Anthropological study on the human skeletal remains excavated from the Henan province, China.

通过对中国出土的江南地区人类骨骼遗存的比较研究，认为江南地区可能是公元前一千年末雅瑶移民首次将稻作文化从亚洲大陆带到日本岛上的发源地之一。但由于中国地区仍有许多未调查的地区，因此目前下结论似乎还为时过早。为了对江南古人进行准确的评价，有必要对这些未调查地区的古人类骨骼进行人类学研究。在过去的四年(20003-2006年)中，我们对河南省文化遗址与考古研究所收藏的河南省中国遗址中的人类骨骼进行了对比调查。该地区新石器时代头骨的骨骼形态与九州北部的Yayoi人没有太大区别。另一方面，该地区春秋时期、汉初时期的骨骼遗迹与雅瑶殖民者相当接近，如眶间区域平坦、面部较高、眼眶较高且较圆。牙齿特征和非测量颅骨特征也表现出相似性。综上所述，新石器时代末期(汉初)的河南中国人与九州北部的雅瑶人相比，在头骨和肢体形态上也基本相似。

Through the comparative investigations on the human skeletal remains from the Jiangnan region in China, it was showed that the Jiangnan region is one of a possible original place of the Yayoi immigrants who brought the rice cultivating culture for the first time from the Asiatic continent to the Japanese island in the end of the first millennium B.C. However, it seem still premature to draw a conclusion at this moment because a lot of un-investigated areas are still remain in the China. It would be necessary to perform the anthropological study on the ancient human skeletal remains in these un-investigated areas for the exact evaluation about the Jiangnan ancient people. During last four years (20003-2006), we made comparative investigations on the human skeletal remains from Henan province in China that is kept in the Cultural Radices and Archaeology Research Institute of Henan Province. The skeletal morphology of the Neolithic skulls from this region did not differ considerably from the Yayoi people of Northern Kyushu. On the other hand, the skeletal remains of Spring and Autumn period Earlier Han period in this region are fairly close to the Yayoi colonists, for example, in the flatness of the interorbital region, higher face, higher and round orbit. The dental characteristics and nonmetrical cranial traits also show resemblance. In conclusions, the people of the Henan province in China (the end of Neolithic period early Han period) also show resemblances basically in their skull and limb morphology in comparison with the Yayoi people in northern Kyushu.