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Discovering the Historical Context and Culture of the People of Japan
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  • 1. Along the Paleolithic Path
    • A love affair with rock
      • In the news: Upper Paleolithic humans “mined” stone from Mount Takaharayama to produce trapezoid and other stone tools 35,000 years ago
      • Stone tool inventory
        • Types of Chipped Stone Artifacts
          • Stone Age News: Early humans in Japan produced stone tools
            • Did Japan’s palaeolithic era begin earlier than thought?
            • Ruins of possibly Japan’s oldest settlement on Tanegashima Island show nut-gathering culture began very early
            • Suggested field trip: Visit Jomon obsidian island – Kozushima Island
            • The puzzle of tracing the origin of the world’s earliest polished stone tools
              • Microblade techniques diffused quickly throughout Northeast Asia during the post-glacial period
                • Microblade industries emerged earliest on Hokkaido in the north …
    • How to choose a stone age home
    • Kambayashi iseki: What a Paleolithic campsite looked like
    • NHK Science News Watch: The oldest ever found lacquer tree in Japan
    • Origins of the Palaeolithic people of Japan
      • 2011年在e news: 24,000-year-old human bone fragment in a cave on Ishigaki island in Okinawa Prefecture
      • A 2012 paper on the Paleolithic contingent in modern Japanese
      • kaiyun开云体育app下载
        • 研究人员解释的起源和开云体育官网最新版下载distribution of mtDNA haplogroup C1
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      • Scientists face obstacles in giving an accurate account of the earliest arrivals in the Japanese archipelago — where, when and how
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      • The voyage(s) to and the early settlement of the Ryukyu islands
    • Resource: On dispersal of humans and stone tools of Paleolithic Asia
    • Palaeolithic Art in Japan
      • In the news: Oldest artifact (24,000-year-old) with human image made out of shale unearthed in Kagoshima
    • Large animals rule until 12,000 years ago
      • Recommended field trip to Lake Nojiri in Nagano
        • In the news: Lake Nojiri is still a popular place for fossil elephant digs today
    • Was the New World colonized by the prehistoric people of Japan?
      • Ancestors of Ainu people migrated across Beringia carrying HTLV-I virus (subtype A) to the American continent in the Paleolithic era
      • Evidence of a Recent Common Ancestry between Native Americans and Indigenous (Siberian-) Altaians … and Japan
        • JC virus type 2A of Japanese found in Navaho, shows ancestors from Northeast Asia arrived via Beringia earlier than thought
      • In the news: DNA tests show Sican culture in Peru genetically linked to Ainu people, along with populations of Siberia and Taiwan
      • New evidence suggests that the first Americans arrived in at least three waves.
      • Were the Ainu C3 lineages descended from migrants from South America?
    • What went onto Paleolithic plates (what foods they ate)
  • 2. Amazing Jomon Japan
    • Faces of dogu figurines
      • Kassaka Tattooed Faces of the Jomon
      • What the tattooed faces of the Jomon looked like
    • New analysis suggests that Himalayans share northeast Asian common ancestor and origins with ancient Jomon
    • Out of Africa to East Asia: Gleaning the genetic tale of origins and migration from our mitochondria
      • Origins of the Jomon, Jomon connections with the continent and with today’s Japanese
        • Anthropological Science Overview of genetic variation in Y chromosome of Japanese males
        • First-time ever DNA study: haplogroup N9b marker shows continuity from Jomon to Emishi people of Tohoku
          • Affinity between Hoabinhian and Ikawazu remains fuels debate over Jomon origins
        • GM markers based on immunoglobin G show all Japanese populations have strongest affinities with northern Mongoloid population groups
        • In the news: Riken study — 2 genetic types of Japanese exist
        • Jomon mtDNA affinity to maritime tribes of the Northeast Asian coast
        • Life expectancy of Jomon at age 15 was 32.3 years, and possibly as high as ∼35.3 years
        • mtDNA haplogroup M9a1a1 found to have dispersed from southern China/SEA to northern China, Korea and Japan
        • Presence of D1 haplogroup (mtDNA) is direct evidence of genetic affinity between the northern Jomon and Native American populations
        • Revisiting ancestral Y chromosome haplogroups DE-YAP+ and D lineages
          • Ancient corridors via Tharus (Nepal) for migrations from East Asia
        • Who are the Ainu people?
