Dental Evidence on the Origins of the Ainu and Japanese

Abstract

New dental anthropological evidence on the questions of Ainu and Japanese origins illustrates the utility of diachronic dental information obtained from skeletal populations for microevolutionary and human origins investigations. Data from skeletal and dental collections of Shang Dynasty Chinese and from Jomon period and recent Ainu Japanese, together with information on recent Japanese dentition from published accounts, indicate a correlation between the ancient Chinese and modern Japanese and between the prehistoric Jomon people and the Ainu.