This paper has presented the general description of the assemblages collected from the Douara Cave Site in Syria, and examined the relationships to these assemblages to those from relevant sites elsewhere, to provide new data for a framework to which future work on the Palaeolithic in Western Asia can be related.
Knowledge of the Palaeolithic in Western Asia has increased greatly in recent years largely as a result of excavations of relevant sites and also as a result of restudy of certain site and museum collections such as Khiam (ECHEGARY, 1964, 1966), Abri Bergy (COPELAND and WAECHTER, 1968) and Ksar Akil (TIXIER, 1970). But a number of problems remain unsolved. For example, the problem of the succession of the Palaeolithic culture and the problem of European-West Asian cultural relationships.
Moreover, most studies of Palaeolithic culture in Western Asia have concentrated in the areas of the Mediterranean coast and the Jordan Valley in the Levant, and the Zagros area. But the research on the sites in inland areas is rather insufficient and only two Palaeolithic sites, Yabrud (RUST, 1950; SOLECKI and SOLECKI, 1966) and Jerf Ajla (COON, 1957; SCHROEDER, 1966, 1969) are fully reported. Thus there is a regional difference in the quantity of information availabie, and this presents an obstacle to systematic interpretation of Palaeolithic culture in Western Asia. In comparing the data from the Zagros with that from the Levant, more comprehensive and interesting studies would be possible if we had more information from the Syrian inland which lies between these two areas. To that end, the Tokyo University Scientific Expedition to Western Asia has researched the site at Douara Cave since 1967.
From the excavation of 1970 season, some 3, 500 flints were found. The volume of deposits and quantity of artifacts in Layers A through E were enough to examine the typological and technological characteristics of the collections, both quantitatively and qualitatively. On the other hand, the underlying layers were poor archaeological deposits (Layers F through I) and sterile (Layers J through N).
The assemblages from Layers A through E of Douara Cave contain two distinct industries: an industry with a large quantity of blade and bladelet elements of Upper Palaeolithic character found in Layers A and B, and an industry with a large proportion of Levallois flakes found in Layers C, D and E. The Upper Palaeolithic industry found in Layers A and B corresponds both typologically and technologically to the terminal stage (Stage 6) of the Upper Palaeolithic in Western Asia as represented by the industries of Kebarah (Layer C), Yabrud Shelter III (Layers 4, 6 and 7) and Zarzi (Layer B). This stage probably dates to the end of the final stadial of the Last Pluvial (HOWELL, 1959).
The Middle Palaeolithic industry in Layers C, D and E is identified both typologically and technologically as the Levalloiso-Mousterian or the Mousterian of Levallois facies of the Middle Palaeolithic in Western Asia. Such assemblages are characterized by the dominance of the Levallois technique in the production of tool blanks and by Middle Palaeolithic tools of the Levallois type. Other tools of Mousterian and Upper Palaeolithic types are very few. The Levalloiso-Mousterian assemblages have been found in dozens of sites in Western Asia. However, these assemblages exhibit a great typological and technological variability. It remains to clarify and interpret the variability among the Levalloiso-Mousterian assemblages in Western Asia in connection with that of Douara Cave.

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The Holocene marine deposits, here called the Imari Shell Bed, was exposed by digging for construction of a water reservoir near the head of Imari Bay, northwestern Kyûshû. The marine deposits measure 3.4 meters in thickness and its upper surface is 0.4 meters above the sea level. The deposits consist mainly of silty sediments in which abundant marine molluscan shells and poorly carbonized plant fragments are contained.
The molluscan fauna comprised of 22 species (Table 3), including eight of gastropods, one of scaphopods and 13 of pelecypods. All of these species are dwellers of an embayment environment and are known to range from the high tide down to the shallow neritic zone. Among the distinguished species, Anadara granosa bisenensis has been accepted as an index subspecies marking the Holocene transgression phase in Japan. Although no diatom fossils were discovered in the shell bed, pollen and spore fossils could be extracted from the silty sediments, and these are listed in Table 5. The fossil floras points to a warm climate during deposition of the Imari Shell Bed.
The radiocarbon dating on the carbonized wood piece occurred from the upper part of the Imari Shell Bed indicates an age of 4430±85 yrs. B.P. (GaK-4486).
A relict sea cliff characterized by such erosive features as, notch, pit, cave, crevice and overhang is well preserved along the inner margin of the alluvial plain of the Imari Bay area, and occur up to about four meters above sea level. Honeycomb structures were also recognized in the cliff.
From the paleontological and topographical evidences, it is considered that the Imari Shell Bed was deposited during the rising of sea-level up to less than four meters above the present sea level. This marine transgression probably corresponds to the middle stage of the Jômon Period.

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The purpose of this study is to discuss the geomorphic development and soil genesis mainly of the sandy area of the Ishikari coastal plain, Hokkaidô, northern Japan. To serve as an aid to this purpose, many archaeological, tephrochronological, granulometrical data are used.
The results are summerized as follows:
1) The sandy area is classified into three morphologic provinces, namely Momijiyama sand dunes, Bannaguro emerged sand bars, Ishikari sand dunes, from the inland to the coast respectively. This arrangement of each topography, such as an older dune, a sand bar and a younger dune, are generally observed in large alluvial plains in Japan. This pattern is differentiated from that of narrow coastal plains where the younger dune is piled upon the older one.
2) The soils are classified into two by the stage of formation, namely the lower dark sandy loam and the upper black humus.
3) Momijiyama sand dunes cover the pleistocene lower terrace deposits or upper tertiary formation, probably being at the depth near the present sea level.
These dunes developed on a gravel or sand bar which was formed during the maximum transgression stage of Early Jômon. The sea level of this stage reached 4m or more meters above the present sea level. Before the early stage of Middle Jômon, these dunes were already transformed into the longitudinal dunes and fixed by the lower dark sandy loam. These dunes are correlated to the older sand dune definited by ENDO (1969).
4) Bannaguro emerged sand bars are the assemblage of more than twenty parallel sand bars, which consist of shallow marine deposits built during and after the maximum transgression stage. Then a large number of these sand bars were emerged and immediately fixed by the lower dark sandy loam before the later stage of Middle Jômon. Thus, wind-blown sands were deposited only on a small scale on the emerged sand bars.
5) The lower dark sandy loam is correlated to the older humus sand definited by ENDO (1969), and its formation continued at least from Middle to Later Jomon in this area. During Middle Jômon, the soil genesis was probably performed under rather warm climate, but it suffered podosolization under cool and humid climate during Latest Jômon. Thus, the lower dark sandy loam is a kind of polygenetic soils. This type of older humus sand is only observed north of this area in Japan.
6) In the early stage of Latest Jômon (3000-3500 years B.P.), peat bogs appeared at depressions between several emerged sand bars, although in the inland alluvial plain inside of Momijiyama sand dunes, the deposition of peat had already begun since 5000-6000 years B.P..
7) The lower part of Ishikari sand dunes were formed on the marine sand beds deposited during the small transgression of possibly Satsumon age (1500-1000 years B.P.), and fixed by the upper black humus.
The upper black humus is correlated to the younger humus sand definited by ENDO (1969). The upper part of Ishikari sand dunes are the present dunes.

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