Stone Age People in the Insular World: Stability and Migrations on Sakhalin, Hokkaido and the Kuril Islands

Abstract

AbstractDuring the period between ~40 and 13 ka BP (all dates are calibrated), Homo sapiens travelled across the aquatic straights between islands in the Far East either by some form of boat or on foot during the last glacial period. The southern Kuril, Hokkaido, Sakhalin islands and the continental Russian Far East merged together during the Last Glacial Maximum (LGM) and formed the Paleo-peninsula of Sakhalin, Hokkaido, Lesser and South Kurils (Paleo-SHK). Also, this glacial process merged together the Kamchatka Peninsula and the Northern Kuril Islands, herein termed the Paleo-KK. These land-bridges existed until the Early Holocene warming. The number and width of the remaining straits were reduced in size and did not represent significant obstacles to human migrations. The interrelationship between these islands and the coastal world of the Sea of Japan and the Sea of Okhotsk is evident in their proximity to each other and the synchronous development of adjacent Stone Age populations. Those groups were connected by contact zones within the boundaries of the overlapping territories reaching from the mouth of the Amur River to eastern Hokkaido and the Middle Kurils, across the Tsugaru Strait to the Nemuro Peninsula and Iturup Island onward, and from Urup Island to Kamchatka. Neolithic processes in this region began in the post-Paleolithic period and were temporarily interrupted by catastrophic climate changes. Sometimes the insular world played a role as the last refugium for people from the continent. The resumption of Neolithization processes took place during conditions of a changes in their economic systems during the climatic warming, which occurred after the end of global cooling that took place during the Kenbuchi stadial around 11.5–11 ka BP. The renaissance of the blade stone tool industry marks the migration of populations from the continent to the insular world of the Far East about 9–8.5 ka BP. Human migrations related to the Paleolithic and the Initial-Early Neolithic insular world were associated with the extreme nature of marine environments and the influx of continental populations into the North and East from the adjacent regions of Eurasia.KeywordsSakhalinPaleo-SHKKuril archipelagoPaleo-KKLGMEUPTUP 1–2Post PaleolithicNeolithicMigrationsEco-social systems