Tachikiri Ruins and Yokomine Ruins

Traces of Life 35,000 Years Ago on Tanegashima

The Tachikiri Ruins and Yokomine Ruins (立切遺跡・横峯遺跡) is a pair of early Upper Palaeolithic sites in Nakatane and Minamitane towns, Kumage District, Kagoshima Prefecture, which in 2022 were designated a Historic Site.

The Agency for Cultural Affairs lists them under the criterion for shell mounds, settlements and similar sites.

The Agency places them in central and southern Tanegashima, where pit traps and stone clusters were found beneath the Tane IV volcanic ash of about 35,000 years ago.

The Remains

According to the Agency, Tachikiri lies on a plateau 120 metres above sea level in central Tanegashima. Excavation revealed 24 pit traps, 5 stone clusters, 12 burnt-soil patches and 3 charcoal concentrations. The pits are flask-shaped or cylindrical in section, flaring like a trumpet at the top.

Yokomine lies on a plateau 120 metres high in southern Tanegashima, with 9 stone clusters and 10 charcoal concentrations, some clusters set in clearly dug hollows.

What to Look For

The Agency notes that the abundance of tools for processing plant foods and for felling trees shows adaptation to evergreen broadleaf forest, with Tachikiri showing ways of making a living and Yokomine ways of dwelling. Their early appearance at the southern tip of ancient Honshu is important for understanding how modern humans adapted to their environment.

Nakatane Town notes that the discovery at Tachikiri overturned established views of the Palaeolithic.

Visiting the Tachikiri Ruins and Yokomine Ruins

Nakatane Town says the Tachikiri site is now farmland and cannot be visited. The town adds that finds from excavations in the town are kept and displayed at the Nakatane Town History and Folklore Museum.

Enquiries: Nakatane Town social education section, 0997-27-1111.