Hunting Activities of Upper Paleolithic Humans in the Japanese Archipelago

Summary

This is an abstract from the "SAA 2021: General Sessions" session, at the 86th annual meeting of the Society for American Archaeology.

Much of the Japanese archipelago is covered with layers of acidic loam originating from volcanic eruptions. For this reason, there are very few Paleolithic sites that contain well-preserved faunal remains. In fact, there are only six known sites on the four main islands of Japan (Hokkaido, Honshu, Shikoku and Kyushu Islands) which have seen the excavation of faunal remains. In addition, most of these are the remains of large terrestrial mammals such as Naumann’s elephant (Palaeoloxodon naumanni), a large species of deer (Sinomegaceros yabei) and the steppe bison (Bison priscus), which shows the importance Paleolithic hunters in the Japanese archipelago placed on big-game hunting. However, we unearthed a large number of remains of Japanese hares (Lepus brachyurus) located in close proximity to backed knives from the Shitsukari-Abe Cave in the northernmost part of Honshu. According to ethnographical descriptions, many modern hunters use traps or special sound decoys to hunt Japanese hares regardless of the region they are based in, thus making the aforementioned results highly significant. In this paper, we will report on the Shitsukari-Abe Cave excavation results and reexamine the hunting activities of Paleolithic humans in the Japanese archipelago.

This Resource is Part of the Following Collections

• Society for American Archaeology 86th Annual Meeting, Online (2021)   •
• SAA 2021: General Sessions

Keywords

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Record Identifiers

Abstract Id(s): 32537