Le Paléolithique des îles du Sud-Ouest du Japon

Abstract

There are two lithic industries in the beginning of the Upper Paleolithic including the vestiges that have been discovered in the islands of Oshumi, close to the island of Kyushû. This lithic industry is characterized by the presence of axes with partially polish cutting, denticulate, hammers and millestones that are common in western Japan. It is characterized by numerous lithic instruments for the treatment of the plant food. The discovered vestiges of which one found the pebbles cluster inside pitfalls that are the oldest on the archipelago of Japan. According to these particularities of the lithic industry and vestiges, it is likely that this human group is semi-settled. And this human group of the beginning Upper Paleolithic was identical typologically and technically to the human group of the island of Kyushû. Therefore, it is possible that they came down from the southbound Kyushû Island, to the concerned islands. As for the islands of Amami, we investigated sites, nevertheless all that have been unearthed, in small extents provided a small quantity of the archaeological material. Indeed, one could not seize very well retails until now. There is a mixture of various, non-resolute opinions. The islands of Okinawa and those of Sakishima in southern extremity of the Japanese territory provided humans rests of the Upper Paleolithic, nevertheless no lithic industry of the same time have been found. Thereafter of the situation, the origins of the culture and the technique concerned the human rests remain unclear.