The beginning of the Japanese Upper Paleolithic has mainly been examined using two major models:the Middle Paleolithic evolutionary model within the archipelago and the continental Upper Paleolithic diffusion/migratio...The beginning of the Japanese Upper Paleolithic has mainly been examined using two major models:the Middle Paleolithic evolutionary model within the archipelago and the continental Upper Paleolithic diffusion/migration model.However,recent archeological data from Japan and nearby countries are challenging such simple models.This paper critically reviews previous chronology of the Japanese Paleolithic,including possible Lower and Middle Paleolithic(LP/MP),and attempts to show an alternative model of the beginning of the Japanese Upper Paleolithic.This paper suggests several possible specimens of LP/MP and recommends further geoarchaeological investigation to understand the reliability and cultural relationship between possible LP/MP specimens and the Early Upper Paleolithic(EUP).The start of the Japanese EUP is presently characterized by a flake industry with trapezoids and denticulates around 39-37 kaBP cal on Paleo-Honshu Island,which has partial resemblance with contemporary assemblages in China and the Korean Peninsula,although trapezoids are endemic only to the Japanese EUP and may have derived from the ancestral lithic tradition.Blade technology appeared earliest on Central Paleo-Honshu Island,about 1000 years later than the earliest flake technology.Although blade technology may have originated from the elongated flake technology of the previous period,the sudden simultaneous emergence implies that it diffused from the Korean Peninsula.This paper proposes that blade technology from the Korean Peninsula arrived on the northeastern Paleo-Honshu Island,including the Japan Sea coastal region of western Honshu,rather than the southwest,where flake technology long prospered,due to differences in ecological settings and adaptation strategies between the two regions.展开更多
Here,we consider earlier Upper Paleolithic sites in the Selenga River Basin,the main fluvial input of Lake Baikal that flows through northern Mongolia and the southwestern Transbaikal region of Russia.Lithic industrie...Here,we consider earlier Upper Paleolithic sites in the Selenga River Basin,the main fluvial input of Lake Baikal that flows through northern Mongolia and the southwestern Transbaikal region of Russia.Lithic industries from these sites can be attributed to the laminar Initial Upper Paleolithic(IUP)technocomplex,widespread in southern Siberia and Central Asia.IUP industries appear in the Selenga Basin about 45 kaBP cal.Aspects of regional typological variability and the transport of exotic raw materials over long distances indicate that these populations participated in developed exchange networks and employed high mobility targeting the acquisition of necessary raw materials.Two site types are present:quarry-workshops in northern Mongolia and generalized activity settlements in the southwestern Transbaikal.Although faunal data are limited,we interpret available information as indicating a specialization on hunting,focusing on migrating steppe game species.The distribution of sites in the mid-altitudes and landscapes of the Selenga-Orkhon geographical region and the geomorphological homogeneity of this territory also supported interregional human moves during the IUP.展开更多
Similarities play an important role in the reconstruction of human physical,cultural and technological evolution.The two sites presented in this paper,the Middle Palaeolithic site Lingjing in China Layer 10 and 11 and...Similarities play an important role in the reconstruction of human physical,cultural and technological evolution.The two sites presented in this paper,the Middle Palaeolithic site Lingjing in China Layer 10 and 11 and the Lower Palaeolithic site Schöningen 13Ⅱ-4,the socalled Schöningen Spear Horizon in Germany,show striking similarities.The archaeological record of both sites includes lithic artifacts as well as a very large assemblage of fossil bones.The preservation of the material at both sites is excellent and the faunas encountered at both sites show many similarities.The faunal lists of both sites include a diverse carnivore guild,an elephant species,two different rhinoceros species,two different equids,different cervids and large bovids.Both sites also yielded bone retouchers as well as a unique record of bone hammers that show identical,unusual flaking and percussion damage.These similarities are remarkable if one takes into account the difference in age(ca 200 kaBP)and the geographical distance between the two sites of ca 8000 km.Therefore,we do not assume a close cultural link between the hominin populations active at both sites.The authors assume that the observed similarities show more or less identical,opportunistic hominin behaviour at both sites located in a comparable environment with more or less similar taphonomic conditions.展开更多