          • Ainu architecture: The “chise”
          • Ainu populations share genetic affinities with Nivkhi and other peoples from North Asia including Sakhalin.
          • Ainu’s affinity to northeast Asian Ul’chis (Orochis) – prehistoric Paleo-Siberian neighbours and cousins of the Ainu and Jomon people
          • Disease and virus markers are useful to show co-migration and population structure
          • DNA news: Migrants from Northeast Siberia move into the Okhotsk and into Hokkaido
            • Evidence of entry of new tribes from lower Amur region bearing G, Y, Z
          • Genetic origins of the Ainu inferred from combined DNA analyses of maternal and paternal lineages.
          • In the news: Ainu produce film to tell the story of Tokyo Ainu communities
            • Recommended readings on Ainu people
          • New research establishes that native Okinawans and Hokkaido’s Ainu share genetic characteristics that pre-date Yayoi arrivals
            • Shared three-locus HLA allele show common North Asian affinity between Japanese and Aleuts, North and Meso-Americans
          • Notes and bibliography: The unresolved engima of the northern or southern origins of the Jomon people
          • Resources on Ainu DNA
          • Who are the Okhotsk people?
            • Barley dispersal patterns mirror settlement of a 6th c. “forgotten culture” from the north
            • Who are the Emishi of Tohoku?
        • Yomiuri Shimbun reports: Earwax map may show the early distributions and origins of Jomon and Yayoi populations
          • Inferences from studies on earwax types, human geography, past migrations patterns and human adaptations
    • Ways of the Jomon World
      • A-hunting we will go!
        • The hunter-gather’s tool kit
      • Akita dog, one of the earliest breeds to be domesticated
        • Origins of matagi hunters and their hunting dogs
        • The origin of dog domestication and dog breeds of Japan
      • Gone fishing!
        • Fishing techniques of the Jomon people may have diffused from fishermen of the Wallacea-Spice Islander / Sundaland-Sahul region
        • In the news: Ancient weirs found at Jomon-period site
        • In the news: Bones unearthed near Okinoshima show that dolphins were being fished for about 1,000 years in the early Jomon period between about 6,500 B.C. and 7,500 B.C off Tateyama coast of Chiba prefecture
      • Jomon crafts and what they were for
        • Cave art by the Epi-Jomon people
        • Jomon Dogu: The Mystery of the Broken Clay Dolls
          • Challenge & activity: An exercise in comparing Venus Figurines
          • In the news: 13,000 year old female figurine, one of the oldest in Japan, uncovered from the Aidanikumahara site in Higashiomi, Shiga Prefecture
          • Mystery of the Fat Venus
          • The multiple interpretations of the meaning of female figurines
            • In the news: Dogu exhibits at the British Museum
          • What can the dogu tell us?
        • Jomon pottery… why archaeologists go potty over them
          • Jomon cuisine: What went into the Jomon pots?
            • In the news: Jomon women may also have suffered from sweet tooth
          • Types of pottery and how to make a Jomon pot
          • What maize weevil impressions from ancient Jomon pots reveal
        • Origins of ‘dragon blood’ or cinnabar use in Japan and the possible origin of the mining technology
      • Ritual use of phallic objects or stones alongside of female figurines increased during the Middle Jomon period
      • Take this hunter-gatherer quiz: Will you survive the wilds in prehistoric Japan?
      • The Jomon diet
        • During what season did the Jomon gather shellfish?
