southern Ryukyu islands (Other Keyword)

DOCUMENT Citation Only Hiroto Takamiya.

The Ryukyu islands are located in the western Pacific between the islands of Kyushu and Taiwan, stretching approximately 1200 km. The focus of this presentation is the Southern Ryukyus islands, which consist of the Miyako and Yaeyama archipelagos. Until recently, the Miyako Island was the only island in this region which yielded fossil human remains dating to the late Pleistocene. Recently, human fossil remains dating to the same period has been unearthed from the Yaeyama islands. During this...

DOCUMENT Citation Only Kaishi Yamagiwa.

This study aims to discuss about the strategy of prehistoric human adaptation to the island environment, especially focus on the natural resource usage. I introduce the case of southern part of Ryukyu islands—the southwestern part of Japan archipelago, where the first long-term human settlement had occurred about 4,300 years ago. Prehistoric people in southern Ryukyu islands had a unique material culture (absence of pottery, use of giant clam shell adzes), which was dissimilar to the surrounding...