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Lithics and climate: technological responses to landscape change in Upper Palaeolithic northern Japan

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  05 June 2015

Kazuki Morisaki ,
Masami Izuho ,
Karisa Terry  and
Hiroyuki Sato
Kazuki Morisaki
Affiliation:
Nara National Research Institute for Cultural Properties, 94-1, Kinomoto-cho, Kashihara-shi, Nara634-0025, Japan (Email: [email protected])
Masami Izuho
Affiliation:
Archaeology Laboratory, Faculty of Social Sciences and Humanities, Tokyo Metropolitan University, 1-1, Minamiosawa, Hachioji-shi, Tokyo 192-0397, Japan (Email: [email protected])
Karisa Terry
Affiliation:
Department of Anthropology and Museum Studies, Central Washington University, 400 E. University Way Ellensburg, WA98926, USA (Email: [email protected])
Hiroyuki Sato
Affiliation:
Department of Archaeology, Faculty of Letters, The University of Tokyo, 7-3-1, Hongo, Bunkyo-ku, Tokyo 113-0033, Japan (Email: [email protected])
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Abstract

Studies of human behavioural responses to climate change have begun to address traditional archaeological questions in new ways. Hitherto, most of these studies have focused on western Eurasia, but the question of human response to rapid climatic changes in northern Japan during the Upper Palaeolithic period opens up new perspectives. Combining artefact studies and palaeoenvironmental evidence, Japan provides a case study for how quickly modern humans adapted to new environmental challenges, and how that adaptation can be charted through the lithic technologies employed in different geoclimatic circumstances.

Keywords

JapanUpper Palaeolithicclimate changelithic technology
Type
Research
Information
Antiquity , Volume 89 , Issue 345 , June 2015 , pp. 554 - 572
Copyright
Copyright © Antiquity Publications Ltd, 2015 

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