Jomon Research Articles

青森県内遺跡出土の縄紋時代中期後葉～後期初頭の土器から得られた幼虫圧痕について

青森県内遺跡出土の縄紋時代中期後葉～後期初頭の土器から得られた幼虫圧痕について

Utilized plant resources of the middle Jomon period revealed from various plant remains at the Shitanoya site, Tokyo, Japan

Utilized plant resources of the middle Jomon period revealed from various plant remains at the Shitanoya site, Tokyo, Japan

岩下洞穴（長崎県佐世保市）出土の縄文時代早・前期人骨：特に早期人が短命であった可能性について

岩下洞穴（長崎県佐世保市）出土の縄文時代早・前期人骨：特に早期人が短命であった可能性について

Prehistoric diet and mortuary practices in the Jomon period: Isotopic evidence from human skeletal remains from the Yoshigo shell mound

Carbon and nitrogen stable isotope analysis of human bone collagen is a useful tool for clarifying the diet of prehistoric populations. The people of the Jomon period have been shown to have had a highly varied diet; however, the reasons for this dietary variation remain unclear. Therefore, the objectives of the present study were to clarify the factors that affected dietary variation among the Jomon people during the Late/Final Jomon period through stable isotope analysis of human skeletal remains from the Yoshigo shell mound in Japan, and to investigate the association between diet, sex, and mortuary variables. The carbon and nitrogen stable isotope ratios of 123 individuals from the Yoshigo shell mound were evaluated. The results indicated that the Jomon people consumed both terrestrial and marine resources with varying degrees of dependence. In addition, the following two groups were identified based on burial posture and position in the shell layer: early and late occupation groups. A comparison of these groups revealed that dependence on marine resources might have temporally decreased. Remains buried in clusters in the eastern and southern parts of the cemetery yielded low and high nitrogen isotope ratios, respectively. Associations were found between diet and burial posture in the east cluster and between diet and both sex and ornaments in the south cluster. These results suggest the presence of an association between diet and mortuary variables relative to burial clusters.

Marine Reservoir Effects Deduced from 14C Dates on Pottery Residues, Bones, and Molluskan Shells from the Hamanaka 2 Archaeological Site, Rebun Island, Hokkaido, Japan

AbstractThis article investigates the marine reservoir effects from apparent age differences among molluskan shells, birds, and sea mammals from the Hamanaka 2 archaeological site, Rebun Island, Japan, which was occupied during the latter half of the Late Jomon period (1300−1200 cal BC). The radiocarbon ages were younger in the order of charred wood<marine molluskan shells<Alcidae<Japanese sea lion≤charred materials on potsherds. According to data from molluskan shells from the site, the local marine reservoir correction (ΔR) for the Soya Warm Current, which flows near Rebun Island, was 172±39 14C yr. ΔR values of bone collagen for Alcidae (a family of seabirds) and Japanese sea lion were 289 and 389 14C yr, respectively. A ΔR value of 447±55 14C yr was obtained on charred material from the inner surfaces of potsherds at Hamanaka 2. The different reservoir effects relate to the differences in the diets or habitats of the shellfish, sea lion, and seabird remains at the site.

Review of Barbara Ambros, "Women in Japanese Religions"

