During the field season of 1956-57 the Tokyo University Iraq-Iran Archaeological Expedition performed an excavation at a Neolithic site in Northern Iraq. Before and after the excavation all members made their best effort to collect samples, photographs, measurements, literature, and so forth pertaining to their own special interests in several countries of western Asia. I tried to get some information on Palaeolithic studies of western Asia made in both field and laboratory. After the first discovery of the Galilee skull, the Sukhul and Tabun skulls were excavated at the cave-deposits of Mount Carmel. Recently the Hotu man was excavated from the cave-deposits near the southeastern corner of the Caspian Sea. Besides these Palaeolithic or Mesolithic human remains, numerous stone implements have been unearthed by foreign students from many Palaeolithic sites. However with the exception of a few of these sites, which were given preliminary study, most of them were left to be studied in the future. These sites are as follows:
IRAN 1) Bistun cave; 2) Tamtama cave near Rezaiyeh; 3) Khunik rock shelter; 4) Belt and 5) Hotu caves near Behshahr; 6) Khurrumabad; 7) near Persepolis; 8) Lake Maharlu near Shiraz
IRAQ 1) Mukaimin al-Walaj; 2) Haditha; 3) Jebel Sinjar; 4) Al Qosh; 5) Jebel Baradost; 6) Hazar Merd and 7) Zarzi near Sulaimaniya; 8) Shanidar cave
SYRIA 1) En-Nebk (Nebek)
JORDAN 1) Baka'a; 2) Bair Wells; 3) Jebel Fureidis; 4) Abl; 5) Umm Qatafa; 6) Jebel Kafzeh; 7) Petra; 8) Es-Salt; 9) Midway between the pumping stations H₃ and H₄ along the Haifa oil pipe line
LEBANON 1) Nahr el-Kelb; 2) Dubayeh, south of Dog river; 3) Jezzine, east of Sidon; 4) Kafr Hatta, Sidon; 5) Umm Kain; 6) Cave Gullsy, south of Beirut; 7) Pigeon Rocks, Beirut; 8) South ravine, south of Beirut; 9) Cave Antelias; 10) Ksar Akil rock shelter
ISRAEL 1) Magharat ez-Zuttiyeh; 2) Magharat es-Sukhul; 3) Magharat et-Tabun; 4) Magharat el-Wadi; 5) Cave of Adullam
SAUDI ARABIA 1) Tell el-Hibr; 2) Al Duhail, Qatar Peninsula; 3) Midway between Dukhan and Umm Said, Qatar Peninsula
BAHRAIN ISLAND 1) Jebel ed-Dukhan
OMAN 1) Ras-al-Khaimah, Trucial Oman coast
EGYPT 1) Wadi Feiran, Sinai peninsula
Among the human remains which have been found in western Asia, the Palaeoanthropic Galilee, Carmel, and Theshik-Tash skulls have been studied in detail, but those from Shanidar, Tamtama, and Antelias caves have not as yet. In eastern Asia, some Protoanthropic remains, such as Pithecanthropus, erectus, P. robustus, Meganthropus palaeojavanicus, and Sinanthropus pekinensis occurred in the later half of Older Pleistocene deposits. As the differences between Pithecanthropus and Sinanthropus are minor in nature, some considers it to be specific. But others seem to consider it to be only a subspecific difference. Very recently a new Protoanthropic remain, Atlanthropus mauritanicus, which closely resembles Pithecanthropus, was found in the Middle Pleistocene deposits of North Africa with numerous animal remains and Chelleo-Acheulean hand axes. Therefore, Chelleo-Acheulean type of implements, found with animal remains from the caves or rock shelters in Jordan and Lebanon, are of special importance. Accordigly, it seems possible that Protoanthropic man perhaps may be excavated in western Asia, judging from the presence of Chelleo-Acheulean implements and the distribution of Protoanthropic man in eastern Asia and North Africa.

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Sarobetsu Moor is situated in north Hokkaido, and is one of the largest moor in Japan. The writer has studied this moor and its surroundings by stratigraphical and pollen analytical methods. The results are as follows:
Sea level(at Wakasakanai) Chronology
0m MOOR FORMING PERIOD WITH THREE ARID PHASES.
-5m Volcanic activities. The course of the River Sarobetsu fixed. SAROBETSU LAKE AND SAND DUNE FORMING PERIOD.
+6.5m Volcanic activities. Sand spits were formed. SAROBETSU SEA PERIOD.
-26m Basal peat was formed.

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The study concerns a new dating method way may well contribute to the establishment of chronology for anthropology and archaeology. It is based upon two kinds of phenomena, one of which is the secular variation in the geomagnetic declination and the geomagnetic inclination, and the other the thermo-remanent magnetization of baked earth. The baked earth is believed to maintain the residual magnetism, the direction of which coincides with that of the earth's magnetic field at the time of firing. So the declination and the inclination in ancient times are revealed by measuring the direction of the thermo-remanent magnetism of the baked earth in sites provided the baked earth has remained undistorted and undestroyed since it was baked. Then the aim of absolute dating is achieved by comparing the direction of the thermo-remanent magnetism of baked earth with the secular variation in the declination and the inclination in the past. For this purpose the standard scale of secular variation in these elements of the past must be established.
One hundred and fourteen sets of samples of baked earth were collected from hearths, furnaces or kilns of prehistoric, protohistoric as well as historic Japan and measured on the direction of thermo-remanent magnetism. The secular variation curves of declination and inclination were estimated for the last 1700 years. The declination and inclination data odtained so far suggest that these two elements of geomagnetism have undergone secular variation since 6000 years B. P. within a limited range of magnitude, from 20°E to 30°W for declination and from 40°to 60°for inclination. It may be concluded that the secular variation must have been in a way periodic, the general feature of which may have resembled that obtained for the time range since 1700 years B. P. To establish the standard scale of the secular variation in the direction of geomagnetism in prehistoric times it is necessary to collect a number of coupled data, one of which is the direction of the thermo-remanent magnetism of baked earth and the other the absolute date obtained by the radiocarbon method on the materials contemporaneous with rethe baked earth. Up to now two such data have been obtained from remains of prehistoric Japan. Based upon these two data tentative variation curves of declination and inclination were estimated.
At present, no single method is available which can provide completely correct and accurate dates for the past. The radiocarbon method which is thought to be the most reliable one is also subjected to conceivable inaccuracy. The two dating methods, by the radiocarbon assay and by the measurement of thermo-remanent magnetism, can be used to check each other and yield more highly reliable dates which may provide a more sound basis for studies in anthropology and archaeology.

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