Rethinking Microblade Technology Research in Northeastern Asia

Microblade technology was widely adopted in northeastern Asia during the Late Upper Paleolithic, which was represented by various types of microcores in Siberia, Mongolia, northern China, the Korean Peninsula, and the Japanese Archipelago, as well as northwestern North America in eastern Beringia. Although some works have turned to technology-function-oriented research, most of the current studies follow a culture-historical paradigm, which has severely limited archaeological investigation on variation and change of hunter-gatherers’ adaptive strategies equipped with microblade technology. This paper aims to provide a new viewpoint to investigate the role of microblade technology in the development of human adaptations in northeastern Asia, by proposing a new concept: “microblade-based societies.” Assuming that paleoenvironmental changes stimulated cultural changes due to available food resources and that local environment conditioned cultural variation, the development of microblade-based societies can be divided into four phases (c.40–22 kya, 22–15 kya, 15–10 kya, 10–c.1 kya uncal. BP) in four regions (north continental, south continental, north insular, and south insular). Two waves of cultural change among microblade-based societies are also recognized in this paper, which needs a macroecological approach to do further explanation.