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 30–40 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.

Related exploration & colonisation events

• Dmanisi: the earliest well-dated humans in Eurasia
  c. 1.8 million years ago
• Pre-Clovis America: Monte Verde and the Pacific coastal route
  c. 16,000–14,500 years ago
• Settlement of Sahul: human occupation of Australia at Madjedbebe
  c. 65,000 years ago
• White Sands footprints: humans in the Americas during the Last Glacial Maximum
  c. 23,000–21,000 years ago
• Earliest human occupation of the high-altitude Tibetan Plateau
  c. 40,000 – 30,000 years ago
• Earliest humans reach Asia: stone tools at Shangchen, China
  c. 2.1 million years ago

Further reading

China: A History

The wider story

China: A History

John Keay

Sweeping, readable single-volume narrative of China from its beginnings to today.

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