Why did People go up the Hill? Prehistoric Landscape Shifts and Neolithization of the Northern Ryukyu Archipelago, Japan

Abstract

The remote Ryukyu archipelago, which runs from southern Japan southwest to Taiwan, is located in the subtropical zone, and consists of small coral and volcanic islands, with mainland Okinawa, the largest island, forming the main centre of settlement. Most of the islands are surrounded by coral reefs, beach sand dunes, and interior terraces lower than 700 m above mean sea level (amsl). Throughout human history, these geographical factors have conditioned the formation of cultural landscapes across the archipelago. Neolithic innovations and developments on these islands resulted in significant cultural landscape shifts, evidencing a unique Ryukyu trajectory of Neolithization that was quite different from those taking place elsewhere in the East Asian Inland Seas. In particular, major settlement and subsistence shifts on the islands mark the change from nomadic lifeways to increasing sedentism in the interior uplands between 4000 and 2500 BP, and a subsequent shift to lower coastal locations.