基金JSPS KAKENHI Grant Numbers 18H03596(PI:Yosuke Kaifu)JP19H01336(PI:Hiroyuki Sato)21H00608(PI:Kazuki Morisaki)。
文摘The beginning of the Japanese Upper Paleolithic has mainly been examined using two major models:the Middle Paleolithic evolutionary model within the archipelago and the continental Upper Paleolithic diffusion/migration model.However,recent archeological data from Japan and nearby countries are challenging such simple models.This paper critically reviews previous chronology of the Japanese Paleolithic,including possible Lower and Middle Paleolithic(LP/MP),and attempts to show an alternative model of the beginning of the Japanese Upper Paleolithic.This paper suggests several possible specimens of LP/MP and recommends further geoarchaeological investigation to understand the reliability and cultural relationship between possible LP/MP specimens and the Early Upper Paleolithic(EUP).The start of the Japanese EUP is presently characterized by a flake industry with trapezoids and denticulates around 39-37 kaBP cal on Paleo-Honshu Island,which has partial resemblance with contemporary assemblages in China and the Korean Peninsula,although trapezoids are endemic only to the Japanese EUP and may have derived from the ancestral lithic tradition.Blade technology appeared earliest on Central Paleo-Honshu Island,about 1000 years later than the earliest flake technology.Although blade technology may have originated from the elongated flake technology of the previous period,the sudden simultaneous emergence implies that it diffused from the Korean Peninsula.This paper proposes that blade technology from the Korean Peninsula arrived on the northeastern Paleo-Honshu Island,including the Japan Sea coastal region of western Honshu,rather than the southwest,where flake technology long prospered,due to differences in ecological settings and adaptation strategies between the two regions.
文摘Here,we consider earlier Upper Paleolithic sites in the Selenga River Basin,the main fluvial input of Lake Baikal that flows through northern Mongolia and the southwestern Transbaikal region of Russia.Lithic industries from these sites can be attributed to the laminar Initial Upper Paleolithic(IUP)technocomplex,widespread in southern Siberia and Central Asia.IUP industries appear in the Selenga Basin about 45 kaBP cal.Aspects of regional typological variability and the transport of exotic raw materials over long distances indicate that these populations participated in developed exchange networks and employed high mobility targeting the acquisition of necessary raw materials.Two site types are present:quarry-workshops in northern Mongolia and generalized activity settlements in the southwestern Transbaikal.Although faunal data are limited,we interpret available information as indicating a specialization on hunting,focusing on migrating steppe game species.The distribution of sites in the mid-altitudes and landscapes of the Selenga-Orkhon geographical region and the geomorphological homogeneity of this territory also supported interregional human moves during the IUP.
文摘Similarities play an important role in the reconstruction of human physical,cultural and technological evolution.The two sites presented in this paper,the Middle Palaeolithic site Lingjing in China Layer 10 and 11 and the Lower Palaeolithic site Schöningen 13Ⅱ-4,the socalled Schöningen Spear Horizon in Germany,show striking similarities.The archaeological record of both sites includes lithic artifacts as well as a very large assemblage of fossil bones.The preservation of the material at both sites is excellent and the faunas encountered at both sites show many similarities.The faunal lists of both sites include a diverse carnivore guild,an elephant species,two different rhinoceros species,two different equids,different cervids and large bovids.Both sites also yielded bone retouchers as well as a unique record of bone hammers that show identical,unusual flaking and percussion damage.These similarities are remarkable if one takes into account the difference in age(ca 200 kaBP)and the geographical distance between the two sites of ca 8000 km.Therefore,we do not assume a close cultural link between the hominin populations active at both sites.The authors assume that the observed similarities show more or less identical,opportunistic hominin behaviour at both sites located in a comparable environment with more or less similar taphonomic conditions.