Minatogawa Man

[1][2][3][4][5] The skeletons were found at the Minatogawa limestone quarry, located 10 km (6 mi) south of Naha, near the southern tip of the island.

Skeleton IV, in particular, was found as two sets of bones separated by a couple of meters; his skull has a perforation that seems to have been caused by a sharp hard point, and his left and right arms seem to have been fractured the same way.

[3] Geologists have estimated that the fissure was created by an uplifting that bent and fractured the limestone rock layers, more than 100,000 years ago.

[9] Previously it was suggested that the Minatogawa specimens may have not been closely related to other Jomon period samples or modern Japanese people.

However, recent DNA analyses revealed genetic links to both Jomon and Japanese people, as well as to the broader East Asian population cluster.

The Minatogawa specimens' genetic type, based on extracted DNA alleles, was found to be common among modern Japanese peoples, Jomon and Yayoi samples, although being not their direct ancestor.