Posted on 07/24/2005 5:01:11 PM PDT by blam
Postcranial Skeleton of the Minatogawa Man
Hisao Baba* and Banri Endo**
*Department of Anatomy, Dokkyo University School of Medicine;
**Department of Anthropology, Faculty of Science,
The University of Tokyo
GENERAL DISCUSSION
Estimation of the Stature
The stature of the Minatogawa man was estimated according to the methods of Peason (1899) and of Fujii (1960). The estimated statures using the femora by Fujii's method are 1532, 1499, 1556, 1499 mm in MI, MII, MIII, MIV, respectively. The value for MIII seems too great when the relative shortness of her tibia is taken into account. In estimating statures by Peason's formula, various kinds of bone are used. The ranges are from 1535 to 1565 mm in MI, from 1430 to 1473 in MII, from 1449 to 1523 mm in MIII, and from 1430 to 1491 mm in MIV, If the mean of the range estimated by Peason's method is taken for the stature of Minatogawa people, it is 155 cm in MI, 145 cm in MIII, 149 cm in MIII, 146 cm in MIV. These statures are somewhat smaller than the Neolithic Japanese as well as the Recent Japanese (Hiramoto, 1972).
Though this kind of data are not many, Ogata (1973) estimated the stature of the Early Neolithic (B. P. 9,000-5,000) Japanese according to Peason's method (1899) using the femur. It is 157.5 cm in the males and 147.1 cm in the females, while the corresponding value of the Minatogawa male is 156.1 cm and the mean values of the same females are 144.5 cm. The statures of Minatogawa Man are slightly smaller than those of Early Neolithic Japanese. If the stature of the Minatogawa people represents the stature of the Upper Paleolithic Japanese, the slight increase from this age to the Early Neolithic may be continuous to the gradual increase from the Early Neolithic to the Late Neolithic.
Summarized Characters of Each Individual
MI: moderately robust old male, having a short stature, rather slender limbs with bigger hands and feet except for short heels, narrow shoulders, and a robust pelvis with a large inlet.
MII: gracile old female, having a short stature, slender limbs, a narrow shoulders, and a narrow but rather stout pelvis with a small inlet.
MIII: gracile matured female: having a rather short stature, slender and long limbs with long hands and feet except for short heels, narrow shoulders, and a narrow and gracile pelvis with a moderate inlet.
MIV: old female, having a short stature, strong upper limbs with wide shoulders, rather slender lower limbs with short heels, a narrow but robust pelvis with small inlet. The sex of this individual may be female, though there is some doubt.
The Position of Minatogawa Man in the Course of Evolution
As mentioned at the beginning of this report, the time of the Upper Paleolithic Sapiens is known in Eastern Asia, though the skeletal remains are not rich. No description of a postcranial Neanderthaloid skeleton has been found in Eastern Asia, although there are several postcranial skeletons from Sinanthropus. The problem is the uncertainty of the characteristics of the postcranial skeleton in the Sinanthropus in relation to the Recent Sapiens in Eastern Asia, because the former is not as different from the latter as is the Neanderthaloid.
At the present stage, it is quite difficult to solve this problem. However, as far as the characteristics of humeri and femora are concerned, Minatogawa man shows rather close resemblance to the Sinanthropus and slight resemblance to the West European Neanderthals. As a tentative speculation, based on the characters of postcranial bones, it is likely that the Sinanthropus might have evolved to certain sapiens populations, one of which became the Minatogawa people, without acquiring the robust characters the West-European Neanderthals had, though those populations had passed their own stage of Neanderthaloid.
Generally, Minatogawa people have many characters which agree with those of the Early to Late Neolithic Japanese, whereas they bear also many characters which do not agree with those of the Neolithic Japanese, for example, shortness of the clavicle, antero lateral flexion of the humerus, strong curvature of the ulna, round cross-section of the femur, medial convexity of the tibia, shortness of the heel, and so on. It seems that the Minatogawa people belong to one of the oldest types of Sapiens sapiens in Eastern Asia.
Minatogawa Man
Restored bust of Minatogawa Man No.1
Are Okinawan people related to mainland Japanese? This question has deeply concerned Okinawan people anxious for a long time to confirm their identity.
The research of professor Emeritus Naoshi Suzuki of Tokyo university concluded that the Minatogawa Primitive Man was discovered by Mr. Seiho Oyama, amateur archaeologist, at the coral clefts of Minatogawa, Gushikami Village in 1970.
The Minatogawa Man lived 18,000 years ago during the Stone Age. The bones of Minatogawa Man formed an almost complete figure when they were discovered, resembling those of skeletons found in the Kwangsi Chuang region of China dating back 40,000 years. They are also similar to human bones found in many areas of the Japan of the Jomon Period around 10,000 years ago.
The Minatogawa Man is commonly believed to be the direct ancestor of the modern day Japanese as his descendants spread throughout the Japanese Islands, particularly those of southern Japan.
Minatogawa Man No.1, male skelton estimated 153 centimeters tall
Minatogawajin
In 1967, the human bones of the “Minatogawajin” said to be the roots of Japanese People was found at ae stone pit near the seashore of Minatogawa, Guhsigashirason. This man's bone is presumed to be about 17,000 to 8,000 years ago.
About 5 to 9 bones were found, and they are blessed with a preserving state among the Pleistocene fossil man's bones found in Japan . We can understand the whole form only in the Minatogawajinn.
They are about 153 to 155 centimeters tall, and they are small in a whole, and their arms are thin and their hands are large, it seems that they were very strong . Their head bones are larger than modern people, their cheek bone are high, their noses are high, and they have craggy faces.
