Anthropological Study of Ancient Human Skeletons in China.

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Given that the origin and physical character of the Japanese people can not be solved only by studying the skeletons of the ancient Japanese people but must also involve physical anthropological studies of the ancient skeletons of the neighboring countries at the same time, we have investigated ancient human skeletons from China since 1990. It is said that the Yayoi Culture was greatly influenced by the cultures in China and the Korean Peninsula, in particular the central and southern areas of China. In these areas, we have been investigating ancient human skeletons and have compared them to those of the Yayoi People in North Kyushu. Not many human bone have been excavated from these areas in China, but from the Shantung Peninsula a number of ancient human skeletons from 5,000-2,000 years ago have been excavated. Since 1989, we have measured human skeletons and teeth excavated from the Goson site and Fuka site. In 1992, we continued to measure them and investigate other features of the … More se bones, and also conducted a preliminary investigation in the Hsinchiang Wigle Dominion where a large number of ancient human skeletons have been excavated.On the Shantung Peninsula, artificial cranial deformation was found not only in "Daibunko skeleton" but also in "Oin" and tooth excavation was found in "Goson" and "Fuka" skeleton. The facial height was slightly high and the nasal root was flat, which are similar to the features of Yayoi people in North Kyushu, but the skeleton quality was slightly solider than that of the Yayoi people. Although tooth extraction, which was not observed in North Kyushu, existed in the crania excavated on the Shantung Peninsula, the physical features of the human skeletons from Shantung Peninsula were not similar to those of the Jomon people. These features were also seen in teeth were common to those of the North Kyushu Yayoi, the Shantung Peninsula may be among the most probable site of origin of the Yayoi people from overseas. However, the amount of human skeletons from the Yayoi period is extremely small and not all physical features are held in common, so we cannot determine that Shantung Peninsula is the origin site of the Yayoi people from overseas.We conducted a cluster analysis using measurements of the crania, and ancient Chinese skeletons constituted one cluster on its own while this cluster differed greatly from those of the Yayoi and Jomon people. This seems to suggest the possibility that physical differentiation between the Chinese and Japanese people occurred quite early.There are still a large number of ancient human skeletons from the Shantung Peninsula we have not investigated yet, so we will continue t clarity the features of ancient human skeletons at eachsite with the cooperation of collaboration researchers and compare them with ancient Japanese huma skeletons. Less