Chronologie du Paléolithique supérieur dans le Nord-Est de la principale île du Japon

Palaeolithic archaeology in Tohoku region has long been discussed on constructing chronology, however it is difficult to build reliable chronological order because of poor stratigraphic excavations. In recent radiocarbon dating has advanced. In this paper I discuss the relation between chronology and radiocarbon dating in Tohoku region. At first, I categorize the Palaeolithic industries and establish the chronology by analyzing tool typology, lithic technology, and stratigraphic data. I correlate it with radiocarbon data from sites in Tohoku region. The result of analysis shows that Upper Palaeolithic industries are divided into 18 categories and 8 periods on chronology. The calibration curve IntCal 13 indicated that oldest Early Upper Palaeolithic site appeared around 37,000 cal BP, and late Upper Palaeolithic started about 27,000 cal BP. The pottery first appeared as far back as around 16,000 cal BP. Now we do not have enough radiocarbon data, so we have to gather and examine more ¹⁴C data.     

Le Paléolithique supérieur au Japon

The Japanese archipelago has been colonized by humans in different ways and at different times: it has therefore undergone a succession of varied continental influences. However, the origin of these populations would be mainly northern and located at the beginning of the Upper Paleolithic, in the European conception. Subsequently, at least two other continental migratory waves were observed, through the center and then through the south of the archipelago. This latter influence brought the “Mesolithic” population still active today in the northern islands of Hokkaido.     

Hommes et environnements au Paléolithique supérieur en Ukraine : introduction aux recherches interdisciplinaires menées sur le site de Mezhyrich

Research conducted under the ANR project “Mammouths”, about “the end of the mammoth steppe: Man/Environment relationship during late Pleniglacial in Eastern Europe”, is the subject of several contributions. A first part was published in the Volume 118 (issue 5, November–December 2014) in the journal L’Anthropologie. We present in this second volume seven articles dedicated to the Upper Paleolithic site of Mezhyrich in Ukraine.     

Parure,pigment et art mobilier du Paléolithique supérieur au Japon

In the Japanese Archipelago, Upper Palaeolithic Accessories, Pigment and Portable Art are discovered, but very few. We introduce the Palaeolithic Art in Japan including new discoveries. The majority of accessories is discovered in Hokkaido, for example the sites of Yunosato 4, Pirika 1, Kashiwadai1 and Obarubetsu 2, but very few in Honshu, the largest island of Japan: Togeyamabokujo 1 in Iwate and Fujiishi in Shizuoka. A lot of pigments are discovered in Hokkaido like Kawanishi C, Kashiwadai 1, Marukoyama and Kiusu 5, without those of Deguchi-Kanezuka in Chiba in Honshu. Kashiwadai 1 in Hokkaido and Kamihikikiri in Chiba are the sites with portable art. In Ehime in Shikoku, one of four large islands of Japan, engraved pebbles called “Kamikuroiwa Venus”, of the Incipient Jomon followed after the Upper Palaeolithic period, before about 14,500 years, are researched again recently. The Palaeolithic art in Japan has a strong relation with Northeast Asia's art, because the lithic materials of Palaeolithic accessories in Hokkaido came from the Continent, and the engraved pebbles have some characters common with Siberian figurines, but also there are accessories and pigment of which the stones are native of the region from the beginning of the Upper Palaeolithic period.     

Le Paléolithique supérieur de la région centre de l’île de Honshû

Tokai area is situated in the middle of Japan and has various configurations of ground. The eastern area has thick natural layers with volcanic ash which has been supplied from Mt. Fuji. About five chronological stages of Paleolithic culture from trapeze and edge-ground axe culture to microlith culture through backed blade culture have been found in the layers. These stages of Paleolithic culture are indicators of chronological studies in Tokai area. On the other hand, it is difficult to advance chronological studies in the middle east, middle, and west areas, because they have little thickness of layers with volcanic ash. However, different Paleolithic artifacts are found in top and bottom layers which put the AT layer between at Tsubakibora Site in Gifu Prefecture, and they have helped very much chronological studies of Paleolithic culture in the west area. Here is the first result of Paleolithic studies in Tokai area with artifacts which have been found on the forth layer of scoriae at Idemaruyama Site are dated about 35,000 years, one of the oldest Paleolithic culture in Japan. In addition, some lines of pits which were dated 30,000 years were found at Hatsunegahara Site, and they provided valuable data to study Paleolithic hunting. Finally, a holed pendant which had 10 notches on one side was unearthed from Fujiishi Site, and it was dated 19,000 years ago. At Terada and Hino Site, a flat big stone which had carvings was found, though the shape and use were seemed to be different from the pendant at Fujiishi Site.     

