International Symposium
Insights into Human History in the Eurasian Stone Age: Recent Developments in Archaeology,
Palaeoanthropology, and Genetics
Date: September 27 – 29, 2022
Venue: TOKYO ELECTRON House of Creativity, Tohoku University
Organizers: Katsuhiro Sano, Masami Izuho, Kohei Tamura, & Stefano Benazzi

PROGRAMSEPTEMBER 27 (TUESDAY)
11:00 – 13:00 Registration
13:00 – 13:10 Opening address
Katsuhiro Sano (Deputy Director, Center of Northeast Asian Studies, Tohoku University)
13:10 – 13:20 Greetings
Akira Ono (Honorary President of Asian Palaeolithic Association/ Emeritus Professor, TokyoMetropolitan University)

Session 1: Migration of archaic humans into Central and Northeast Asia (Chair: Stefano Benazzi)
13:20 – 14:20 Keynote lecture: Neanderthal migration to the East
Kseniya A. Kolobova
14:20 – 14:40 Coffee break
14:40 – 15:00 Viviane Slon
Genetic studies on Denisovans and Neanderthals
15:00 – 15:20 Viviane Slon
Inferences on the genetic history of Eurasia based on sedimentary ancient DNA
15:20 – 15:40 Olaf Jöris & Marcel Weiss
The spatio-temporal patterning of Keilmessergruppen assemblages: Implications for Neanderthal
dispersal and migrations

15:40 – 16:00 Yoshihiro Nishiaki
Teshik-Tash Neanderthal lithic industry in the context of Neanderthal dispersals

16:00 – 16:20 Coffee break
16:20 – 16:40 Xing Song
Discussion on the evolutionary status of mainland East Asian late Middle Pleistocene archaic
Homo [online]
16:40 – 17:00 Dongju Zhang, Frido Welker, Chuan-Chou Shen, Bo Li, Jean-Jacques
Hublin, Svante Pääbo, Qiaomei Fu, & Fahu Chen
Denisovans from Baishiya Karst Cave on the Tibetan Plateau [online]17:00 – 17:20 Xing Gao
The complexity of the Middle and Upper Paleolithic industries in China and implications for
trajectories of hominid evolution in the region [online]
17:20 – 17:40 Katerina Douka
What we know about Denisovans: An overview of current fossils, archaeology, chronology andgeographic spread [online]
17:40 – 18:00 Frido Welker
Palaeoproteomics for human evolution
18:00 – 18:10 Coffee break
18:10 – 18:50 Discussion

SEPTEMBER 28 (WEDNESDAY)
08:50 – 9:00

Greetings
Motoko Kotani (Executive Vice President for Research, Director of Tohoku Forum for
Creativity, Tohoku University)

Session 2: Origin and expansion of Homo sapiens in western Eurasia (Chair: Masami Izuho)
09:00 – 10:00 Keynote lecture: Origin and expansion of Homo sapiens in western Eurasia
Jean-Jacques Hublin
10:00 – 10:20 Coffee break
10:20 – 10:40 Israel Hershkovitz
Pre-Neanderthals and modern humans in the Levant during the late Middle Pleistocene: A
perspective from the Nesher Ramla Homo fossil
10:40 – 11:00 Seiji Kadowaki
Multiple pathways to the Upper Paleolithic? Geographic variability in the Middle to Upper
Paleolithic transition in the Levant
11:00 – 11:20 Andrea Columbu
MIS3 palaeoclimate and palaeoenvironment in western Eurasia
11:20 – 11:40 Cosimo Posth
The genomic profile of Upper Paleolithic European hunter-gatherers
11:40 – 12:00 Tsenka Tsanova
The Initial Upper Palaeolithic at Bacho Kiro Cave and in the Eastern Balkan area [online]
12:00 – 13:30 Lunch
13:30 – 13:50 Andrea Picin
Cultural perspectives on early dispersals of Homo sapiens in Central Europe and Eastern EuropeanPlains
13:50 – 14:10 Stefano Benazzi
ERC project SUCCESS: The earliest migration of Homo sapiens in southern Europe14:10 – 14:30 Katsuhiro Sano, Simona Arrighi, Lisa Vaccari, Stefano Benazzi, & Adriana Moroni
Advanced projectile technology of the earliest Homo sapiens in Europe
14:30 – 14:50 Sahra Talamo
What a precise clock! ERC project RESOLUTION provides more refine chronology of the Initialand Early Upper Palaeolithic in Europe [online]
14:50 – 15:00 Coffee break
15:00 – 15:40 Discussion

Special Session: The Japanese Palaeolithic: Isolation and cultural exchanges (Chair: Kohei Tamura)
16:00 – 16:40 Special lecture: Another Palaeolithic frontier: Modeling the earliest seafaring in East Asia
Yousuke Kaifu
16:40 – 17:00 Katsuhiro Sano, Shunsuke Totsuka, Masami Izuho, & Kazuki Morisaki
The spatio-temporal patterns of early Upper Palaeolithic assemblages in the Japanese islands
17:00 – 17:20 Kazuki Morisaki
Middle and late Upper Palaeolithic in the Japanese archipelago: Local development andcontinental influence
17:20 – 17:40 Fumie Iizuka
Ecosystem change and decisions for pottery using foraging: Late Pleistocene cases from theJapanese archipelago
17:40 – 18:00 Hiroki Oota
Ancient genome analysis of human remains in the Japanese archipelago
18:00 – 18:10 Coffee break
18:10 – 18:40 Discussion

SEPTEMBER 29 (THURSDAY)
Session 3: The earliest migration of Homo sapiens into Central and Northeast Asia (Chair: Katsuhiro Sano)
09:30 – 9:50

Ted Goebel
Problems and prospects in the study of modern-human dispersal in Northern Asia

9:50 – 10:10

Masami Izuho
Early adaptations into tundra landscape by modern humans: A case study of the Initial Upper
Paleolithic in Mongolia and Transbaikal, Russia

10:10 – 10:30 Nicolas Zwyns
Exploring the variability of IUP assemblages using a techno-economic approach: The example ofTolbor-16, Mongolia
10:30 – 10:50 Coffee break
10:50 – 11:10 Evgeny Rybin, Kseniya Kolobova, & Arina Khatsenovich

Initial Upper Paleolithic of Southern Siberia and Central Asia: Continuity and variability
11:10 – 11:30

Feng Li
Understanding the Initial Upper Paleolithic of China in a regional context of Eastern Eurasia[online]11:30 – 11:50 Fei Peng, Huimin Wang & Xing Gao
New progress on the excavation and research of Shuidonggou site complex [online]
11:50 – 12:10 Xiaowei Mao
Genetic insight into northern East Asia during the period of Ice Age and Paleolithic-Neolithic
transition [online]
12:10 – 14:00 Lunch
14:00 – 14:20 Steven Kuhn
The Initial Upper Paleolithic in Asia: Is it still a useful concept?
14:20 – 15:20

Keynote lecture: Pitfalls and progress in dating the earliest appearance of Homo sapiens in Centraland Northeast Asia [online]
Tom Higham

15:20 – 16:00 Discussion
Poster Session 16:30 – 18:00