Yu Hirasawa

Yu Hirasawa is currently a graduate student of the Northern Cultural Studies course in the Graduate School of Letters of Hokkaido University. He researches microblade assemblages of the late Pleistocene to early Holocene in the Beringia region. He is currently working on lithics from Alaskan sites to study the relationship between lithic raw materials and their variety of use. His other research interests include public and indigenous archaeology. He feels Hokkaido is a great and unique location in which to conduct archaeological studies because it has different historical and ecological backgrounds that date back to the Paleolithic. He also feels the Ainu are an important topic of discussion when researching the archaeological records of Hokkaido and believes it necessary to work with the Ainu people to properly understand the archaeology of Japanese ethno-historical variation. He obtained his undergraduate degree from the University of Oregon. He has assisted the project in Japanese-English translations and participated in our Rebun excavations.