春雨直播app

The advent of food production (or farming) stands out as one of the greatest inventions achieved by prehistoric communities due to its significant role in shaping the subsequent socio-economic forms in human history. The Near East and its neighboring regions served as the major research field because the world’s oldest invention of farming originated there. Research into this important process in the terminal Pleistocene to the early Holocene, called Neolithization, has attracted global attention from archaeologists, including those in Japan. The present volume is an outcome of an international conference held at the University Museum, the University of Tokyo in 2019 and combines the latest studies on this subject.
 
Neolithization research involves cutting-edge analyses of a wide range of archaeological records, including paleoenvironmental data, as well as specific findings of the artifact and subsistence remains. The conference focused on the role of studying lithic implements in our understanding of Neolithization processes. This artifact class is highlighted because of its distinct characteristics. Lithic implements remain in almost any archaeological context regardless of sedimentological conditions, which do not always preserve other material remains, architecture, and traces of human activities properly, especially organic materials. They also differ from other types of artifacts in their unparalleled long-term occurrences in prehistory, starting in the Palaeolithic more than two million years ago and continuing into the Neolithic and later. This prevalence provides a valuable opportunity to evaluate the social and economic changes at the advent of farming from a consistent viewpoint, namely the exploitation and use of stone raw materials in human history. Furthermore, the production of lithic tools is a complicated art of technology that reflects dynamic cultural processes, including changing patterns in the habits and traditions of knappers. These distinctive features of lithic artifacts provide a unique window to understand the tracks of cultural development in the Near Eastern Neolithic.
 
The conference was the ninth of a series of meetings of specialists pursuing these research perspectives. Since its launch as a small workshop in Berlin in 1993, the conference has expanded and showcased many significant scientific developments among Near Eastern Neolithic specialists. The conference in Tokyo is characterized by a greater emphasis on regional perspectives from the East. The Neolithization of the regions surrounding the Near East should not be viewed as mainly resulting from simple dispersals or cultural diffusions. Increasing research has shown significant contributions from the local indigenous communities and their interactions with incoming socio-economies. Understanding these processes would shed new light on identifying the Neolithization practices of the “core” regions of the Near East. The 39 chapters, which are divided into five parts, represent selected papers presented by more than 100 participants from 17 countries that deal with related issues from the Late Epipaleolithic to the Pottery Neolithic and span Egypt to West Central Asia and the Caucasus to Arabia. They demonstrate what the prehistoric stone tools tell us about an important cultural process in human history.
 

(Written by NISHIAKI Yoshihiro, Professor, The University Museum / 2024)