In Nagano, an excavation of Japan’s ancient elephant looks to rewrite history
Talisker Scott Hunter
"Statues of Naumann's elephant in Shinano near the Nojiriko Naumann Elephant Museum | TALISKER SCOTT HUNTER "
Shinano, Nagano Pref. – It’s a Saturday in late March and many residents and tourists in Nagano Prefecture are savoring the last snows atop the region’s world-class ski resorts. Along the shores of Lake Nojiri, however, all eyes are fixed on the cold, gritty soil.
Therein lies a lost giant: Naumann’s elephant, a species that roamed Japan over 40,000 years ago.
The cherry blossoms may be blooming elsewhere, but on this frigid afternoon the high country winter clings on. Listless, chilly fog curls around Nojiri’s mountainous parapet, regularly delivering rain and icy gusts to the excavators below. Behind them a torii gate sits far offshore, barely visible through the haze.
Ranging in age from 8 to 80, the hunters pay little mind to Nojiri’s breathtaking scenery, nor does the foul weather dampen their enthusiasm.
“It’s exciting!” exclaims Sae Okoushi, a second-year geology student at Yamaguchi University, up to her ankles in mud. She says her findings have the potential to change the course of Japanese biology — maybe even Japanese history.
The director of the Nojiriko Naumann Elephant Museum, Yoichi Kondo, agrees. If this archaeological dig can uncover fossils that prove people hunted the animal, it might mean humans arrived in Japan much earlier than previously thought.
Historical implications aside, the fossilized remains of this Japanese giant have yet more to offer. Aside from nurturing the next generation of scientists, Nojiri’s ragtag crew of elephant hunters are uncovering valuable knowledge to aid Japan’s ongoing struggles with climate change.
A bygone giant
Naumann’s elephant — named for the German geologist who recorded the first fossils in the Meiji Era (1868 to 1912) — stood between 2 and 2.8 meters, roughly the same height as today’s Asian elephant. Unlike its contemporary cousin, the woolly mammoth, Naumann’s elephant was not covered in thick hair, although, like mammoths, it had a protruding forehead and flourished long, curved tusks.
People carry out an excavation looking for fossils related to Naumann’s elephant on the shore of Lake Nojiri in Shinano, Nagano Prefecture, on March 25. | TALISKER SCOTT HUNTER
Fossils belonging to Naumann’s elephant have been reported across 300 sites throughout Japan: from Hokkaido to Kagoshima and even beneath Nihonbashi Station in Tokyo. But most of them, Kondo says, have been found near Nojiri.
The oldest of these fossils date to around 330,000 years ago, when it is believed the elephant’s ancestors migrated across a prehistoric land bridge between Japan and mainland Asia.
Ancient vegetation found alongside these fossils suggests the elephant inhabited forests and wetlands not unlike those found among Japan’s high country today. The creature’s thick limbs were particularly well-suited to Japan’s mountainous terrain.
Kondo says this adaptation is an example of what makes Naumann’s elephant fascinating.
“It evolved in Japan, it only resided in Japan and it became extinct in Japan,” Kondo says, adding that it is the largest creature to have walked solely among the Japanese islands.
“It’s interesting because it interacted only with the Japanese environment,” he says. “It’s a really valuable piece of Japanese history.”
Yoichi Kondo, director of the Nojiriko Naumann Elephant Museum | TALISKER SCOTT HUNTER
Nojiri’s elephants lived alongside several other mammals, including the aforementioned woolly mammoth, a species of giant deer and quite possibly humans.
The scientific consensus is that humans arrived in Japan between 30,000 and 35,000 years ago. This places humans in the archipelago at the same time as Naumann’s elephant, which went extinct around 26,000 years ago.
Humans may have interacted with Naumann’s elephant and possibly even hunted the creature. However, Keiichi Takahashi, director of Shiga Prefecture’s Lake Biwa Museum, dedicated to Japan’s oldest and largest lake, notes that this is still up for debate. For one, both populations would have been quite small during this period of crossover, he says.
