Lake Nojiri 3.55

Lake Nojiri is in the town of Shinano, Kamiminochi District, Nagano Prefecture, Japan. Second to Lake Suwa among lakes in Nagano Prefecture, Nojiri is a resort, the location of the first pumped-storage hydroelectricity in Japan, and the site of a Japanese Paleolithic excavation.Data Transparency: 5–7 mFishingThe lake rarely freezes over in the winter. "Dome boats," outfitted with stoves, catch smelt in Lake Nojiri. The lake was once the home of native Japanese trout but now is home to bass from the USA..Tategahana Paleolithic SiteIn 1946, a tusk of Palaeoloxodon naumanni (Naumann's Elephant, named in honor of the geologist Heinrich Edmund Naumann, 1854–1927) was discovered accidentally. In 1962, excavations began at the edge and on the bottom of the lake. The location was a promontory known as Tategahana on the western shore. Discoveries included implements of stone and bone, fossils of Palaeoloxodon naumanni, and of deer. Analyses of diatoms, pollen, paleomagnetism, and volcanic ash place the site, with its fossils of humans and megafauna, in the Paleolithic, the Pleistocene, about 40,000 years ago. Kondo et al. conclude that Tategahana is a "kill-butchering site."