        • Oldest maize weevils discovered in Jomon potteries, but researchers say they are not related to cultivated rice
        • The Jomon Seasonal Calendar
        • The largest soybeans in East Asia appear to have emerged earliest in Jomon Japan
        • Did the Jomon people do any farming?
          • Jomon arboriculture – early domesticated peach
          • Jomon millet cultivation and North Chinese Cishan site pinpointed as location of origin of domesticated millet
          • Soybean find suggests 5,000 year cultivation and new research paper suggests it may have been locally domesticated
        • 以THIS HUNTER-GATHERER QUIZ: WOULD YOU HAVE SURVIVED DURING JOMON DAYS?
      • The Jomon Hearth and Home
      • The Jomon world of ceremony and ritual
        • Face-tattooing, dental ablation and other body scarification and modification practices from the South
        • Magic mushrooms used ritually during Jomon times
        • Mortuary Practices for Children in prehistoric Japan
        • 音乐和乐器的绳纹人疯了e
          • Origins of the Jew’s Harp
        • Pottery masks of the Prehistoric Beifudi site in Yixian County, Hebei Province
        • Ritual tooth ablation: Why did prehistoric people pull perfectly healthy teeth?
      • Travel Jomon-style
        • Transoceanic contact between Ecuador, East Asia, and the migration of people bearing C3 genes
      • Views on the Jomon village
        • Role of a Shaman
        • Were people treated the same or as equals in the Jomon society?
        • Storage and Sedentism
      • What happened when a Jomon villager died?
      • Jomon architecture
        • In the news: A 3.8 m-piece of building timber (oldest ever found in Japan), has been unearthed in an archaeological layer dating from the Jomon Period
        • In the news: Discovery that mortise and tennon joint construction technique was used by Jomon people 4,000 years ago
      • Boom of the barter trade
        • Prehistoric Aichi shell mound and furnaces suggest organized clam processing site and possible regional trade of dried boiled clams
      • Did the Jomon have a calendar?
        • In the news: The Terano Higashi site in Tochigi Prefecture is an astronomical site
        • Secrets of the Stone Circles
          • 他们是怎么运输大石块和沉重的伴侣吗rials for building their megaliths and large timbers for building structures?
          • In the news: Oshoro Circle, Hokkaido
          • The Takizawa stone circle in Gunma’s Shibukawa city is ten thousand years old
      • The all-natural Jomon toilet
      • Did the Jomon people keep any pets?
        • 2011 study: Dogs were first domesticated in the southern part of East Asia (South of Yangtze River)
        • Dogs were first domesticated in the Middle East 15,000 years ago, says new study
          • A new research study finds that DNA of all the so-called modern breeds had been so mixed that their deep genetic history was obscured but that the (Japanese) Akita dog breed is among the 6 basal ancient breeds
      • Fashion: clothing and jewellery of Jomon times
        • In the news: Earliest looms in Japan found in Late Jomon site (4th -3rd c.BC) in Kyushu
          • Jomon people wore clothes made from cannabis sativa fibres and used the fibres for bow strings and fishing lines
      • Did the Jomon people go to war?
      • Field Trip! Experience life as a Jomon hunter-gatherer.
    • 气候和环境是什么样子的?
    • Jomon Cultural Milestones: Ten thousand years is a long time
    • The Mystery at YONAGUNI: Is there a 10,000 year old pyramid and city underwater at Yonaguni?
      • Do Japanese Petroglyphs reveal prehistoric connections with the ancient Sumerian-Akkadian-Elamite or Phoenician civilizations?
      • In the news: Yonaguni Monument — natural wonder, or man-made mystery?
  • 3. The Yayoi Years
    • Origins of the Yayoi people
      • A 2007 study found that most Japanese to belong to three major Y-DNA clades, C, D, or O.
      • aDNA from Doigahama site closest to 2,500 year-old remains in Linzi, China
      • Dead men tell no tales … what were the Yayoi people like?
