History of excavation works at Lake Nojiri
Year (dominical year) |
Excavation | Major topics and excavated artifacts |
---|---|---|
1948 | Matsunosuke Kato found a cheek tooth (hot-water bottle fossil) | |
1961 | Lakeside dispute Mr. Ijiri’s proposal:“Let’s start excavating anyway.” | |
1962 | 1st excavation | Found fossils of a Naumann Elephant and an Irish elk |
1963 | 2nd excavation | Confirmation of the (last) Ice Age by radioactive age determination and analysis of pollens |
1964 | 3rd excavation | Found a flake of a palaeolith |
1965 | 4th excavation | Found a part of a head bone of a Naumann Elephant and a 8.5m long wood fossil |
1973 | 5th excavation | Found “Crescent and Star”, a knife-shaped stone artifact and a bone artifact An experts group was formed |
1975 | 6th excavation | Found a Venus statue (?) and a trace fossil The Nojiriko Association was formed |
1976 | 1st on-land excavation |
Found a knife-shaped stone tool and a dry trace [Nakamachi] |
1978 | 7th excavation | Found a head bone of a Naumann Elephant and a fossil of an insect |
1979 | 2nd on-land excavation |
Found a burial pit of a claw-patterned clay pot [Nakamachi] |
1981 | 8th excavation | Found a 2.4m long tusk, the oldest bone tool in Japan (bone scraper) and circumstantial evidences for a kill site |
1982 | 3rd on-land excavation |
Excavated a lake shoreline of about 20,000 years old [Mukaishinden] and found a ridge-patterned clay pot [Nakamachi] |
1984 | 9th excavation | Found a spiral flake and a coprolite (?) |
1987 | 10th excavation | Found a bone cleaver (machete-shaped bone tool) |
1990 | 11th excavation | Proved a fossil to be the footprint of a Naumann Elephant |
1993 | 12th excavation | Found a rib with line traces (traces of dissection?) |
1994 | 7th on-land excavation |
Found a stone tool of the Upper Old Stone Age [Nakamachi] |
1997 | 13th excavation | Found a hammer stone and a bone of the upper arm of a Naumann Elephant |
1998 | 8th on-land excavation |
A lot of stone tools of the Upper Old Stone Age were excavated [Nakamachi] |
2000 | 14th excavation | Closely observed the relationship between the fossils and the lamina* Found a complete set of right and left cheek teeth of a Naumann Elephant |
2003 | 15th excavation | Found an ancient shoreline |
2006 | 16th excavation | Found a footprint fossil of a Cervus nippon |
2008 | 17th excavation | Found a fossil of an Alces alces |
2010 | 18th excavation | Found a hammer stone and a cutting tooth (tusk) of a Naumann Elephant |
2012 | 19th excavation | Found a cheek tooth of a Naumann Elephant and a flake |
2014 | 20th excavation | Found a radius of an Irish elk |
2016 | 21st excavation | Found a piece of an upper arm bone of an Irish elk |
*Lamina: Means a pattern observed in geological layers, in which patterns are formed according to the way soil and sand accumulate on each other.