As the debate continues into 2023, all eyes are on Lake Nojiri. In past excavations, scores of what appear to be tools were unearthed alongside elephant remains, some of which are 40,000 years old. These suggest humans not only hunted Naumann’s elephant, but that they also inhabited Japan 10,000 years earlier than previously thought.
However, Takahashi is quick to point out that an array of spearhead-shaped stones is not enough to prove such profound conclusions.
Ichiro Sasagawa, the director of this year’s excavation, says decisive evidence could include strategic cut marks on bones in addition to findings that are clearly tools — including knives and sharpening implements — discovered in or directly alongside elephant remains.
So far, hundreds of excavations have failed to unearth such clear evidence. Sasagawa hopes that this dig will be different, although any “eureka moment” may not come until scientists have had time to examine this year’s findings.
Unearthing Naumann’s elephant
In winter, Nagano satisfies its energy demands by draining Lake Nojiri into the region’s hydroelectric dams — come spring, the lake is several meters lower than usual. In 1948, this process revealed the area’s first Naumann’s elephant fossils and has since made subsequent excavations possible.
The eighth day of the dig, comprising a hodgepodge of tents and muddy pits behind a collapsed hotel, is a hive of excitement. Some 60 raincoat-clad onlookers — among them academics, museum staff, teachers and children — huddle around a collection of dark patches at the bottom of a trench. Wrestling with a microphone and an extended pole for pointing, a presenter tells the assembled crowd that these marks are likely the footprints of giant deer.
Ichiro Sasagawa (left), the director of this year’s excavation, and Kondo on the shore of Lake Nojiri in Shinano, Nagano Prefecture, on March 25 | TALISKER SCOTT HUNTER
Sasagawa says these footprints are preserved in ash from a volcanic eruption some 40,000 years ago. A great find, he adds, but not what he was hoping for.
“We’re trying to find a kill site,” he says, explaining that, because their prehistoric quarry weighed several tons, early humans would have had to butcher Naumann’s elephants where they fell. Signs of a kill site include stone tools, unnaturally arranged remains and x-shaped marks on fossils — a telltale sign of humans seeking to break bones to get at the marrow within.
Finding such evidence might not only extend Japan’s human history by several millennia, it could also help definitively solve another mystery surrounding Naumann’s elephant: how it became extinct.
“There are several hypotheses for this,” explains Takahashi, stressing this extinction was not the result of a single cataclysmic event. Rather, he says, a series of gradual changes reduced the population of Naumann’s elephant to the point where it could no longer sustain itself.
Takahashi believes environmental changes led to the deaths of the last Japanese elephants.
“The temperature changes and corresponding vegetation changes during the time when Naumann’s elephant lived in Japan have been well studied,” he explains. “These temperature changes are known as Milankovitch cycles, which are caused by the periodic changes in Earth’s orbital path.”
The most recent of these temperature changes, also known as the Ice Age, drastically altered Japan’s environment. The earlier start of harsher winters disrupted annual migration patterns, making it harder for the elephants to find ever-scarcer food and even rarer mates. By the time this era reached its chilly zenith around 20,000 years ago, the last of Japan’s native elephants had died.
Kondo, however, believes humans also played a key role.
“This kind of cooling and heating of the planet has happened four or five times, and (Naumann’s elephant) always managed to survive until the last time,” he says. “There’s no doubt that when the climate became harsher … the number of the elephants got smaller and smaller. So in that time, they would usually gather together and take refuge. … When they took refuge and the numbers were low, it’s possible that humans came into the picture as well.”
Children help with an excavation looking for fossils related to Naumann’s elephant on the shore of Lake Nojiri in Shinano, Nagano Prefecture, on March 25. | TALISKER SCOTT HUNTER
Somewhere like Lake Nojiri, a sheltered alpine bowl offering both plentiful food and fresh water, would have made an ideal refuge. Perhaps the last beleaguered elephants were set upon by a hunting party, 40,000 years ago, along Nojiri’s tranquil, muddy shoreline.
