New Discoveries of Paleolothic Quarry Sites in Obsidian Resources: Mt. Takahara and It's Meaning

Takashi Tamura, Sadakatsu Kunitake, Michinori Oya

doi:10.11215/nihonkokogaku1994.13.22_147

Mt. Takahara (1795m), a volcano in the northern part of Tochigi Prefecture, is well known as an obsidian resource. Artifacts containing obsidian from this mountain are frequently found in Paleolithic sites in the Kanto plains. We have recognized obsidian in Mt. Takahara as a very important lithic resource for Paleolithic hunter-gatherer in the Kanto plains and there must be large Paleolithic sites related to stone quarries. But in Mt. Takahara, any traces of human ac-tivity in prehistory have never been discovered and even obvious outcrops of obsidian have never been identified. Authors and members of a lithic raw material research group (the representative of this group is Takashi Tamura, the first author of this article), started to explore obsidian outcrops and Paleolithic quarry sites in this mountain in June 2005. In July, large obsidian outcrops were identified near the top of Mt. Takahara and importantly, an upper Paleolithic site, larger than expected, overlapping this outcrop, was discovered by our investigations. Almost all the artifacts discovered from this site are flakes related to stone knapping, but some indisputable tools, for example, micro core-like small cores, spear shaped tools, pyramid shape tools, knife shaped tools and scrapers were also discovered. Judging from these stone tools, we can understand that these outcrops discovered by our investigations were exploited during all periods of the Upper Paleolithic in this site. Through the result of excavations of this site in the future, we are sure that we will be able to obtain important data about settlement-subsistence strategies of hunter-gathers in the Paleolithic age. Finally we discussed some issues on the archaeological research projects in the future.

New Discoveries of Paleolothic Quarry Sites in Obsidian Resources: Mt. Takahara and It's Meaning

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