CS9-8 Anthropological study of the transition from the Jomon to the Yayoi period in northern Kyushu using morphological and paleodemographical features

On the origin of Japanese, various morphological and genetic researches have demonstrated that the people migrated from the Asian Continent between the end of the Jomon period and the Yayoi period had a significant influence on the forming of Japanese. The human skeletal remains excavated from northern Kyushu have played an important role in this controversial topic. However, several important questions remain to be solved concerning the transition from the Jomon to the Yayoi people, especially the early stages of immigration into northern Kyushu That is, most of the Yayoi skeletons unearthed from this region so far represent the middle Yayoi period. Human remains from the early stage of the Yayoi period or the final stage of the Jomon period are totally lacking. Therefore, we know few details of the transitional period, for example, who were the first rice agiculturalist in Japan?, or which group of people is responsible for the “Yayoi revolution”, the native Jomon people or a new immigrant group? Although some archaeologists have insisted that the native people introduced the new culture of the continent such as wet rice cultivation and reformed their society by themselves, we showed that their hypothesis is not acceptable judging from the results of the morphological analysis on the Yayoi skeleton in this region. Using paleodemographical analysis, we also proposed that the immigrant people were mainly responsible for the transition from the Jomon to Yayoi period.