TY - JOUR
T1 - Evidence for the use of the bow-and-arrow technology by the first modern humans in the Japanese islands
AU - Sano, Katsuhiro
N1 - Funding Information:
This paper profited from the previous works by Yoshitaka Kanomata, for which I am grateful. I would like to thank Gen Suwa and Kaoru Akoshima for their support. Special thanks are due to Masayoshi Oba, Takayuki Omori, Kazuhiko Kanda, Hyewon Hong, Siyi Zhang, Ryosuke Kumagai, and Kohich Hiromatsu for their help with the projectile experiments and analyses. I thank the anonymous reviewers for their comments on the submitted manuscript. This project was supported by the Japan Society for the Promotion of Science (Kakenhi grant numbers 22820005 , 24720359 , and 15H05384 ).
Publisher Copyright:
© 2016
PY - 2016/12/1
Y1 - 2016/12/1
N2 - Manufacturing bow-and-arrow is an intricate procedure requiring multistage planning. Because of the high complexity of this innovation, the distribution of bow-and-arrow technology reflects a dispersal of human groups that possessed the technology rather than multiple independent origins. Although indirect evidence for bow-and-arrow technology prior to 60 ka has been recovered from Middle Stone Age levels at Sibudu Cave, South Africa, additional evidence from marine isotope stage (MIS) 4 and early MIS 3 in both Africa and Eurasia is absent. Because bow-and-arrow technology possessed significant advantages, it is crucial to determine whether the first modern humans to move out of Africa were equipped with this technology. The first modern human groups that migrated into the Japanese islands adapted to the forest-rich environment and produced edge-ground axes and small-sized trapezoids that are assumed to be transversely hafted arrowheads. The delivery modes of early Upper Palaeolithic trapezoids from the Tohoku region in Japan were examined on the basis of proxies from projectile experiments and morphometric analysis. The results of both macrofracture and morphometric analyses suggest that the early Upper Palaeolithic (EUP) trapezoids were definitely delivered mechanically and some were probably used as arrowheads.
AB - Manufacturing bow-and-arrow is an intricate procedure requiring multistage planning. Because of the high complexity of this innovation, the distribution of bow-and-arrow technology reflects a dispersal of human groups that possessed the technology rather than multiple independent origins. Although indirect evidence for bow-and-arrow technology prior to 60 ka has been recovered from Middle Stone Age levels at Sibudu Cave, South Africa, additional evidence from marine isotope stage (MIS) 4 and early MIS 3 in both Africa and Eurasia is absent. Because bow-and-arrow technology possessed significant advantages, it is crucial to determine whether the first modern humans to move out of Africa were equipped with this technology. The first modern human groups that migrated into the Japanese islands adapted to the forest-rich environment and produced edge-ground axes and small-sized trapezoids that are assumed to be transversely hafted arrowheads. The delivery modes of early Upper Palaeolithic trapezoids from the Tohoku region in Japan were examined on the basis of proxies from projectile experiments and morphometric analysis. The results of both macrofracture and morphometric analyses suggest that the early Upper Palaeolithic (EUP) trapezoids were definitely delivered mechanically and some were probably used as arrowheads.
KW - Bow-and-arrow technology
KW - Early upper Palaeolithic
KW - Japan
KW - Mechanically delivered armatures
KW - Trapezoids
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U2 - 10.1016/j.jasrep.2016.09.007
DO - 10.1016/j.jasrep.2016.09.007
M3 - Article
AN - SCOPUS:84988849476
VL - 10
SP - 130
EP - 141
JO - Journal of Archaeological Science: Reports
JF - Journal of Archaeological Science: Reports
SN - 2352-409X
ER -