TRENDS IN ARCHAEOLOGY IN JAPAN

Paleolithic
UEMINE Atsushi1Paleolithic study in recent years has been focusing on formation processes of Late Paleolithic
culture in Japan within the context of the spread of modern humans from Africa to Eurasia.
A large-scale research project “Cultural History of Paleo Asia” that started in ﬁscal
2016 is the forefront of such study. Study results have been accumulated across different
academic ﬁelds such as formation processes of Late Paleolithic culture in different partsof Asia, archaeology, physical anthropology, genetic anthropology, cultural anthropology,
mathematical science and so on. Also, the uniqueness of the emergence of stone blade
techniques and the appearance of locality in later knife-shaped stone tool culture are being
discussed along with a detailed examination of stone tools in Hokkaido and East Japan. This
is in order to grasp the formation of Late Paleolithic culture in the Japanese Archipelago
within the history of diffusion and settlement of modern humans. The Ryukyu Islands havebeen an important research ﬁeld regarding diffusion of modern humans with successive
sensational discoveries in recent years, and especially studies on Shiraho-sanetabaru cavesite are drawing much attention as it yielded Paleolithic human bones of 19 individuals anda space for funeral rites. Various information on human bones in the Ryukyu Islands such as
DNA and forms of funeral rites indicate that they have their origin in the south, and a project
to reconstruct sea voyage techniques in the Paleolithic is drawing interest.
In response to the heightened interest on the arrival of primitive and modern humans in
the Late Paleolithic, the earlier period, that is, human settlement in the Japanese Archipelago
earlier than 40,000 years ago is being questioned.
Excavation research is being conducted in various areas in order to ﬁnd archaeologicalsites of the period, and reexamination of academic data is being progressed on Hoshino sitein Tochigi City, Tochigi Prefecture, and Gongenyama site in Isesaki City, Gunma Prefecture.
Other than studies on the earlier periods mentioned above, study that focused onregionality of stone tools and behaviors of Paleolithic people was active. There was afeatured article on the rise and fall of Kou industry in the Japanese Islands and a symposium
was held to compare stone tools in Niigata Prefecture and northern Kanto region. Also,
many studies in Hokkaido and Tohoku regions handled changes in stone tools and forms of1 Departmentof Anthropology and Philosophy, Faculty of Humanities, Nanzan University, 18
Yamazatocho, Nagoya Showa-ku, Aichi 466–0824, Japan(auemine@nanzan-u.ac.jp)
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settlement from the former half of Late Paleolithic to Incipient Jomon as well as comparative
study on various microlith tools. As for behavioral study, use-mark study on stone tools, themain purpose of which was to reveal functions of stone tools, started to indicate research
examples with clear behavioral study in mind. It is signiﬁcant that such study efforts arebeing actively published not only in Japanese but in English literature. In addition, there
were many studies on pebble tools, with detailed analysis of individual examples andbehavioral reconstruction.
Other than the above, there were studies that supplement weakness of past studies withsteady works such as surveys on stone material sources and excavation on stone source
sites, improving assumptions of stone material sources, petrological analysis on local stonematerials; as well as trials on studies with new viewpoints such as population study using
radiocarbon dating measurement, three-dimensional measurements of Paleolithic tools, anddata science. There were multiple museum exhibitions on the Paleolithic such as Paleolithic
stone tools in Ethiopia and Paleolithic culture in Okinawa that drew much attention fromvisitors.

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