimated that 10 to 20% of the genetic capital of the Japanese population today derives from the aboriginal Paleolithic-Jōmon ancestry, with the remainder coming from later migrations from the continent, especially during the Yayoi period.
Japanese archeology of the Paleolithic period
The study of the Paleolithic period in Japan was not begun until quite recently: the first Paleolithic site was discovered right after the end of the World War II. Due to the previous assumption that humans did not live in Japan before the Jōmon period, excavations usually stopped at the beginning of the Jōmon stratum (12,000 BC), and were not carried on further. However, since that first Paleolithic find, around 5,000 Paleolithic sites have been discovered, some of them at existing Jōmon archeological sites.
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.
Japanese archaeology of the Paleolithic has been mired by scandal. It was a subject relatively few Japanese archaeological students were interested in. Until the Japanese Paleolithic Hoax, the Japanese archaeological community believed humans were present on the archipelago as long ago as 700,000 BCE based on findings by Fujimura Shinichi. However, the Mainichi Shimbun newspaper planted a camera at an archaeological site and captured video of Fujimura planting artifacts at the Kamitakamori site in 2000. About 4% of Paleolithic work in Japan was attributed to Fujimura, and the discovery of the hoax thus put serious doubt on the chronology of ancient man in Japan[citation needed]. The Japanese Archaeological Association spent two years exhaustively reexamining sites and artifacts attributed to Fujimura and concluded that of the 186 sites, 33 excavated sites, and all discoveries attributed to Fujimura, none could stand peer review. Since the discovery of the hoax, only a few sites can tentatively date human activity in Japan to 40-50,000 BC, and the first widely accepted date of human presence on the archipelago can be reliably dated to 35,000 BC[6]
Notes
References
- Prehistoric Japan, New perspectives on insular East Asia, Keiji Imamura, University of Hawai Press, Honolulu, ISBN 0-8248-1853-9
- The History and Geography of Human Genes, Cavalli-Sforza, Princeton University Press, ISBN 0-691-08750-4
- Ainu:Spirit of a Northern People, National Museum of Natural History, Smithsonian Institution, ISBN 0-9673429-0-2