MIS3 edge-ground axes and the arrival of the first Homo sapiens in the Japanese archipelago

Abstract

A lithic assemblage with edge-ground axes appeared in the Japanese archipelago in MIS3, about 38,000 cal BP, and continued to about 32,000 cal BP. This period corresponds to the early part of the early Upper Palaeolithic (eEUP). To date, similar stone axes have not been reported in Upper Palaeolithic sites in the continental regions of China, Korea, and Russia. These edge-ground axes appear to be independent inventions of the first Homo sapiens to settle the Japanese islands, and they are one manifestation of modern human behavior. The larger edge-ground axes appear to have been used for felling trees and for modifying wood. When the blades were damaged, these axes were reworked into smaller forms and reused for processing hide. The flake tools that were parts of the same lithic assemblages as the axes were probably hunting tools, but presently there is no evidence they were used for hunting the large mammals, such as Naumann’s elephants, that inhabited the Japanese islands at that time. Some of these flake tools were made of obsidian obtained from an island in the Pacific off the coast of Japan, demonstrating these early inhabitants of the Japanese islands had some kind of watercraft for crossing ocean waters. This is also a type of modern human behavior. Further, around 40,000 cal BP there was no land connection between the continent and Japan, so these first Homo sapiens settlers of the islands had to arrive by crossing water. The humans possessing these edge-ground axes formed circular settlements which they inhabited seasonally. They most likely had a clear awareness of group and of cooperative behavior.