      • Finding on dialects casts new light on the origins of the Japanese People
      • In the news: DNA shows origin of most Japanese linked to migrants from mainland
      • In the news: Genetic differences found between mainland and Okinawan Japanese
        • Mark J. Hudson on the Austronesian expansions to the southern Ryukyu
        • The Legend of Sanai-Isoba of Yonaguni Island
      • Journey of the East Asian lineage of y-chromosome O3a3c-bearing men into Japan
      • Making sense of DNA data and the origins of the Japanese
        • 2020 new data: Genetic and phenotypic landscapes of mtDNA in the Japanese population
        • Analyses of virus migration markers, Denisovan and Neanderthal genes in modern Asians suggest more complex migration routes than southern (coastal) dispersal route to Oceania model
        • C2 haplogroup (yDNA) and presence of Diego blood group confirm recent branching of Mongolian group from northern China, Korea and Japan
        • Japanese population history at a glance from mtDNA data
        • Two OCA2 polymorphisms may have brought lighter skin colour changes from East Asian populations into Yayoi Japan
      • Tracing the origins and migratory paths of East Asians, their founding fathers and their Y chromosome haplotypes
      • Yayoi linked to Yangtze area: DNA tests reveal similarities to early wet-rice farmers
    • Advent of Agriculture and the Rice Revolution
      • Irrigated rice culture appeared in 930 BCE in northern Kyushu
        • In the news: Accelerator mass spectrometry dating gives early dates for rice found in ten primitive Yayoi-style pots – 780 to 830 B.C.
        • Shandong/Liaoning expansion hypothesis: Paper examines linguistic and archaeological evidence for the spread of rice agriculture from Shandong/Liaoning to Korea and Japan
      • Queen Himiko and the mystery of Yamatai-koku
        • Etymology of ‘Wa’, ‘Yamatai’ and ‘Nippon’
        • In the news: Excavations of Makimuku ruins in Nara expected to reveal much about nation’s first true city and Himiko’s Yamatai
          • In the news: Makimuku ruins in Nara to be excavated
        • In the news: Shamanic-magician rulers likely conjured up magical displays with bronze mirrors
        • The Yamatai Puzzle: Where were Himiko’s headquarters?
          • Could the Hashihaka burial mound in Sakurai, Nara be Queen Himiko’s?
            • In the news: Tomb of legendary Japanese Queen Himiko found
          • In the news: Hashihaka tomb may be Queen Himiko’s
            • In the news: Hokenoyama tomb in Nara – Queen Himiko’s tomb?
          • Japan Times: Dig in Nara, not Kyushu, yields palatial ruins possibly of Himiko
          • Researchers Investigate Hashihaka Ancient Tomb
      • Wet-rice farming marker HLA B46 haplotype found in Korea and Japan is of SEA origin
      • Every pot tells a story
        • In the news: Gourd-shaped jug turns up in dig at Yayoi site in Kitakyushu
          • Yayoi clay figurine head excavated from Kambara ruins of Soja city in Okayama prefecture
      • Life in a Wet Rice Farming Village
        • A 2014 paper throws light on the origins of rice agriculture in Japan and Korea
          • The middle area of the Pearl River in southern China pinpointed as the place where oryza sativa japonica rice was domesticated
        • Earliest geta footwear excavated from ancient paddy fields, have likely origin in South China
        • Earliest origins of rice: South Korea vs. China? China vs. India?
