Excavation of prehistoric huntergatherer sites in China, to shed light on population history of eastern Eurasia.

2017 Fiscal Year Final Research Report

• Project/Area Number: 25304020
• Research Category: Grant-in-Aid for Scientific Research (B)
• Allocation Type: Partial Multi-year Fund
• Section: 海外学術
• Research Field: Physical anthropology
• Research Institution: Sapporo Medical University
• Principal Investigator: Matsumura Hirofumi 札幌医科大学, 保健医療学部, 教授 (70209617)
• Co-Investigator(Kenkyū-buntansha): 篠田 謙一 独立行政法人国立科学博物館, 人類研究部, 研究調整役 (30131923) ; 山形 眞理子 岡山理科大学, 経営学部, 教授 (90409582) ; 久保田 慎二 金沢大学, 国際文化資源学研究センター, 特任助教 (00609901) ; 澤田 純明 新潟医療福祉大学, 医療技術学部, 准教授 (10374943) ; 海部 陽介 独立行政法人国立科学博物館, 人類研究部, グループ長 (20280521)
• Project Period (FY): 2013-04-01 – 2018-03-31
• Keywords: 人類学 / 考古学 / 解剖学 / ゲノム / 国際協力

Outline of Final Research Achievements

Current Eastern Eurasia have been widely occupied by Asians morphologically adapted cold climate during last glacial stage, who had hypothetically dispersed from East to Southeast Asia along with agricultural society including plant and animal domestication since Neolithic period onward. Pre-Neolithic hunter-gatherers in Yongjiang River Region, Guangxi in Southern China uniquely produced seated squatting burials, at the Huiyaotien Site and the Liyupo Site, which dated approximately 7,000 - 9,000 years BP. These skeletal morphology, speciously in cranial forms, exhibits characteristic quite distinctive from current East Asians. Cranial metric analysis demonstarted their close affinities to current Australo-Papuans and early Holocene Hoabinhian foragers in mainland Southeast Asia. These early settlers in China, as well as Neolithic Jomonese in Japan, are key population to reconstruct so-called ‘Two Layer’ model in addressing population history of Eastern Eurasia.

Free Research Field

形態人類学