Even if that were true, the scale of human influence is hard to discern. According to Sasagawa, while humans may have played a role in the extinction of Naumann’s elephant, it was likely very small.
“It’s possible that humans were one of the main influences, but it’s not very likely, because the number (of humans) wasn’t that great yet,” he says, just as the rain picks up again. Behind him, a 6-year-old boy in a Minions beanie, undeterred by the deluge, digs a small muddy hole several meters from the dig site.
Lessons from Japan’s lost giant
Like Naumann’s elephant, the world is now staring down a climate catastrophe. According to Takahashi, the only thing that has so far prevented us from joining our long-dead cohabitants in extinction is the ability to modify Earth to guarantee our survival.
At its peak, the period of global cooling that is believed to have pushed Naumann’s elephant to extinction was just 5 degrees Celsius cooler than the present. This seemingly trivial, single-digit change in global temperature eliminated a species that confidently roamed Japan for over 200,000 years. Today, scientists warn that a similarly small temperature change — just 2 degrees of warming — could cause catastrophic damage to human society and the ecosystems we rely on.
| TALISKER SCOTT HUNTER
The central government is pursuing a series of efforts to curtail Japan’s emissions and preserve biodiversity. From pledging to attain carbon neutrality to saving the Japanese giant salamander, the fight against man-made climate change calls for a host of efforts informed by a comprehensive understanding of our planet.
In this regard, the study of Naumann’s elephant is relevant and valuable. “Understanding why this elephant went extinct could potentially help us understand why animals go extinct and how they interact with climate change,” says Kondo.
Sasagawa agrees. “The most important thing we can learn is about how humans can coexist,” he says. “If we can learn about the extinction of (Naumann’s elephant), then we can learn how to prevent further extinctions and learn how to coexist with nature.”
Talisker Scott Hunter
"Statues of Naumann's elephant in Shinano near the Nojiriko Naumann Elephant Museum | TALISKER SCOTT HUNTER "
Shinano, Nagano Pref. – It’s a Saturday in late March and many residents and tourists in Nagano Prefecture are savoring the last snows atop the region’s world-class ski resorts. Along the shores of Lake Nojiri, however, all eyes are fixed on the cold, gritty soil.
Therein lies a lost giant: Naumann’s elephant, a species that roamed Japan over 40,000 years ago.
The cherry blossoms may be blooming elsewhere, but on this frigid afternoon the high country winter clings on. Listless, chilly fog curls around Nojiri’s mountainous parapet, regularly delivering rain and icy gusts to the excavators below. Behind them a torii gate sits far offshore, barely visible through the haze.
Ranging in age from 8 to 80, the hunters pay little mind to Nojiri’s breathtaking scenery, nor does the foul weather dampen their enthusiasm.
“It’s exciting!” exclaims Sae Okoushi, a second-year geology student at Yamaguchi University, up to her ankles in mud. She says her findings have the potential to change the course of Japanese biology — maybe even Japanese history.
The director of the Nojiriko Naumann Elephant Museum, Yoichi Kondo, agrees. If this archaeological dig can uncover fossils that prove people hunted the animal, it might mean humans arrived in Japan much earlier than previously thought.
Historical implications aside, the fossilized remains of this Japanese giant have yet more to offer. Aside from nurturing the next generation of scientists, Nojiri’s ragtag crew of elephant hunters are uncovering valuable knowledge to aid Japan’s ongoing struggles with climate change.
A bygone giant
Naumann’s elephant — named for the German geologist who recorded the first fossils in the Meiji Era (1868 to 1912) — stood between 2 and 2.8 meters, roughly the same height as today’s Asian elephant. Unlike its contemporary cousin, the woolly mammoth, Naumann’s elephant was not covered in thick hair, although, like mammoths, it had a protruding forehead and flourished long, curved tusks.
People carry out an excavation looking for fossils related to Naumann’s elephant on the shore of Lake Nojiri in Shinano, Nagano Prefecture, on March 25. | TALISKER SCOTT HUNTER
Fossils belonging to Naumann’s elephant have been reported across 300 sites throughout Japan: from Hokkaido to Kagoshima and even beneath Nihonbashi Station in Tokyo. But most of them, Kondo says, have been found near Nojiri.