(ProQuest: ... denotes non-US-ASCII text omitted.)Barbara Ambros, Women in Japanese Religions New York: NYU Press, 2015. 240 pages. Hardcover $65.00; paperback $17.00. isbn 9781479827626 (hardcover); 978-1479884063 (paperback).BARBARA AMBROS'S Women in Japanese Religions is the first book of its kind to take up the history of in Japanese religions. Although a handful of books focusing on in the Buddhist tradition have been published, apart from Women and Religion in Japan (Okuda and Okano 1998) there has been no monograph on in Japanese religions as a whole. Ambros's book fills this lacuna.The strength of Ambros's work lies both in its comprehensiveness and nuanced manner of framing her object of discussion. In her postcolonial feminist critique, Ambros treats the religious lives of Japanese over an extended period of time-from the Jomon period (ca. 10,000-300 bce) up to the present time- contextualizing their engagement in various religious traditions within the contexts of social, economic, political, and legal history. Interrogating, and acknowledging, the role of historically in Japanese society as accomplices in the expression and maintenance of patriarchal norms, she makes no concession to monumentalizing desires to portray as mere victims or heroes.Throughout the book, Ambros looks closely at women's agency in the changing social structure, and in particular, at changes in family structure. Focusing particularly on marriage patterns and inheritance rights, she analyzes a wide range of writings on and by women, insisting on looking at old sources with new eyes, and in particular, through the eyes of women (3). Ambros presents a corrective narrative of in Japanese religions based on her interdisciplinary endeavor connecting different disciplines such as sociology, anthropology, and archeology. But at times her discussion of social conditions and changes seems almost to overwhelm and supplant the discussion of religion, which is meant to be primarily illuminated.Ambros argues that were not just suffering from the sexist propaganda of Confucianism and Buddhism as conventionally described. For women, these religions, including Confucianism, Buddhism, Christianity, Shintoism, Shamanism, and new religions were an outlet to exercise their autonomy and agency. Ambros particularly identifies the Confucian-inspired family structure-that is, the virilocal, patrilineal household-as well as the increasing notion of defilement associated with major religious doctrines, as the cause of female exclusion in medieval Japanese society.In her introduction, Ambros begins with a critique of the androcentric character of previous scholarship. Certainly, Ambros's position is well taken, though her criticism of Bernard Faure is not entirely accurate. In her quick dismissal, Ambros states that his works fall in line with much existing scholarship-particularly Japanese scholarship influenced by Marxist paradigms-that depicts religion as a mere means of oppression, especially for women (2). Yet, Faure's The Power of Denial (2003) is a work that challenges the linear narrative of progress in the Marxist scholarship and, drawing upon various examples of Buddhist women, including literary representations of female divinities, demonstrates that in these contexts were not always silent, passive victims.The book consists of nine chapters. Chapter 1 examines two proto-historic representations of gender-clay figures from the Jomon period and the story of Himiko-while chapter 2 deals with mythological constructions of masculinity, femininity, and gender relations during the time when the Kojiki and Nihon shoki were compiled. Due to the fragmentary character of the surviving record from these periods, the interpretations of the examples given in these two chapters are inconclusive in informing us about the sociopolitical and religious status of at these times. …

Isotopic evidence of breastfeeding and weaning practices in a hunter–gatherer population during the Late/Final Jomon period in eastern Japan

Jomon hunter–gatherers in Japan commonly show Neolithic characteristics, such as intensive utilization of potteries, grinding stones, and many plant food sources. In this study, breastfeeding and weaning practices in a Jomon hunter–gatherer population are investigated to evaluate two hypotheses concerning the relations between utilization of potteries/plant foods and early weaning and children's diet around and after the weaning process. Stable carbon and nitrogen isotope ratios were investigated for 46 subadult and 47 adult human skeletons excavated from the Yoshigo site of the Late/Final Jomon period (approximately 4000–2300 years BP) in eastern Japan. A new analytical procedure was developed and residuals of nitrogen isotope ratios were calculated to cancel out the effect of positive correlation in the carbon and nitrogen isotope ratios. Age changes in the residuals showed that the age at the end of weaning in the Yoshigo population was 3.5 years (2.3–5.5 years in 95% credible interval), which is not younger than that in typical non-industrialized populations and the other skeletal hunter–gatherer populations. Furthermore, most infants were probably weaned using a combination of the same food sources as those eaten by adults. These results suggest that the utilization of pottery and plant food per se is not a sole determinant of the age at the end of weaning in past human populations, and a special diet was not always applied during and just after the weaning process.

A New Method of Refitting Mixture Lithic Materials by Geometric Matching of Flake Surfaces

In Japan, lithic materials are very important evidences of human activity research in the Palaeolithic and Jomon periods, while refitting lithic materials is a complex and hard task. In our previous research, it is possible to refit lithic materials from a single stone core, while it is impossible to refit them from multiple stone cores. This paper proposes a new method for refitting mixture lithic materials by matching flake surfaces. Each of the input point clouds of lithic materials is segmented and simplified to obtain flake surfaces. Then, according to several refitting principles in archeology, the lithic materials are matched starting from a stone core by searching the best matching flake surface. The flake surfaces of matched lithic materials are reconstructed, and the matching process is repeated until all data are matched. The implementation of the new method can obtain good refitting results for experimental examples.