Le Paléolithique supérieur dans l’ouest de l’île principale du Japon

The Kinki, Chugoku and Shikoku regions are located in the western part of the Japanese mainland. This area lacks the Pleistocene volcanic soil except a part of Chugoku Mountains. For this reason, the chronology of the late Paleolithic stone industries has been mainly studied by technology and typology of the fields excavated. However, after the late 1980s, the analysis of volcanic ash that contained the Paleolithic sediments had remarkable development. As a result, the cultural layer between the distant Paleolithic sites is compared by several widespread volcanic ashes such as Aira-Tanzawa (in short AT) as key bed. In this paper, we offered chronological order of the late Paleolithic culture in these regions by comparing cultural layers on the basis of the widespread volcanic ashes, referring to typological analysis of industries. The Sétoüchi technique and Ku industry characterize the late Paleolithic culture in these regions. The Sétoüchi technique is the unique one to produce the Ku type backed knife blunting on only one side, using the particular side-blow flaking technology based on physical characteristics of sanukite stone which is a kind of andesite. However, a hypothesis named the “Sétoüchi concept” was proposed in 2001, and it has been used as a substitute of the “Sétoüchi technique” by a few Japanese researchers. So we point out the mistake of the Sétoüchi concept relying on the fact which yielded stratigraphically two different industries in the Suncheon site.     

Le Paléolithique supérieur dans la péninsule coréenne et l’archipel du Japon

There is one decisive gate between the Asian continent and the archipelago of Japan which is the strait of Tsushima that exists between the Korean peninsula and the archipelago. The strait is very narrow; however, the depth is relatively deep. If the sea level did not fall down to at least 130 meters below the present level, the terrestrial bridge would not be formed there. We know the former case concerning the first human population of which crossed this maritime gate of human groups 50,000 years ago. One supposes that the men did not have any means to cross there without the terrestrial bridge previous to 50,000 years. According to the studies of the abyssal drills of the Sea of Japan that one noted several lowering of the sea level according to the marine isotopic stages (MIS): 2, 6, 10, 12, 16, 18 and 20. With regard to the marine isotopic stage 2 that correspond to the Maximum-coldness of the last glacial when the sea dropped in below 125 meters in relation to the present level. According to study of the seismic stratigraphy and according to the obtained ages of seabed sediments by the method of carbon 14 that one concluded the concerned strait remained always like a marine channel and narrow during the last glacial (Park et al., 2000). We notice the typological common points between the lithic industry of the Korean peninsula and the one of the Kyushu island during the marine isotopic stage 2 (MIS-2) which are the tanged point (flake point), the bifacial point to triangular section (point to three retouched faces), etc. However, there are some differences in the composition of tools and the fabrication technique. Regarding the cultural origin and the big human migration, we cannot prove them for now. Such situation showed that some obstacles existed between such two regions. There are no common features on the flaking technique and the typology before 50,000 years in these two regions since we do not have any affirmative overdraft.     

La technique de débitage au Paléolithique supérieur de l’archipel du Japon

The representative debitage technique is the one of the culture of knife-to-back in the name of the superior Paleolithic of Japan. She/it can be he divided in two, the one of the first half and the one of the second half. The first corresponds at the time of apparition, either to the stage of launching of the technique of debitage laminaire whose debitage didn’t provide elaborate blades being little successive. As for the stage of fortifying of the debitage laminaire, the industries lithic to knife-to-back of the Sugikubo type developed themselves in the oriental Honshû. With regard to the region of Kantô to the second half of the first where the knife-to-back of Moro type mingled equally with those while shaping on the blade. To the recent stage of development, one can note the industry lithic to knife-to-back of Moro type is based on the technical very blady in the western Japan. Succeeding in the second half of the superior Paleolithic that the technique of debitage of Sétoüchi developed itself in this part whose debitage is characterized by the strut oblong in wing, are the transverse blades These gotten supports used especially for making the knife-to-back of Koü type while spilling country-wide. To the second recent half, the technical blade of Sunagawa type took place in all regions of Japan except the inshore regions of the Interior Sea of Séto and the region of Kinki (Kyoto-Osaka).     

