The emergence of food production in Neolithic Japan

Abstract

Chestnuts and walnuts, both sun-loving plants, were the most important food resources for sedentary villagers in Japan throughout the Jomon (Neolithic) period. Though morphologically these nuts were wild types, ecologically they were symbiotic with man. Given this ecological relationship, the following interrelation of Jomon period subsistence may be proposed: lowland, waterside villages, a generalized subsistence tradition comprising fishing, hunting, gathering, and farming lasted until the end of the Jomon period (ca. 2300 B.P.). In the Central Honshu Highland, specialized farming villages dependent on chestnuts and walnuts appeared in the late stage of the Early Jomon period (ca. 5500 B.P.) as an adaptation of the former tradition to this highland environment which lacks significant fish resources.