Yasuhisa Kondo – författare

This commemorative volume honours Professor Yoshihiro Nishiaki on the occasion of his completion of a term as full professor at The University of Tokyo in March 2026. It celebrates his career which has shaped the study of West Asian prehistoric archaeology and influenced generations of scholars worldwide.Over several decades, Professor Nishiaki has played a leading role in advancing archaeological research across West Asia, directing major field expeditions in Syria, Iran, Turkey, Azerbaijan, and Uzbekistan. These projects have produced a remarkable body of influential scholarship and have significantly expanded knowledge of prehistoric societies in the region. Equally important has been his dedication to the curation of archaeological collections at the University Museum, The University of Tokyo, ensuring the preservation, accessibility, and scholarly use of invaluable materials.Professor Nishiaki’s impact extends well beyond his own research. Through leadership in international and interdisciplinary collaborations, he has built enduring research networks. As an educator and mentor, he has provided students and early-career researchers with exceptional opportunities for fieldwork and training. While widely recognised for his expertise in lithic analysis, his guidance has encouraged diverse research trajectories, including pottery studies, zooarchaeology, archaeobotany, ritual practices, and settlement archaeology.

This book provides an overview of the archaeological sites and cultural assemblages in the world and presents an archaeological database that has been established through two large-scale research projects conducted between 2010 and 2022. The projects were Replacement of the Neanderthals by Modern Humans (2010–2015) and The Cultural History of PaleoAsia (2016–2022), both of which were carried out with the aid of the Japanese Government. They deal with multi-disciplinary studies of the demise of more archaic hominins and the survival of anatomically modern humans. Although the database is designated PaleoAsiaDB, which may imply a focus on Asia, it incorporates the dataset collected from Africa and Europe by the Replacement of the Neanderthals by Modern Humans project. PaleoAsiaDB provides a list of more than 3,300 sites and 7,600 cultural assemblages of the Middle and Upper Paleolithic (Middle and Late Stone Age) of the Eastern Hemisphere as of 2020. This database is the first attempt ofits kind to document the related sites of 200-20ka. The full version of the database is available at the University Museum on the University of Tokyo homepage.

This book provides an overview of the archaeological sites and cultural assemblages in the world and presents an archaeological database that has been established through two large-scale research projects conducted between 2010 and 2022. The projects were Replacement of the Neanderthals by Modern Humans (2010–2015) and The Cultural History of PaleoAsia (2016–2022), both of which were carried out with the aid of the Japanese Government. They deal with multi-disciplinary studies of the demise of more archaic hominins and the survival of anatomically modern humans. Although the database is designated PaleoAsiaDB, which may imply a focus on Asia, it incorporates the dataset collected from Africa and Europe by the Replacement of the Neanderthals by Modern Humans project. PaleoAsiaDB provides a list of more than 3,300 sites and 7,600 cultural assemblages of the Middle and Upper Paleolithic (Middle and Late Stone Age) of the Eastern Hemisphere as of 2020. This database is the first attempt ofits kind to document the related sites of 200-20ka. The full version of the database is available at the University Museum on the University of Tokyo homepage.