is in the town of Shinano

Shinano, Nagano

is a town located in Kamiminochi District, Nagano, Japan.As of 2005, the town has an estimated population of 9,851 and a density of 65.99 persons per km². The total area is 149.27 km²....

, Kamiminochi District, Nagano Prefecture

Nagano Prefecture

is a prefecture of Japan located in the Chūbu region of the island of Honshū. The capital is the city of Nagano.- History :Nagano was formerly known as the province of Shinano...

, Japan

Japan

Japan is an island nation in East Asia. Located in the Pacific Ocean, it lies to the east of the Sea of Japan, China, North Korea, South Korea and Russia, stretching from the Sea of Okhotsk in the north to the East China Sea and Taiwan in the south...

. Second to Lake Suwa

Lake Suwa

is a lake in the central part of Nagano Prefecture, Japan. It ranks 24th in Japan in surface area.Lake Suwa is the site of , an interesting natural phenomenon. The lake has a natural hot spring under the surface, so that when the top freezes in the winter, the lower waters are still warm and...

 among lakes in Nagano Prefecture, Nojiri is a resort, the location of the first pumped-storage hydroelectricity

Pumped-storage hydroelectricity

Pumped-storage hydroelectricity is a type of hydroelectric power generation used by some power plants for load balancing. The method stores energy in the form of water, pumped from a lower elevation reservoir to a higher elevation. Low-cost off-peak electric power is used to run the pumps...

 in Japan

Japan

Japan is an island nation in East Asia. Located in the Pacific Ocean, it lies to the east of the Sea of Japan, China, North Korea, South Korea and Russia, stretching from the Sea of Okhotsk in the north to the East China Sea and Taiwan in the south...

, and the site of a paleolithic excavation.

Fishing

The lake rarely freezes over in the winter. "Dome boats," outfitted with stoves, catch smelt (Hypomesus nipponensis

Hypomesus nipponensis

Also called wakasagi, Hypomesus nipponensis is an important food fish native to the lakes and estuaries of Hokkaido, Japan, although it has been introduced to other locations, including the San Francisco Delta of the United States....

) in Lake Nojiri.

Tategahana Paleolithic Site

In 1946, a tusk of Palaeoloxodon

Palaeoloxodon

Palaeoloxodon is an extinct subgenus of elephants, containing the various species of straight-tusked elephant. Its species' remains have been found in Bilzingsleben, Germany; Cyprus; Japan; Sicily; Malta; and recently in England during the excavation of the second Channel Tunnel. The English...

 naumanni (named in honor of the O-yatoi gaikokujin

O-yatoi gaikokujin

The Foreign government advisors in Meiji Japan, known in Japanese as oyatoi gaikokujin , were those foreign advisors hired by the Japanese government for their specialized knowledge to assist in the modernization of Japan at the end of the Bakufu and during the Meiji era. The term is sometimes...

 Heinrich Edmund Naumann, 1854–1927) was discovered accidentally. In 1962, excavations began at the edge and on the bottom of the lake. The location was a promontory, on the western shore, known as Tategahana. Discoveries included implements of stone and bone, fossils of Palaeoloxodon naumanni, and of deer. Analyses of diatom

Diatom

Diatoms are a major group of algae, and are one of the most common types of phytoplankton. Most diatoms are unicellular, although they can exist as colonies in the shape of filaments or ribbons , fans , zigzags , or stellate colonies . Diatoms are producers within the food chain...

s, pollen

Pollen

Pollen is a fine to coarse powder containing the microgametophytes of seed plants, which produce the male gametes . Pollen grains have a hard coat that protects the sperm cells during the process of their movement from the stamens to the pistil of flowering plants or from the male cone to the...

, paleomagnetism

Paleomagnetism

Paleomagnetism is the study of the record of the Earth's magnetic field in rocks. Certain minerals in rocks lock-in a record of the direction and intensity of the magnetic field when they form. This record provides information on the past behavior of Earth's magnetic field and the past location of...

, and volcanic ash

Volcanic ash

Volcanic ash consists of small tephra, which are bits of pulverized rock and glass created by volcanic eruptions, less than in diameter. There are three mechanisms of volcanic ash formation: gas release under decompression causing magmatic eruptions; thermal contraction from chilling on contact...

 place the site, with its fossils of humans and megafauna, in the Paleolithic

Paleolithic

The Paleolithic Age, Era or Period, is a prehistoric period of human history distinguished by the development of the most primitive stone tools discovered , and covers roughly 99% of human technological prehistory...

, the Pleistocene

Pleistocene

The Pleistocene is the epoch from 2,588,000 to 11,700 years BP that spans the world's recent period of repeated glaciations. The name pleistocene is derived from the Greek and ....

, about 40,000 years ago. Kondo et al. conclude that Tategahana is a "kill-butchering site."

External links

• Explore the Heart of Japan: Lake Nojiri-ko The English guide to Lake Nojiri
• Palaeoloxodon naumanni and its environment at the paleolithic site of Lake Nojiri, Nagano Prefecture, Central Japan. The World of Elephants - International Congress, Rome 2001. Y. Kondo, N. Mazima, Nojiri-ko Research Group
• Lake Nojiri Naumann Elephant Museum (Nojiriko Museum) (some English content)