The oldest of these fossils date to around 330,000 years ago, when it is believed the elephant’s ancestors migrated across a prehistoric land bridge between Japan and mainland Asia.
Ancient vegetation found alongside these fossils suggests the elephant inhabited forests and wetlands not unlike those found among Japan’s high country today. The creature’s thick limbs were particularly well-suited to Japan’s mountainous terrain.
Kondo says this adaptation is an example of what makes Naumann’s elephant fascinating.
“It evolved in Japan, it only resided in Japan and it became extinct in Japan,” Kondo says, adding that it is the largest creature to have walked solely among the Japanese islands.
“It’s interesting because it interacted only with the Japanese environment,” he says. “It’s a really valuable piece of Japanese history.”
Yoichi Kondo, director of the Nojiriko Naumann Elephant Museum | TALISKER SCOTT HUNTER
Nojiri’s elephants lived alongside several other mammals, including the aforementioned woolly mammoth, a species of giant deer and quite possibly humans.
The scientific consensus is that humans arrived in Japan between 30,000 and 35,000 years ago. This places humans in the archipelago at the same time as Naumann’s elephant, which went extinct around 26,000 years ago.
Humans may have interacted with Naumann’s elephant and possibly even hunted the creature. However, Keiichi Takahashi, director of Shiga Prefecture’s Lake Biwa Museum, dedicated to Japan’s oldest and largest lake, notes that this is still up for debate. For one, both populations would have been quite small during this period of crossover, he says.
As the debate continues into 2023, all eyes are on Lake Nojiri. In past excavations, scores of what appear to be tools were unearthed alongside elephant remains, some of which are 40,000 years old. These suggest humans not only hunted Naumann’s elephant, but that they also inhabited Japan 10,000 years earlier than previously thought.
However, Takahashi is quick to point out that an array of spearhead-shaped stones is not enough to prove such profound conclusions.
Ichiro Sasagawa, the director of this year’s excavation, says decisive evidence could include strategic cut marks on bones in addition to findings that are clearly tools — including knives and sharpening implements — discovered in or directly alongside elephant remains.
So far, hundreds of excavations have failed to unearth such clear evidence. Sasagawa hopes that this dig will be different, although any “eureka moment” may not come until scientists have had time to examine this year’s findings.
Unearthing Naumann’s elephant
In winter, Nagano satisfies its energy demands by draining Lake Nojiri into the region’s hydroelectric dams — come spring, the lake is several meters lower than usual. In 1948, this process revealed the area’s first Naumann’s elephant fossils and has since made subsequent excavations possible.
The eighth day of the dig, comprising a hodgepodge of tents and muddy pits behind a collapsed hotel, is a hive of excitement. Some 60 raincoat-clad onlookers — among them academics, museum staff, teachers and children — huddle around a collection of dark patches at the bottom of a trench. Wrestling with a microphone and an extended pole for pointing, a presenter tells the assembled crowd that these marks are likely the footprints of giant deer.
Ichiro Sasagawa (left), the director of this year’s excavation, and Kondo on the shore of Lake Nojiri in Shinano, Nagano Prefecture, on March 25 | TALISKER SCOTT HUNTER
Sasagawa says these footprints are preserved in ash from a volcanic eruption some 40,000 years ago. A great find, he adds, but not what he was hoping for.
“We’re trying to find a kill site,” he says, explaining that, because their prehistoric quarry weighed several tons, early humans would have had to butcher Naumann’s elephants where they fell. Signs of a kill site include stone tools, unnaturally arranged remains and x-shaped marks on fossils — a telltale sign of humans seeking to break bones to get at the marrow within.
Finding such evidence might not only extend Japan’s human history by several millennia, it could also help definitively solve another mystery surrounding Naumann’s elephant: how it became extinct.
