# Early settlement of the Japanese archipelago (-38000)

URL: https://history-japan.com/timeline/-38000-early-settlement-of-the-japanese-archipelago
Location: Japan
Categories: main-event

Archaeological evidence places human communities in the archipelago by roughly 40,000 years ago or earlier. Stone tools reveal mobile hunter-gatherers adapting to environments very different from modern Japan. The date is approximate and does not mark the arrival of a single founding population.

Ruler at the time: [Paleolithic period](https://history-japan.com/rulers/paleolithic-period)

## Sources
- [en.wikipedia.org](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Japanese_Paleolithic)