Man, Past and PresentKeane, A. H. (Augustus Henry)
History
Man, Past and Present
Keane, A. H. (Augustus Henry)
Anthropology; Ethnology
In a kitchen-midden, 330 by 200 feet, near Shiidzuka in the province of
Ibaraki, the Japanese antiquaries S. Yagi and M. Shinomura[583] have
found numerous objects belonging to the Stone Age of Japan. Amongst them
were flint implements, worked bones, ashes, pottery, and a whole series
of clay figures of human beings. The finders suggest that these remains
may have belonged to a homogeneous race of the Stone Period, who,
however, were not the ancestors of the Ainu--hitherto generally regarded
as the first inhabitants of Japan. In the national records vague
reference is made to other aborigines, such as the "Long Legs," and the
"Eight Wild Tribes," described as the enemies of the first Japanese
settlers in Kiu-shiu, and reduced by Jimmu Tenno, the semi-mythical
founder of the present dynasty; the _Ebisu_, who are probably to be
identified with the Ainu; and the _Seki-Manzi_, "Stone-Men," also
located in the southern island of Kiu-shiu. The last-mentioned, of whom,
however, little further is known, seem to have some claim to be
associated with the above described remains of early man in Japan[584].
In the extreme west the present Mongol peoples, being quite recent
intruders, can in no way be connected with the abundant prehistoric
relics daily brought to light in that region (South Russia, the Balkan
Peninsula, Hungary). The same remark applies even to Finland itself,
which was at one time supposed to be the cradle of the Finnish people,
but is now shown to have been first occupied by Germanic tribes. From an
exhaustive study of the bronze-yielding tumuli A. Hackman[585] concludes
that the population of the Bronze Period was Teutonic, and in this he
agrees both with Montelius and with W. Thomsen. The latter holds on
linguistic grounds that at the beginning of the new era the Finns still
dwelt east of the Gulf of Finland, whence they moved west in later
times.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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