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Kanetori stone tools oldest in Japan

Posted on: Sunday, 6 July 2003, 06:00 CDT

TOKYO, July 7 (Kyodo) -- Archaeologists postulate the predecessors to modern humans may have lived in Japan 80,000 to 90,000 years ago after confirming that stone tools unearthed at the Kanetori site in Iwate Prefecture date back to that period, making them the oldest in Japan, preliminary findings of a Japanese Archaeological Association probe showed Sunday.

Following a scandal revealed in November 2000 in which an amateur archaeologist fabricated key finds in Japan, the earliest era in which humans are believed to have lived in Japan is now thought to date back 40,000 years, not 700,000 years.

Doshisha University professor Kazuto Matsufuji, who led the probe, said of the findings, ''This is not a final report but a result of preliminary analysis. We are still conducting research and hope to make a report at an academic meeting when we reach a conclusion.''

Research at the Kanetori site, in Miyamori village, was conducted in 1984 and stone tools were found from four layers of different ages. Nine stone items, including what is believed to be an ax and a scraper, were unearthed from the oldest layer.

The second-oldest layer, from which 31 stone tools were found, is considered over 40,000 years old.

As part of its post-scandal review of all sites of the early and middle Paleolithic period, which ended around 30,000 years ago, the association has inspected the Kanetori site three times and asked natural scientists to determine the age of the oldest layer.

The Paleolithic Era is a cultural era of prehistoric humankind characterized by the use of stone tools and weapons.

The layer was found comprised of volcanic ash dating back some 80,000 to 90,000 years from Mt. Aso, in the middle of Kyushu in southwestern Japan, which reached Hokkaido in the north, archeologists involved in the probe said.

The latest research suggests archaic humans, who are thought to have originated in Africa, reached Japan, the archaeologists said.

Those people may have reached Japan some 130,000 to 180,000 years ago during the Ice Age, as there is no evidence suggesting that humans crossed the seas some 80,000 to 90,000 years ago, according to other experts.

The site is expected to be key in the study of links between Japanese and Asian stone age cultures, as stone tools found there are similar in shape to those found in Asian sites of similar age, they said.

As for the scandal, an association task force in May discredited 162 sites in nine prefectures that date back to the early and middle Paleolithic period as it found disgraced archaeologist Shinichi Fujimura fabricated finds there.

Fujimura, a former deputy director of the Tohoku Paleolithic Institute, was previously regarded a star amateur archaeologist.

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