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Myōkō-Togakushi Renzan NP, Nagano
Claim this place to tell your story your way.
Lake Nojiri’s fossil story began in 1948: lakeside innkeeper Matsunosuke Kato spotted a tooth-shaped fossil like a hot-water bottle and took it to a local elementary school.
The planned trench in 1962 came up empty. Near quitting time, Niigata middle-schoolers dug by the supply pile and found a Naumann elephant femur, rescuing the first excavation.
“Moon and Star” is the name for a Naumann elephant tusk and Yabe giant-deer antler found nestled together. Excavators wondered if people arranged them; the pairing alone cannot prove it.
No underwater diving here: in March, water used for hydroelectric power lowers Lake Nojiri enough to expose the lakebed. Volunteers excavate the newly dry shore where Ice Age remains lie.
During the 2008 dig, a local inn served visiting excavators meals made with vegetables it grew itself and kept lodging affordable. A little homegrown hospitality supported a 10-day, nationwide science effort.
About 22,000 schoolchildren and other volunteers have taken part in the excavations. The museum credits finders by name on exhibit labels—and says some later return to visit the very fossil they found.
A stone flake was found with animal fossils in 1964; a second appeared the next day. Yet no human bones or direct proof of elephant hunting have turned up, so whether this was a kill site remains debated.
In 1975, 3,600 people joined a single dig that produced over 10,000 finds. Carefully peeling thin sediment layers exposed Yabe giant-deer footprints and trails left by aquatic insects.
A schoolchild at the 1984 dig spotted what experts thought might be fossilized Yabe giant-deer dung. It’s a delightfully unexpected find—and a good example of why many eyes matter.
A puzzling 40 cm hollow was finally identified as a Naumann elephant footprint in 1990. After 3 years of preparation and overnight digging, the team confirmed it on the excavation’s very last day.
Yabe giant deer were no small side characters: their fossils are the second most common at Nojiri, and a palm-shaped antler spread about 1.8 m from tip to tip.
In 1987, excavators found a hatchet-shaped “cleaver” made from Naumann elephant bone. It’s an Ice Age tool fashioned from the remains of one of the great animals of this lakeside landscape.
Pollen fossils just 0.01 mm across help reveal the vegetation of Nojiri’s Ice Age. The museum says the period around 40,000 years ago was roughly 4–5°C cooler than today.
Naumann elephants had a prominent forehead bulge that the museum compares to a beret. Males stood 2.4–2.8 m tall at the back, while females were around 2 m—handy details to spot on the life-size model.
