Late Wurm adaptive systems in Tohoku Japan: viewed from lithic use-wear analysis

Summary

The paper investigates lithic use-wear data from the viewpoint of human mobility patterns and functional inter-site variability. Microwear analysis based on controlled experiments was initiated in 1970s in Japan, and the method combined both high power and low power (that is, high magnification and low magnification) approach. Since then accumulated case studies focused on the Upper Paleolithic period of Northeastern Honshu Island of Japan (Tohoku District). Chronological sequences and characteristic site structure, and analyses of spatial distributions in conjunction with functional identification of formal tools and debitage, shed light on the variety of adaptive systems during the late Wurm period. The presentation includes problems such as transition to the Upper Paleolithic, emergence of blade techniques, large “ring model” of settlements with lithic concentrations, meaning of various types of knife blades, introduction of micro-blade technology to the archipelago from the north, and cultural transformation toward the Jomon Age. Results of meticulous microwear analysis are connected to large scale understanding of human adaptations with key concepts of technological organizations and inter-intra site variabilities.

This Resource is Part of the Following Collections

• Society for American Archaeology 81st Annual Meeting, Orlando, FL (2016)   •
• Papers in Honor of Lawrence Guy Straus

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