          • 10,000 year old rice from Shangshan remains, China
          • ADH1B*47His allele map’s distribution and frequency reveals origin and path of expansion of rice domestication from South China’s Zhejiang center to Japan
            • Using ALDH2 genotype to trace Yayoi ancestry
          • In the news: DNA ‘map’ shows mother of all cultivated rice came from China’s Pearl River
          • In the news: Earliest known cultivated rice fields discovered in Zhejiang province, China date to 7,700 years bp
          • The Early Rice Project seeks to clarify the origins of Asian rice agriculture
        • Field trip: Views of the Otsu, a fortified village of the Yayoi Period
        • Growth and prosperity of a prehistoric village: Yoshinogari
          • Origins of the Yoshinogari people and culture
            • Oldest hair ever found in Japan came from an ancient tomb in Yoshinogari
          • Ties to China unearthed from Yoshinogari ruins
        • In the news: Archaeologists discover 2,500-year-old uncarbonized rice at the Akitsu site, Goze
        • Organizing gods, parishes and parishioners: Ujigami, chinjugami and ubusugami
        • The origin of the Japonic language, its connection with the Liaoning dagger culture and/or dispersal of rice agriculture
        • War!!! Fortified fiefdoms and moat-making activity
          • Stone daggers and stemmed arrowheads found in Early Yayoi period wooden coffins
        • Yayoi architectural styles
          • In the news: Rare remains of two mid-2nd century pit dwellings decorated with square clay tiles excavated from Ise site, in Moriyama, Shiga Prefecture
          • The Karako-Kagi site
      • When Japan entered the Iron & Bronze Age
        • Treasure finds: Bronze bells and magical mirrors
          • In the news: Ancient mirrors unearthed in Fukui
          • Lead in Yayoi bronze mirrors found to be from China, not Korea
        • Who were the originating source populations of Bronze Age Eurasians?
        • Iron implements and agricultural tools
          • Early iron in Japan
          • In the news: Yangtze River’s oldest iron foundary (7th-3rd c. BC) found
            • Iron smelting technology in China likely diffused from Scythian nomads in Central Asia around 8th century B.C.
            • Source of iron and bronze technology on the continent
              • Earliest source of Korean ironworking technology may have been Russian (Jankowski Culture)
              • Retracing the path of East Asian metallurgy
    • Lifestyle and Society of the land of Wa
      • Days of mourning and ways of burying
        • Field trip – visit a megalithic dolmen site
        • Field Trip: Ikegami-Sone ruins and Osaka Prefectural Museum of Yayoi Culture
        • 新闻:礼仪面具中发现ruin’s warrior artefacts in Sakurai City, Nara
        • In the news: Discovery of one of the largest Yayoi burial mounds in Hiyoshigaoka Ruins in the town of Kaya, Kyoto dating to Yayoi period
          • Yayoi people used Chinese sources of vermilion
        • In the news: Mid-Yayoi (2nd century) stone burial mound uncovered at the Narishige site in Shirotori, Kagawa
        • Why were some of the Yayoi coffins boat-shaped?
      • Domestic cats were pets of the nobles in the 3rd century AD
      • Entering the realm of rice, ritual and religion
        • Magic, superstitions, religious rituals of the Yayoi culture
          • Bibliography: Reading sources for a comparative look at shamanism in North and East Asia
          • Early mountain sun worship rites were practised on Mt Mitake
            • Field trip: Following the trail of Mt Mitake’s mountain pilgrims
          • Restored Yayoi shrine opened to public
          • Study of Yayoi-period stone rods shows continuity of Jomon lineage in their morphology suggesting a Jomon-Yayoi transition that saw very rapid fusion and co-existence of two different Jomon and Yayoi groups
          • Yayoi clay figurine head excavated from Kambara ruins of Soja city in Okayama prefecture
      • In the news: Carp farming during the Yayoi Period
      • Trade and Tribal Wealth and Status
      • Continental connections and international relations
        • Hg 02b and O2b1: Proto-Korean and Yayoi population’s affinity to and origins in Altaic-Tungus populations
          • The hunt for the cradle of O2, O2b and O3 populations
            • The early branching off of 02 and 03 East Asian (y-chromosome) haplogroups into Japanese lineages (O2b, O3, O3a1c, O3a2c)
              • Study of Taojiazhai remains reveals central Asian origins of O3 in the Di-Qiang populations
          • Xianbei tribes contributed arms and armour technology to Korean-Sillan lineages (Xiongnu contributed to Korean Kim lineages) and influenced Kofun Japan
        • In the news: Advances in chemical analyses helped show Southeast Asian and Indian origins of ancient glass beads
        • In the news: Chinese writing was first introduced during Yayoi period
          • Finding on Dialects Casts New Light on the Origins of the Japanese People
        • In the news: More recent finds of Lelang pottery finds on Honshu from the Yayoi Period prove Chinese sphere of influence included proto-historic and ancient Japan
        • Korean footprints in Japan
          • Who are the Koreans – Japan’s genetic cousins who settled Yayoi~Kofun Bronze-Iron Age Japan
        • Migrants of the Yayoi period brought the ALDH2 mutation and CY genotype JCVirus to Japan
        • Revisiting the peopling of Japan: an admixture perspective
          • Did Austronesians contribute any genes to the Japanese archipelago?
