Artifacts of the Kuril Islands

The artifacts recovered from excavations throughout Sakhalin and the Kuril Islands a diverse both in terms of their compostion, their uses, and the timing of their creation. Most sites are dominated by ceramics (including cord marked Epi-Jomon pottery originating from Japan), lithics (including stone tools and debitage waste), and even bone tools.

While a well defined chronology that incorporates the 2000 excavations has not yet been developed, the artifacts give us a good sense of the time depth preserved throught the Kuril Island archipelago. From current artifactual evidence it appears that some cultural layers may date to the Epi-Jomon period (which lasted from 2250 - 1300 years B.P.). More recent finds may be attributable to the Historic Ainu populations, which have thrived in the Kuril islands from about 800 years BP until present.

In the future we hope to present a database of all artifacts collected during the Summer 2000 field season, artifacts which are now housed in the Regional Museum of Sakhalin in Yuzhno-Sakhalinsk, Russia.

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