Le Paléolithique supérieur dans l’île d’Hokkaïdo

Since the discovery of the first Paleolithic site in Hokkaido, we consider that the time in the half more than centuries already passed, and float today. However, our research is still a way. By today, we have not discovered the trace about a Pithecantropines (Homo erectus) and a Paleanthropic man (Homo sapiens neanderthalensis) at all in this region. We know that a Neanthropic man (Homo sapiens sapiens) dominated all the continents except Antarctica in the final time of the Pleistocene era. And they passed along the dried shoal which appeared to the north in the same time from the Asian Continent to the Island of Hokkaido, and reached it to this place. The first attainment time is an age which exceeds 20,000-years before a little from the present. We are not checking a fact which exceeds it you to be much. However, the habitants of these beginnings left the trace of the activity of them in large numbers, so that he was wonderful to inside of this island. The studies-of-prehistory research in Hokkaido has little proof of the natural science field concerned on age determination or chronology. This has serious restriction. However, the tephra-chronology of volcanic ashes has played the big role uniquely. The eruption of the Eniwa volcano of the Hokkaido central part is especially a very important index. This volcano blows off ash fall (En-a) in large quantities, and covered all large ranges. This deposited volcanic-ashes layer plays a big role to discernment of an old industry and a recent industry on the cultural chronology. The obsidian from this island and nearby hard shale was used for many industries of this Upper Paleolithic cultures as main materials. Although obsidians in the island where the different four outcrops are known well. This rock was mined in large quantities, and was carried in various places. As well as many examples in the world, we divided this rock, and the human beings of the prehistoric age were demanded for it, and it was often utilized. In it, especially the outcrop of Shirataki was located in the northern part of Hokkaido, and was very important. Large quantities of obsidian from Shirataki outcrop is discovered in a large number of Paleolithic sites within a segment 700 km in diameter at least. It covered the territory in Hokkaido and circulated further also except this island. This fact circulated as important trade materials on stone-tool fabrication among the human-beings groups from whom this island's every place differed. In this time, human beings’ activity in Hokkaido is a clear proof, which was not isolated at all. As for the studies of the prehistorians of Hokkaido distinguish, the exception put the technical process of eight different microblade productions. The technical process of some of them was limited only to the specific narrow area. Or it is proved that other technical processes are widely connected with the human-beings group of the Asian Continent on the contrary. At present, our research grasps the whole second-half Paleolithic culture, and has not yet established the year system edited by locally complete. The oldest industry of this area composed the typical stone tool of second-half Paleolithic culture from the beginning, and was accompanied by the manufacturing technique of a braid and microblade. The feature is the example in which the ruins of Kashiwadai-I were most excellent. These ruins correspond at time older than deposition of the Eniwa volcano tephra. It is located at the chill time in the second half of a Würm glacial period. The second continuing step is an industry of succession newer than this volcano tephra. It is raised as an example with Ôsatsu-16 typical ruins etc. The third phase is an industry of the end term of second-half Paleolithic culture. It is simultaneously located in the dawn of Jōmon culture. The feature of this cultural aspect is a transitional cultural stage which earthenware appears and is called what is called “Sub-Neolithic-Culture”. We can check having passed expansively, while the aspect of this last continues within a short period of time relatively.     

Le Paléolithique supérieur du plateau de Musashino et les hauteurs de Tama aux alentours de Tokyo

The Upper Paleolithic at the region of Tokyo that itself called also the Japanese Preceramic age that possesses a large number of excavations and those studies during the dawn of Paleolithic study in this country. The Preceramic age or the Upper Paleolithic has been raised the curtain by the discovery of a piece in obsidian, in 1949, in the loam of Kantô, at Iwajyuku site. We explain above, on the stratigraphy, the chronology and the situation and the evolution of site around Tokyo. It is a region to the highest density of the Upper Paleolithic sites in the archipelago of Japan and the systematic excavation according to the stratigraphy of loam formation has been done for the first time in the country. The authentic chronology has been proposed to the years 60s that based on the discovered lithic industries on the plateau of Sagamino and Musashino. This chronology was used for a long time that it made a role like a norm for the whole country. Not only, after again an accumulation of the research until the present, we understand the different periodic activities between the Tama hills, the plateau of Musashino, the plateau of Sagamino, the North of Kantô district and the plateau of Simôssa. Of course, there is a complex circumstance that the apparition and the disappearance of various types of lithic instruments are different, and every type tools are not universal around Tokyo area, in the district of Kantô. The final of Upper Paleolithic on the archipelago of Japan divides extensively in two parts East-west that the East of Japan is characterized by the well-organized aspect microlithic tendency and the west is characterized by the trend of microlite, trapeze and tool on transverse blade. In such general tendency, the region of Kantô is located therefore in the center on the archipelago of Japan that it showed sets of every different time.     

