Primorye area  (Group leader not yet appointed)

Neolithisation: 2000BC-7^th c AD; Modernisation: 18-19^th c

Area Area around the Peter the Great Bay

Reasons for selection:

(1) Pr. area is situated on the other side of the Japan Sea from Northern Honshu and Hokkaido, and has a sub-arctic climate;

(2) Can be compared with the Northern part of Japan owing to its climate and long-term foraging society;

(3) Trading activities with Hokkaido and Honshu since Palaeolithic times;

(4) Formation of state under the influence of Jin and Qing dynasties;

(5) Half-agricultural half-foraging Tungusi peoples;

(6) Modernisation brought about by Russian imperial colonisation.

Important issues during the Neolithisation period:

(1)   Earthenware rates among the oldest in the world (around Oshipovka culture, 12 960±120BP )

(2)   Large shell-mounds can be found (Zaisanovka shellmound). Since the knowledge about subsistence activities in the region is still insufficient, the shell mounds can give us valuable information about the life style in the region.

(3)   Pr. area acts as a collision point between the South (cultures from China and Korean Peninsula) and North (cultures at the Amur River).

Important issues during the Modernisation period:

(1) The life-style of half-agricultural half-foraging Tungusi peoples.

(2) Inclusion in Qing dynasty China.

(3) Inclusion in the Russian Empire and Russian colonial influence.

(4) Foundation of Vladivostok as the military base for administrating Russian Far East.