Dating of the Hamakita human remains from Japan

Abstract

Human and non-human remains recovered in the early 1960s from the Negata site at Hamakita, central Japan were dated by radiocarbon accelerator mass spectrometry. These results and revised fluorine dating yielded consistent dates of about 14.0 ¹⁴C ka BP for the Hamakita Upper Layer human bones, and the most probable age estimate of around 17.9 ¹⁴C ka BP for the Hamakita Lower Layer human bone. These dates confirm the provisional assignment of the Hamakita hominids to the late Pleistocene and make them the first securely dated specimens in the inventory of the ‘Palaeolithic hominid’ fossils of Honshu island (mainland Japan) that predate the Mesolithic–Neolithic Jomon period.