Late Pleistocene trap-pit hunting in the Japanese Archipelago

Abstract

Trap-pit hunting has been adopted by modern humans in the Japanese Archipelago from the initial stage of the Upper Paleolithic (40–15 ka; late MIS3 and MIS2) to the present. Trap-pit hunting found in the Japanese Archipelago is dated to 40,000 years ago. Late Pleistocene trap-pit hunting was mainly identified in the late Early Upper Paleolithic, in southern coastal areas of Central Honshu, and in the terminal Upper Paleolithic in southern Kyushu. Socio-ecological conditions of hunter-gatherer societies likely affected their choices of trap-pit hunting.