Nouvelles données chronologiques,technologiques et typologiques sur le Paléolithique supérieur ancien de la Plaine roumaine du Danube : le gisement de Giurgiu-Malu Rosu

The optical luminescence dating (OSL) method has been applied to loess deposits associated with a “Late” Aurignacian industry already dated by ¹⁴C. Both dating results are in good agreement. This study demonstrates that lithic industries with some aurignacian tools are still present few thousand years before the Last Maximum Glacial in the Romanian Danube Plain.     

Nouvelles espèces de Madréporaires dans le Kimméridgien supérieur du Jura (France)

The study of an Upper Kimmeridgian madreporarianfauna collected in the southern french Jura (between Valfin and Belley), allowed: 1) to describe five Scleractinian new species: Mitrodendron biennensis nov. sp., Hexapetalum nemorosum nov. sp., Thalamocoenia gironensis nov. sp., Cryptocoenia stelliserrata nov. sp., Columnocoenia miniflora nov. sp. and a new variety of Heliocoenia (Kobycoenia) claudiopolisensisBeauv., 1964, characterized by its small calices; 2) to modify the diagnosis and the systematic position of the species Baryhelia crassa (de From.) which was created as Heterocoenia crassade From.; 3) to increase of a new species the genus Hexapetalum only known, till now, by its Stramberg Tithon type-species; and 4) to give some palaeoenvironmental conclusions = the Upper Jurassic reef formations in the Southern Jura grew in shallow water characterized by an abundant carbonate sedimentation. Genera associations and distribution confirm the presence, between Oyonnax and Belley, of a low energy area, protected by a barrier reef and, northern of this barrier, of a higher hydrodynamic environment.     

Les sépultures italiennes du Paléolithique supérieur. Inventaire et observations anthropologiques

The Upper Paleolithic burials currently known in Italy represent a rich and important group which constitutes the major part of the European sample. Among these burials, those attributed to the Gravettian are concentrated in two regions, Liguria and Puglia. Epigravettian burials were found in most parts of the peninsula and in Sicily. Grave goods are often very rich, especially in Gravettian burials. With regard to the anthropological characteristics of the buried, research has focused mainly on postcranial skeleton and on the information it can give us about weight, stature and somatic proportions. Among the Gravettians, Ligurian males reach the highest stature. The average height decreases from Gravettian to Epigravettian, as already observed in the European sample.     

Origine des différentes traditions culturelles au Paléolithique supérieur ancien en Europe Centrale

In the early phase of the Upper Palaeolithic the cultural traditions that were expressed in lithic technology, way of life, also in various elements of symbolic culture had a complex nature. They can be divided in terms of derivation, occupied territory, chronology, and – partially – the anthropological type of a given population. The traditions whose origins were local were in all likelihood related to the Neanderthals, whereas those whose origins were exogeneous were connected with Anatomically Modern Humans. In terms of technologal-stylistics in the initial phase of the Upper Palaeolithic, we can distinguish autochthonous traditions rooted in a local Levallois or Moustero-Levallois substratum, traditions developped from a local Micoquian substratum with bifacial technology, and traditions rooted in the industries with blade and bifacial technologies of the Middle Palaeolithic. These are opposed to allochtonous traditions that can be related to the migrations of Anatomically Modern Humans from the Near East.     

Un exemple de gestion des géo-ressources au Paléolithique supérieur en moyenne montagne : le Badegoulien de la grotte du Rond-du-Barry (Sinzelles,Polignac, Haute-Loire)

Rond-du-Barry cave is situated in the centre of the Cenozoïc sedimentary basin of Puy-en-Velay in a mountainous environment. It contains Middle Palaeolithic, Badegoulian, Magdalenian and more recent occupation levels. Lying between two major river corridors (the Loire to the west and the Allier to the east), this site provides a special opportunity for defining exploitation and management modalities linked to the territory occupied by the prehistoric humans who inhabited the cave and the role played by the landscape's structural elements in human behavior at the end of the Upper Pleistocene. Lithic raw material analysis of the archaeological assemblages allowed us to define the dispersal of raw materials used in the site. Such dispersal has for some time been considered to provide a reliable reflection of actual movements of human groups. Our study, based on a modified methodology incorporating the concept of a chaine évolutive for flint, focused on the lithic artifacts from Rond-du-Barry unit F2, which are attributed to the Badegoulian. The results of our study differ from those of previous studies in terms of the diversity of the raw material being used and the frequency of occurrence for each type. Our conclusion is that Badegoulian humans were not physically constrained by a familiar territory, but traveled and/or traded widely in their quest for suitable raw materials. The diversity in the lithic raw materials, gathered locally and semi-locally from different primary and secondary outcrops demonstrates this territorial range. Importation of siliceous raw material originating from the meridional edge of the Paris basin (Berry, Touraine) suggests a planned resource-use strategy for obtaining large pieces of flint, which are rare in the regional outcrops. However, unraveling the resource use strategies to this degree of intention lies beyond what can be revealed by the lithic material alone.     

