200,000-year History of Important Climate Events Experienced by Ancestors of the Most of Modern Japanese

Abstract

 Biologically, human beings are termed Homo sapiens. The first was born in Africa about 200,000 years ago. Some groups migrated from there about 60,000 years ago under a humid climate. The first ancestors of the modern Japanese arrived in the Japanese archipelago about 37,500 years ago. The ancestors of the most of modern Japanese experienced 10 innovative events: (1) First immigration of Homo sapiens to Japan during the Paleolithic period, (2) Invention of the world's oldest pottery and stone arrowheads (16,500 years ago, start of the Jomon period), (3) Human migration in Hokakido associated with the 8.2 ka event, (4) Beginning of Sannai Maruyama site, (5) Its collapse following an event at 4.2 ka, (6) Beginning of Yayoi period, (7) Transition from Yayoi period to Kofun period, (8) Beginning of aristocratic culture, (9) Transition from Imperial court to Feudal society, (10) Transition from Feudal to Modern society. These innovative transitions basically occurred under severe cold climates. (1) and (2) occurred during the cold Dansgaard-Oeschger and Heinrich events, respectively. (3) and (5) corresponded to global cooling events at the early/middle and middle/late boundaries of the Holocene, respectively. (4) (6) (8) (10) were related to global cold periods of the Holocene Bond events. (7) and (9) were influenced by regional cold extreme events associated with large volcanic eruptions and ENSO. Innovative events in Japan were accompanied by cold events on regional and global scales, although causality has not been clearly proven as yet.