Le Paléolithique de l’île de Kyûshû

Abstract

The Upper Paleolithic of this region divides in five chronological stages. The first stage is an oldest period on the archipelago of Japan. The lithic industry of the stage is composed by the denticulate, the pointed scraper, the pick and the bifacial tool. The second half of the first stage is characterized the emergence of Kiridashi type backed knife and trapezoidal backed knife. The debitage (flaking) of the first half and the second half is non-blade technique. The second stage is characterized newly by the apparition of willow leaf type backed knife and partial retouching backed knife. The knife-to-back of the type of Kiridashi and the trapezoidal knife-to-back exist again while constantly joining the willow leaf type backed knife and the partial retouching baked knife. The blade debitage was present, principally the one of various flakes. As for the second half of the second stage, the willow leaf type backed knife and the partial retouching backed knife are represented mainly, besides the Kiridashi type baked knife and the trapezoidal backed knife mingled with this typological composition. The debitage was founded on the blade technique. The point on flake (tanged flake point) and the trihedral faced point appeared at the third stage that is a big instrument of hunt. It is likely that the behavior for hunting the big game would have been brought while passing by the land-bridge toward the Kyushu Island during the Maximum-Coldness of the last glaciation. Regarding the fourth stage, the point on flake disappeared, and the industry is essentially composed of trihedral faced point and the spear type point. The flat trihedral faced point and spear type point appeared, and the trihedral faced point appeared on the western part of South-Kyûshû and the part of northern Kyûshû. The culture of the trihedral faced point tips at the third stage on the Kyûshû Island that prolongs until the concerned stage. The fifth stage is the end of the Upper Paleolithic that is characterized by the Microlithic Culture. It is characterized by the miniaturize of the backed knife. At the end, the microlithisation resuscitates at the end of the Upper Paleolithic.