The evolution of lithic technology and human behavior from MIS 3 to MIS 2 in the Japanese Upper Paleolithic

The Japanese Upper Paleolithic is chronologically divided into the Early Upper Paleolithic (EUP) and the Late Upper Paleolithic (LUP). The EUP/LUP transition, at ca. 25,000 14C BP, was roughly contemporaneous with the environmental changes associated with the transition from marine isotope stage (MIS) 3 to MIS 2. In the EUP, human societies everywhere on the Japanese Archipelago shared common subsistence strategies, and they became differentiated into regional societies adapted to local ecological conditions in the LUP. A unique lithic technology industry, the Kou Industry, originally found in central Japan only, also suddenly spread over a wide area at about this time. The expansion of the Kou Industry is a marked social event, but the relationship between this event and the EUP/LUP transition has not been investigated thoroughly. On the basis of a chronological study of the archaeological data and of the environmental data from around the MIS 3/MIS 2 transition, this paper investigated the relationships among the regional adaptations, the Kou Industry expansion, and the environmental changes occurring at the MIS 3/MIS 2 transition from a socio-ecological point of view.