Japanese Paleolithic

The prehistoric period in the Japanese archipelago before the Jōmon period, characterized by chipped stone tools and communities that lived mainly by hunting and gathering.

Paleolithic: The broad prehistoric era before farming, when people relied chiefly on hunting, gathering, and stone tools. Japanese Paleolithic archaeology is one regional record of this wider prehistoric era.
Flake tool: A stone implement made from a flake struck from a larger piece of stone. Flakes and their retouched edges are among the period’s characteristic tool forms.
Ishino site: An archaeological site in Gunma Prefecture associated with claimed early Paleolithic artifacts. Its disputed finds illustrate how claims about the earliest occupation have been tested.
Ishinomoto site: An archaeological site in Shizuoka Prefecture known for Paleolithic stone artifacts. Its assemblages contribute to the evidence for regional tool-making traditions.
Korean Paleolithic: The prehistoric period in the Korean Peninsula before the Neolithic, characterized by stone-tool use and foraging. Comparing its tool traditions with Japan’s helps assess connections across the Korea Strait.
Pleistocene: The geological epoch from about 2.58 million to 11,700 years ago, marked by repeated ice ages. Most of the period unfolded amid Pleistocene climate shifts and changing sea levels.
Core tool: A tool shaped directly from a stone core by removing flakes. Core tools show another way Paleolithic people shaped stone for practical tasks.
Iwajuku site: A Gunma Prefecture site where postwar excavations established the presence of a Japanese Paleolithic. Its 1949 discovery overturned the view that Japanese prehistory began with the Jōmon period.
Hoshino site: A Paleolithic archaeological site in Tochigi Prefecture with multiple cultural layers. Its stratified deposits help document changes in stone-tool assemblages over time.
Chinese Paleolithic: The prehistoric period in China before the Neolithic, encompassing diverse stone-tool traditions and human populations. Its continental sequences provide a comparison for technologies and population movements in Japan.

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Imperial Regalia of JapanCompared with: Archaeology can illuminate Japan’s deep past but cannot verify the regalia’s mythic beginnings.