Early settlement of Japan and obsidian seafaring to Kozushima
- Date
- c. 38,000 years ago
- Category
- Exploration & colonisation
- Region
- Japanese archipelago
- Era
- Prehistory
- Significance
Modern humans reached the Japanese archipelago by around 38,000 years ago, most likely entering Kyushu via the Korean Peninsula and the Tsushima Strait, with further routes into the Ryukyu Islands and across to Honshu.
The Japanese Palaeolithic record is notable for some of the world's earliest evidence of deliberate sea voyaging: obsidian quarried on the island of Kozushima, part of the Izu chain, was being carried to mainland Honshu by about 38,000 years ago. Because Kozushima remained separated from the mainland by 30 to 40 kilometres of open sea even during glacial low-stands, obtaining its prized volcanic glass required repeated open-water crossings and return voyages. Other early sites, such as those around Lake Nojiri, preserve evidence of big-game hunting between roughly 33,000 and 39,000 years ago. Together these finds show that the first inhabitants of Japan possessed maritime skills and long-distance exchange networks, laying foundations for the later, celebrated Jōmon culture.
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Essential reading
- The Pleistocene-Holocene boundary and the start of the Holocenec. 11,700 years ago (c. 9700 BCE)
- Behavioural modernity and major Out-of-Africa dispersalc. 70,000 to 50,000 years ago
- Monumental urbanism at Caral and the Norte Chico civilisationc. 2600 BCE
- Standardised Binary Weights System of the Indusc. 2600 BCE
Further reading
The wider story
China: A History
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