“There are several hypotheses for this,” explains Takahashi, stressing this extinction was not the result of a single cataclysmic event. Rather, he says, a series of gradual changes reduced the population of Naumann’s elephant to the point where it could no longer sustain itself.
Takahashi believes environmental changes led to the deaths of the last Japanese elephants.
“The temperature changes and corresponding vegetation changes during the time when Naumann’s elephant lived in Japan have been well studied,” he explains. “These temperature changes are known as Milankovitch cycles, which are caused by the periodic changes in Earth’s orbital path.”
The most recent of these temperature changes, also known as the Ice Age, drastically altered Japan’s environment. The earlier start of harsher winters disrupted annual migration patterns, making it harder for the elephants to find ever-scarcer food and even rarer mates. By the time this era reached its chilly zenith around 20,000 years ago, the last of Japan’s native elephants had died.
Kondo, however, believes humans also played a key role.
“This kind of cooling and heating of the planet has happened four or five times, and (Naumann’s elephant) always managed to survive until the last time,” he says. “There’s no doubt that when the climate became harsher … the number of the elephants got smaller and smaller. So in that time, they would usually gather together and take refuge. … When they took refuge and the numbers were low, it’s possible that humans came into the picture as well.”
Children help with an excavation looking for fossils related to Naumann’s elephant on the shore of Lake Nojiri in Shinano, Nagano Prefecture, on March 25. | TALISKER SCOTT HUNTER
Somewhere like Lake Nojiri, a sheltered alpine bowl offering both plentiful food and fresh water, would have made an ideal refuge. Perhaps the last beleaguered elephants were set upon by a hunting party, 40,000 years ago, along Nojiri’s tranquil, muddy shoreline.
Even if that were true, the scale of human influence is hard to discern. According to Sasagawa, while humans may have played a role in the extinction of Naumann’s elephant, it was likely very small.
“It’s possible that humans were one of the main influences, but it’s not very likely, because the number (of humans) wasn’t that great yet,” he says, just as the rain picks up again. Behind him, a 6-year-old boy in a Minions beanie, undeterred by the deluge, digs a small muddy hole several meters from the dig site.
Lessons from Japan’s lost giant
Like Naumann’s elephant, the world is now staring down a climate catastrophe. According to Takahashi, the only thing that has so far prevented us from joining our long-dead cohabitants in extinction is the ability to modify Earth to guarantee our survival.
At its peak, the period of global cooling that is believed to have pushed Naumann’s elephant to extinction was just 5 degrees Celsius cooler than the present. This seemingly trivial, single-digit change in global temperature eliminated a species that confidently roamed Japan for over 200,000 years. Today, scientists warn that a similarly small temperature change — just 2 degrees of warming — could cause catastrophic damage to human society and the ecosystems we rely on.
| TALISKER SCOTT HUNTER
The central government is pursuing a series of efforts to curtail Japan’s emissions and preserve biodiversity. From pledging to attain carbon neutrality to saving the Japanese giant salamander, the fight against man-made climate change calls for a host of efforts informed by a comprehensive understanding of our planet.
In this regard, the study of Naumann’s elephant is relevant and valuable. “Understanding why this elephant went extinct could potentially help us understand why animals go extinct and how they interact with climate change,” says Kondo.
Sasagawa agrees. “The most important thing we can learn is about how humans can coexist,” he says. “If we can learn about the extinction of (Naumann’s elephant), then we can learn how to prevent further extinctions and learn how to coexist with nature.”
Similar Readings (5 items)
Rare artwork found showing elephant rescue in 1923 Kanto quake chaos
Fossil found in Japan identified as new species of prehistoric mosasaur
Museum launches contest to name ancient 'cat head'
Fossil-hunting event held at central Japan beach where dinosaur parts were found
Dolphins a source of strength for Noto guesthouse owner
Summary
Archaeological excavation in Nagano, Japan discovers fossils of Naumann's elephant, a species that roamed the region over 40,000 years ago. The findings could potentially rewrite Japanese history by suggesting humans arrived earlier than previously thought and offer insights into climate change.