| Budget Amount *help |
¥2,500,000 (Direct Cost: ¥2,500,000)
Fiscal Year 2006: ¥900,000 (Direct Cost: ¥900,000)
Fiscal Year 2005: ¥1,600,000 (Direct Cost: ¥1,600,000)
|
|---|
| Research Abstract |
The chronological record of the woolly mammoth (Mammuthus primigenius) in Japan is reevaluated, on the basis of new and previously published and radiocarbon dates obtained from nine of the 12 known specimens. The dates range from ca. 45,000 RCYBP to 16,000 RCYBP. Palaeoloxodon naumanni from eastern Hokkaido gave a radiocarbon date of ca. 30,000 RCYBP.
Pollen analysis results in Hokkaido showed that a huge variety of grass plants developed under cold/dry climatic conditions during inhabited by woolly mammoth that migrated to Hokkaido from the Russian Far East via Sakhalin. Meanwhile, ca. 30 was a slightly climate amelioration, referred to as MIS 3. During this period, the vegetation of the Hokkaido was dominated by deciduous broadleaf trees with boreal conifers.
Our investigations using tephra and AMS 14C dates from Paleolithic sites have provided a reliable geochronological framework in Hokkaido. A microblade industry, blade industries are assigned to a chronometric unit between Spfa-a (ca. 45,000-40,000 CALYBP) and En-a(ca. 21,000-19,000 CALYBP), while various microblade industries sites postdate En-a.
It appears that microblade, blade, and flake industries around 22,000-20,000 RCYBP were associated with cold environments, represented by open forest taiga with grassy plains inhabited by woolly mammoth. In contrast, small flake industries (>24,000-27,000 RCYBP and perhaps >30,000 RCYBP in Honshu) were related to warm or cool environments consisting of deciduous broadleaf forests as suggested by the P naumanni remains from Honshu. Thus it tentatively appears that changes in lithic industries related to climate environmental fluctuation after ca. 30,000 RCYBP.
|
