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MIDDLE PALAEOL. |
JAPAN'S NEW MIDDLE PALAEOLITHIC RESEARCH |
Hypotheses on the First Settlement of the Japanese Islands |
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by Charles T. Keally October 12, 2003 last revised: November 9, 2003 |
A number of archaeologists have proposed hypotheses about the existence of humans in Japan before 35,000 years ago. Here are brief presentations of some of those hypotheses.
hypothesis: that Middle Palaeolithic humans most likely were in the Japanese islands, and Early Palaeolithic humans might have arrived before them.
This hypothesis seems to be what Sato Hiroyuki (2001) is saying, as shown in the separate list of sites. But most of his discussion is about the sites representing the "transition from Middle to Late Palaeolithic." He does seem to accept, at least tentatively, the Kanedori Stratum IV lithics dated 80,000-90,000 years ago, and possibly also the Kaseizawa lithics, which might be as old as 130,000 years.
hypothesis: that there were no Middle or Early Palaeolithic humans in Japan, or, if they were in the islands, their numbers were extremely low (Sugihara 1967).
Sugihara says that, if archaeologists would study the way these humans made and used tools [an anthropological study], they would realize that Middle and Early Palaeolithic humans were rare in Japan [if there at all].
Sugihara's interpretation of the materials being discussed in 1967:
hypothesis: that the oldest phase of the Japanese Late Palaeolithic represents the oldest evidence for settlement of the islands, but the likelihood of earlier settlement is very high (Oda 2001a, p. 27).
In 1979, Oda Shizuo and I presented a conference paper that said, "Phase Ia [the oldest phase of the Japanese Late Palaeolithic] represents the original migration of humans into Japan, probably from north China via Kyushu" (Oda & Keally 1979, p. 17; 1999, p. 13).
In 2001, Oda wrote that the oldest stratified artifacts in sites on the Musashino Upland in Tokyo indicate two somewhat different cultures with a very short difference in time (Oda 2001a, p. 19; Oda 2001b, p. 190). The oldest culture consists of pebble tools, drill-shaped tools and amorphous flake tools; it appears to be related to similar cultures to the south in the Ryukyu archipelago, Taiwan, South China and Southeast Asia. For the moment, these are the oldest confirmed artifacts in Japan, dating about 35-40 [calibrated radiocarbon] years ago (Oda 2001b, p. 190). He says that these two oldest cultures seem to represent newly arrived humans, AMH, in the Japanese islands (Oda 2001b, p. 190). But the existence of landbridges crossed by large land animals long before 40 ka [and the confirmed presence of humans on the nearby continent well before that, too] suggest that there is a very high possibility that humans were in the Japanese islands well before 40 ka (Oda 2001a, p. 27).
hypothesis: Palaeolithic artifacts dating to the transition from Middle to Late Palaeolithic are confirmed, but the existence of older, fully Middle Palaeolithic artifacts is still an open question (Anzai 2002).
Anzai seems to say that the "Bevelled Point Lithic Culture" is fully Middle Palaeolithic. He lists several transitional sites: Yoshioka D area, Stratum B5 (Kanagawa Prefecture), Dai-ni Tomei Loc. 25 and Loc. 26, Stratum BB VII (Shizuoka Prefecture), Ushiromuta (Miyazaki Prefecture), and Ono Group, Stratum VIIa & b, Ishinomoto(?) and Chinmoku(?) (Kumamoto Prefecture). He gives Ono Group, Stratum VIIIa & b (Kumamoto), as Middle Palaeolithic.
Anzai makes the point that the solution to this question lies in studying and understanding the change in structure [the process, or culture as system], and not just in the study of the lithic culture [typology and technology]. He seems to express a readiness to change his hypothesis and the paradigm it is based on.
hypothesis: that the oldest phase of the Japanese Late Palaeolithic represents a pioneering human settlement of the islands and the first human settlement of the islands.
In 1979, Oda Shizuo and I presented a conference paper that said, "Phase Ia [the oldest phase of the Japanese Late Palaeolithic] represents the original migration of humans into Japan, probably from north China via Kyushu" (Oda & Keally 1979, p. 17; 1999, p. 13).
In 1990, I presented a conference paper that dealt only with the Late Palaeolithic in Japan, but the discussion of the earliest phases of that Late Palaeolithic can be interpreted as describing a "pioneering settlement of the Japanese islands" (Keally 1991a, p. 29).
In 1991, I presented a conference paper suggesting that humans did not arrive in the Japanese islands until around 35,000 years ago because (1) they were not in northern China and Korea during the glacial periods when landbridges connected Japan to the continent and (2) they did not have watercraft until about 35,000-40,000 [now ca. 60,000] years ago (Keally 1991b).
Today, I still feel that the claims for human artifacts older than 35,000 years are all very questionable; certainly, they are all controversial. And I still feel that the oldest materials of the Japanese Late Palaeolithic suggest a pioneering settlement of the islands. Eventually, when we get accurate dates for this oldest material, the true age of the earliest settlement of the islands might turn out to be 40,000 years or a little bit older.