For the physical features, it was indicated that they are similar to the “Wajyakujin”at Java island in Indonesia and the “Ryukoujin” in the south area of China, so there is an opinion that the “Minatogawajin” belonged to the marine adaptive group at the shore area in East Asia.
Anyway, the “Minatogawajin” can be said to be an important existence for the roots of Japanese people.
The “Minatogawajin” has the little same feature as the Jomon man, so , at present, it is positioned as they are the roots of Japanese people. It is said that Minatogawajin crossed the main land for Ryukyu Islands, and then they became the Jomon man. But, it isn't clarified that it became an ancestor of Okinawan People.
Nothing like Japanese racism, it's normally accepted that their roots came from the despised Koreans. And heaven forbid that they would be related to the lowly Okinawans.:)
They don't like talking about the Ainu much either.
The Yayoi are much earlier and can be traced back through Korea to Chen. The Jomon are the earliest population with a high level of culture.
There are also, undoubtedly, some Polynesian roots in there since the Japanese language has Polynesian characteristics.
They are, as it were, a very mixed population! Part of what you perceive as "racism" is a conscious effort to paper over anything that suggests that they are not all Japanese, and homogeneous.
Fits rather nicely with your ideas.
Please FREEPMAIL me if you want on, off, or alter the "Gods, Graves, Glyphs" PING list --
Archaeology/Anthropology/Ancient Cultures/Artifacts/Antiquities, etc.
The GGG Digest -- Gods, Graves, Glyphs (alpha order)
At least one of them is still around...
I'm so ronery!
You forgot the obligatory Team America reference.
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by Yoshimichi Ota
One of the most popular young actresses in Japan was identified as having the same mitochondrial DNA pattern as that found in human skeletons from the Jomon era in Japan, about 2,500 years ago. This particular mitochondrial DNA pattern can also be found today in many other Japanese women, at a ratio of one out of 10 women. The ancestry of this mitochondrial DNA pattern goes even further back in time, and deep into China and Siberia.
Scientists believe that one has to go back 30,000 years to locate the oldest female ancestor bearing this particular pattern, somewhere around Lake Baikal in Russia.
So, one private TV station organized two trips for this actress to meet women in China and Russia who share with her exactly the same mitochondrial DNA pattern. She traveled deep into the countryside in the southwestern part of China, almost at the border with Tibet, and then made another trip to Buryatia.
The academies of science of both countries were helpful in locating some candidates for this project. So, this actress was able to meet one woman, a little bit older than herself, in China, and another woman, younger, in Buryatia. Of course, the three women in China, Russia, and Japan did not have a common language. However, they were able to communicate directly, in fact much more effectively than they could through interpreters, and they seemed so happy to have had this once-in-a-lifetime experience. The scientists involved in this project stated that this case of correlation between a plural number of persons and their common ancestor, 30,000 years removed, is a first.
According to another TV program, an NHK Special, people in the Stone Age inhabited the Japanese archipelago during the Jomon era, 13,000 to 3,000 years ago, and they developed a life-style in which they used the deep forests for harvesting food and lumber for building villages in their daily life, and even crafted thin-walled earthenware pots for cooking the acorns in order to remove the bitter tannin and for storing food. These earthenware pots are actually older than those found in Egypt or Mesopotamia.
According to recent research conducted on the mitochondrial DNA extracted from some human bones (some of the oldest) belonging to the Jomon era, whose ancestry used to be considered recently to derive from somewhere in Southern Asia, it is highly probable that these Jomon people originated from somewhere around Lake Baikal in Russia (current Buryatia). The mitochondrial DNA of three bodies were close to that of the Korean, Chinese and Taiwanese populations, respectively, while the mitochondrial DNA of 30 bodies was close to that of the Buryat population. An archaeological site indicating that Homo sapiens inhabited the current Buryatia region 23,000 years ago was discovered.
These findings suggest that the remote ancestry of today’s Japanese population goes back to the mammoth hunters in Siberia who lived during the Ice Age. When the global climate started to warm up, some of those hunters started moving south in pursuit of large animals, and further to Japan, while others crossed the Bering straight and reached the North American continent. Back then, Hokkaido, which is an island, was still part of the continent, and the Tsugaru straight between the current Hokkaido Island and the Honshu Island was deep but froze in winter, thus enabling people to travel further south.
Back then, there were various large animals in Japan, which became extinct due to the hunting and whose presence in ancient times we can glean only through their fossils. Among them, there were Naumann elephants. It appears that these animals were quickly hunted out by the ancestors of the Jomon people, who brought with them from Siberia the skills needed to hunt large animals and the craftsmanship to produce sophisticated lances equipped with replaceable blades made of a specific hard stone, obsidian. Today many sites from which obsidian was extracted to produce blades are located in Japan, ranging from the Hokkaido area to the Kinki region (to which Osaka belongs) of Honshu Island.
Thanks blam tDna. ;’)
The Neandertal EnigmaFrayer's own reading of the record reveals a number of overlooked traits that clearly and specifically link the Neandertals to the Cro-Magnons. One such trait is the shape of the opening of the nerve canal in the lower jaw, a spot where dentists often give a pain-blocking injection. In many Neandertal, the upper portion of the opening is covered by a broad bony ridge, a curious feature also carried by a significant number of Cro-Magnons. But none of the alleged 'ancestors of us all' fossils from Africa have it, and it is extremely rare in modern people outside Europe." [pp 126-127]
by James Shreeve
in local libraries
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