Japanese Paleolithic

Japanese Paleolithic period
35,000 BCE – 14,000 BCE
Japan at the Last Glacial Maximum in the Late Pleistocene about 20,000 years ago
Location	Japan
Chronology Jōmon period

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History of Japan
Paleolithic stone axes
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The Japanese Paleolithic period (旧石器時代, kyūsekki jidai) is the period of human inhabitation in Japan predating the development of pottery, generally before 10,000 BC.^[1] The starting dates commonly given to this period are from around 40,000 BC;^[2] although any date of human presence before 35,000 BC is controversial, with artifacts supporting a pre-35,000 BC human presence on the archipelago being of questionable authenticity.^[3] The period extended to the beginning of the Mesolithic Jōmon period, or around 14,000 BC.^[4]

The earliest human bones were discovered in the city of Hamamatsu in Shizuoka Prefecture, which were determined by radiocarbon dating to date to around 18,000–14,000 years ago.