In Search of Pleistocene Human Fossils in Kitakami Mountain Areas, Iwate Prefecture

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We initiated a research project "In Search of Pleistocene Human Fossils in Kitakami Mountain Areas" in 1994. Thereafter, six seasons of anthropological, palaeontological and archaeological excavations were carried out at the Abakuchi and Kaza'ana cave sites in Ohazama, Iwate Prefecture. In 1996, we successfully dug up a remarkably well-preserved human infant skeleton of the Yayoi period for the first time in northern Tohoku region. Judging form its morphological characteristics, the infant seems to have been genetically influenced by the Yayoi of immigrant type in some degree. In 1997 to 2000, although human fossils and artifacts of the Upper Palaeolithic were not found, we could discover fossils of many large or medium-sized mammals such as Macaca fuscata, Selenarctos tibetanus, Elephantidae, gen.et sp.indet., Alces alces from the late Pleistocene formation in the Kaza'ana cave. Many micro faunas of extinct types such as Clethrinomys-Phuronomys transitional form, Microtus epiratticepodes, Microtos cf. Brandtiodes were also unearthed from the late Pleistocene formation in the Kaza'ana cave site. The final reports on these excavations will be published by the end of 2001 from the Tohoku University Press as a monograph.