Quand le renne entra au panthéon du Paléolithique supérieur ?

By means of critical analysis of style of reindeers figures calling on graphic detailed conventions and on their associations with a cattle into that species of very rigorous climate prevail over the others, such musk-beef, glutton and saïga, but also plenty of bison's, as well as horses, it appears hardly likely, to do not say impossible, that reindeers of Chauvet's cave can have aurignacian origin. That all the more as they would be all alone in this case among one hundred sixty-six taking the census of representation. Their comparison with the other reindeers of the different sites generally do not distinguish from solutrian or Magdalenian reindeers and bring together particularly with Gabillou by many stylistic concurrents. If A. Leroi-Gourhan has already established that link between horse and reindeer only appears at Magdalenian, it seems now that it is possible to extend to superior Solutrian in support of representations of our inventory, reflecting climate aggravation that takes place at this moment and promotes plenty of two species in the neighbourhood.     

Répartition stratigraphique et biozones des kystes de dinoflagellés au passage Jurassique moyen–Jurassique supérieur (Bathonien supérieur–Oxfordien inférieur) dans le Bassin de Guercif,Maroc nord-oriental

Despite the stratigraphical significance of dinoflagellate cysts as reliable markers for correlating and dating Jurassic–Cretaceous strata, investigations into this palynomorph group in the southern Tethyan Realm, specifically northwest Africa, are sparse and somewhat parochial. Most research on Jurassic dinoflagellate cysts is focussed on European depocentres in the Boreal and Sub-Boreal realms. This study is on biostratigraphical data from two petroleum boreholes (MSD1 and KDH1) drilled during 1985 in the Guercif Basin, northeast Morocco by ONAREP (Office National de Recherche et d’Exploitation Pétrolier), now ONHYM (Office National des Hydrocarbures et des Mines). These boreholes penetrated a thick siliciclastic succession, attributed to the Middle and Upper Jurassic, below Miocene marls. Over sixty dinoflagellate cyst taxa were identified. Four dinoflagellate cyst biozones, named GI to GIV, are established for the late Bathonian to early Oxfordian interval. These biozones are defined on the basis of the first appearance datum (FAD) and/or the last appearance datum (LAD) of some biomarker taxa which have wide geographical distributions. These are: Ctenidodinium combazii and Ctenidodinium sellwoodii for the GI Biozone (late Bathonian–early Callovian); Ctenidodinium continuum and Meiourogonyaulax caytonensis for the GII Biozone (middle Callovian); Gonyaulacysta centriconnata and Wanaea thysanota for the GIII Biozone (late Callovian–earliest Oxfordian); and Liesbergia liesbergensis and Systematophora penicillata for the GIV Biozone (early Oxfordian). These biozones are correlated to those already established for the respective intervals in other palaeogeographic regions, such as the Boreal, Sub-boreal and Tethyan realms.     

Existe-t-il un Paléolithique inférieur au Japon ?

All Lower Paleolithic sites discovered by Mr. Shinïchi FUJIMURA from 1981 to 2000 were falsified by himself. We wonder if Lower Paleolithic sites really exist (corresponding to a period of 30,000 years ago in Japan) in the archipelago of Japan. We examined cultures of sites likely dating to the Early Upper Paleolithic and Lower Paleolithic discovered in the archipelago of Japan. While Japan was continuous with the continent in the Mindel glaciation (400,000 years ago) or in the Riss glaciation (200,000 years ago), Homo erectus or Homo heidelbergensis with the lithic industry of the Acheulean arrived in the archipelago of Japan. Thereafter, they survived on the islands of Japan cut the continent to the Upper Paleolithic while keeping the industry.     

Des silicites dans le Paléolithique ancien et moyen du Maroc occidental

A first diachronic examination of the use of silicites by Early and Middle Palaeolithic hominins in the Moroccan Meseta is presented. An in-depth study of the origins of the different geo-materials was carried on series from five recently excavated sites in northern Meseta at Casablanca — Unit L and Grotte à Hominidés at Thomas Quarry I, Grotte des Rhinocéros and Grotte des Gazelles — and in the southern Meseta at Djebel Irhoud cave. They show that flints from the Phosphates Plateau were the most widely used, from the earliest moments of the Early Palaeolithic (at least 1.3 Ma), but their predominant use for lithic artefacts coincides here with the appearance of the MSA (around 0.35 Ma).