        • Study of vermillion found in 1st- and 2nd- century burials proves Yayoi people traded with China
        • The Tree of Life and worldview of the Amur Mohe Buyeo Sushen (Tungusic people)
  • 4. Towering tumuli of the Kofun era
    • 3rd century: Powerful priest kings of Yamato and sacred Mt Miwa
      • 3rd through 5th century: Sacred-Secular Dual Kingship model of society seen from examinations of Kofun Period tombs
        • Kofun period mirror-sword-jewel relics of Shimane
      • In the news: Mid-3rd century safflower pollen from Nara’s Makimuku ruins evidence of trade or diplomatic activities with China
      • King of the Kibi and other Okayama Kofun burial mounds surveyed using information software systems
      • Sacred mountain orientations and beliefs of proto-historic Japan – the Tibetan connection?
      • The revolution of rites
        • The evolution of new rituals and religions
          • 2016 study: A trans-Eurasian steppe exchange network promoted cannabis usage across Eurasia
          • In the news: Makimuku ruins in Nara to be excavated
          • The shrine, heart and soul of the community and land
    • 4th century: The Legend of Prince Yamatotakeru: the path he took and Yamato’s expansion
      • 4th c. saw emergence of ruling elite and centralizing statehood only in the 5th c., while chiefdoms of the Early Kofun period formed political alliances – Gina Barnes
        • In the news: Yamato kingdom traces found in Niigata Prefecture
      • In the news: Discovery of 4th century Sueki ceramics at Uji, Kyoto
    • 5th century: The rise of royal estates
      • Book “Ancient Japan Archaeology for State Formative Processes” suggests early nation state was already formed in Japan in the latter half of the 5th century, which developed and evolved into the Ritsuryo nation, much earlier than the widely believed 7th century
      • In the news: Ancient horse trappings dug up at burial mound
        • When did horses arrive in Japan? When were they domesticated?
          • Horse-riding warriors: they came, they saw and they conquered … or did they?
            • In the news: Ancient helmet found in Gunma Pref.
            • Proto-Mongolic and Mongol genetics and relationship of steppe nomads to East Asia
          • In the news: Horses were domesticated 5,500 years ago on the steppes of Central Asia
            • In the news: The emergence of the horse chariot and the horse cult in the Caucasus and in China
            • Naveed Khan: The genomic origins of modern horses revealed by ancient DNA: from early domestication to modern breeding
          • In the news: Kofun people raised horses on pastureland in the 6th c. …eleven hundred years earlier than the Europeans did
            • In the news: Excavations turn up Japan’s oldest pasture land dating back to the Kofun period
              • In the news: Lasers used to map giant burial mounds in 3-D
          • Treasures (horse, sumo and boat haniwa) artifacts excavated from Izumo Taisha shrine
      • In the news: Excavations at the Motodaka Yumi no Ki Iseki reveal Kofun period iron tools and engineering and irrigation-works