Araya Site
The Araya Site is an archaeological site containing traces of a late Japanese Paleolithic settlement located in the former town of Kawaguchi in what is now part of the city of Nagaoka, Niigata in the Hokuriku region of Japan. It was found to contain one of the largest number of stone tools of any site thus far discovered in Japan. It was designated a National Historic Site of Japan in 2004.
Location
The Araya site is located on a river terrace near the confluence of the Shinano River and the Uono River, approximately south of Echigo-Kawaguchi Station. Four excavations have been conducted thus far, beginning in 1957. Excavated materials are stored in Meiji University, Tōhoku University, the Nagaoka City Board of Education, and at Tokyo National Museum.Description
The site extends over an area measuring from east-to-west by north-to south, and contains the ruins of several villages from approximately 17,000 years ago. The ruins overlap, indicating that a semi-nomadic population repeatedly returned to this site over many centuries. The foundations of pit dwellings and storage pits have been found.Artifacts
Excavated artifacts included 6,000 microlith blades, 9,000 microlith cores made using the Yubetsu technique, 1,000 lithic cores using the Horoka technique. In addition, chisel-shaped stone tools, a large number of scrapers, and over 100,000 arrow and spear points were found. The base materials for the stone tools and cores were mostly hard shale, which is common in coastal areas near the Sea of Japan.The microlith blades represent a technological evolution that occurred during the Upper Paleolithic period, roughly until 13,000 years ago. The shapes and types of stone tools, such as stone axes, spears, and blades evolved in response to changes in the fauna available for hunting as the result of rapid changes in the environment. Microliths, thin and razor-shape blades of stone which were used by embedding into shafts of wood or bone, appear toward the end of the Upper Paleolithic.
It is likely that bone, horn and leather products were also actively produced at the site. They would have been needed to make completed projectile weapons, and also as part of the secondary processing of the stone to produce the very thin sharpened blades.