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History of the Relationship between People and Lake Biwa

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Lake Biwa: Interactions between Nature and People

Abstract

Several knife-shaped stone implements typical of the late Paleolithic period have been recovered from the bottom and shores of Lake Biwa, indicating that humans were in the area during this period, approximately 20,000 years ago. From the early Jomon Period, the neopaleolithic period of the Japanese Islands that started approximately 15,000 years ago, there is evidence that people had further colonized the areas around the lake. Such evidence includes the discovery of more than 30 Jomon dugout canoes (maruki-bune), the largest number discovered in Japan, along with the existence of over 100 underwater sites, including the world’s largest freshwater shell-mound, the Awazu shell-mound. This reveals that humans have thrived around the lake since ancient times.

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. Lake Biwa Museum, 1091 Oroshimo-cho, Kusatsu, Shiga, 525-0001, Japan

    Masaharu Yoda

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  1. Masaharu Yoda
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Correspondence to Masaharu Yoda , Masaharu Yoda , Fumio Ueda , Yozo Yokota , Shuhei Hosokawa , Masaharu Yoda , Michinori Hashimoto , Eiji Hatanaka , Kumi Makino , Masaharu Yoda , Shizuyo Sano , Masaharu Yoda , Masaharu Yoda or Masayuki Kido .

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Editors and Affiliations

  1. Lake Biwa Museum, Oroshimo 1091, Kusatsu, 525-0001, Shiga, Japan

    Hiroya Kawanabe

  2. Research Institute, Lake Biwa Environmental, Yanagasaki 5-34, Otsu, Shiga, Japan

    Machiko Nishino

  3. Lake Biwa Museum, Oroshimo 1091, Kusatsu, 525-0001, Shiga, Japan

    Masayoshi Maehata

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Yoda, M. (2012). History of the Relationship between People and Lake Biwa. In: Kawanabe, H., Nishino, M., Maehata, M. (eds) Lake Biwa: Interactions between Nature and People. Springer, Dordrecht. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-94-007-1783-1_4

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