Excavation in the Kanmuri Site Group, Yoshiwa Village and Saiki Town, Hiroshima Prefecture

Abstract

This preliminary report summarizes the main results of an excavation in the Kanmuri site group of
Yoshiwa Village and Saiki Town, Hiroshima Prefecture, in southwestern Japan, dating from about 30, 000 to 6, 000 years before the present (from the early part of the Late Paleolithic to the Early Jomon era). This site group consists of many stone tool production sites, located in an andesite producing region.
The staff of the Hiroshima Prefectural Board of Education has carried out excavations in this site group from 1991 (although the Archaeological Investigation Center of Hiroshima Prefecture has been entrusted with the work of excavation since 1992, and is carrying out the project in joint fashion). The purpose of the project is to gain more knowledge about this site group, and to devise a plan for protecting it from destruction due to development.
Our excavation in 1998 identified a location where raw materials were obtained for lithic artifacts, and where stone tool production was conducted, at a time which can be dated to about 30, 000 B. P (at the start of the Late Paleolithic). At this site, approximately 2, 500 stone artifacts including trapezoids, were found under the Aira-Tanzawa volcanic ash layer, attributed to an eruption in Kyushu around 23, 000-24, 000 B. P. The ground surface at the time when the tools were deposited is thought to have been dotted with large outcrops of andesite boulders, up to one meter on a side. Materials thought to have come from one of these, which was pulled up to the surface for utilization, were refitted to form a block approximately 80 cm long and equally wide, and 60 cm thick, with a weight of 108 kg.
Through this excavation, a precise locality where material for stone tools was quarried was determined for the first time for this site group. It may be expected that as a result, techniques of obtaining material for stone tools in the Late Paleolithic, and the content of work conducted at such locations, will become clearer. Also, in addition to places where stone tools were made and materials for them obtained, it is believed that other localities exist within this site group where curated tools were retouched and other types of implements made, and where the emphasis was more on the daily routines of eating and sleeping, and that these will provide materials for a better understanding of quarry sites in the future.