Japanese Paleolithic

Japanese Paleolithic

The Japanese Paleolithic period (旧石器時代, kyūsekki jidai?) began around 50,000 to 30,000 BC, when the earliest stone tool implements have been found, and continued to around 14,000 BC, at the end of the last ice age, which corresponds to the beginning of the Mesolithic Jōmon period. The 35,000 BC date is most generally accepted: any date of human presence before 30,000–35,000 BC is controversial, with artifacts supporting a pre–35,000 BC human presence on the archipelago still being of questionable authenticity.

The earliest human bones were discovered in Hamamatsu, Shizuoka. Radiocarbon dating has shown that the fossils date back to around 14,000 - 18,000 years ago.