Correction to: 'Violence in the prehistoric period of Japan: the spatio-temporal pattern of skeletal evidence for violence in the Jomon period'.

You have accessMoreSectionsView PDF ToolsAdd to favoritesDownload CitationsTrack Citations ShareShare onFacebookTwitterLinked InRedditEmail Cite this article Nakao Hisashi, Tamura Kohei, Arimatsu Yui, Nakagawa Tomomi, Matsumoto Naoko and Matsugi Takehiko 2016Correction to: ‘Violence in the prehistoric period of Japan: the spatio-temporal pattern of skeletal evidence for violence in the Jomon period’Biol. Lett.122016084720160847http://doi.org/10.1098/rsbl.2016.0847SectionSupplemental MaterialYou have accessCorrectionCorrection to: ‘Violence in the prehistoric period of Japan: the spatio-temporal pattern of skeletal evidence for violence in the Jomon period’ Hisashi Nakao Hisashi Nakao Google Scholar Find this author on PubMed Search for more papers by this author , Kohei Tamura Kohei Tamura Google Scholar Find this author on PubMed Search for more papers by this author , Yui Arimatsu Yui Arimatsu Google Scholar Find this author on PubMed Search for more papers by this author , Tomomi Nakagawa Tomomi Nakagawa Google Scholar Find this author on PubMed Search for more papers by this author , Naoko Matsumoto Naoko Matsumoto Google Scholar Find this author on PubMed Search for more papers by this author and Takehiko Matsugi Takehiko Matsugi Google Scholar Find this author on PubMed Search for more papers by this author Hisashi Nakao Hisashi Nakao Google Scholar Find this author on PubMed Search for more papers by this author , Kohei Tamura Kohei Tamura Google Scholar Find this author on PubMed Search for more papers by this author , Yui Arimatsu Yui Arimatsu Google Scholar Find this author on PubMed Search for more papers by this author , Tomomi Nakagawa Tomomi Nakagawa Google Scholar Find this author on PubMed Search for more papers by this author , Naoko Matsumoto Naoko Matsumoto Google Scholar Find this author on PubMed Search for more papers by this author and Takehiko Matsugi Takehiko Matsugi Google Scholar Find this author on PubMed Search for more papers by this author Published:01 November 2016https://doi.org/10.1098/rsbl.2016.0847This article corrects the followingResearch ArticleViolence in the prehistoric period of Japan: the spatio-temporal pattern of skeletal evidence for violence in the Jomon periodhttps://doi.org/10.1098/rsbl.2016.0028 Hisashi Nakao, Kohei Tamura, Yui Arimatsu, Tomomi Nakagawa, Naoko Matsumoto and Takehiko Matsugi volume 12issue 3Biology Letters01 March 2016Biol. Lett.12, 20160028. (Published online 30 March 2016) (doi:10.1098/rsbl.2016.0028)After publication of our article, we found that Kamikuroiwa Iwakage site was wrongly categorized to the Early Jomon phase and counted doubly in the electronic supplementary material; however, the site should belong to the Initial phase. Also, the number of individuals at some sites were slightly wrong. We have therefore modified figure 1, table 1 and the electronic supplementary material (see also Dryad: http://dx.doi.org/10.5061/dryad.60d18). Following these modifications, some parts of the main text in §3. Results and §4. Discussion and conclusion have also been corrected as follows (corrected expressions are emphasized in bold). Note that these corrections do not affect our main conclusion at all. Figure 1. Spatio-temporal pattern of the sites where injured bones from the Jomon period were discovered.Download figureOpen in new tabDownload PowerPointTable 1.Estimates of the rate of mortality attributable to violence over the Jomon period as the percentage of injured individuals (ID) among (i) the total population, (ii) adults only and (iii) adults only for sites with skeletal remains of 10 or more individuals. Collapse phasetotaladultsIDadultsaIDarate of mortality attributable to warfareID/total (%)ID/adults (%)IDa/adultsa (%)initial1133912810.892.563.57early21611709800.000.000.00middle37117259731.352.913.09late944470739860.741.491.51final9324711043091.072.122.09total25761269231051190.891.811.81aExcluding data for sites with skeletal remains of fewer than 10 individuals.3. Results… Nevertheless, the average violence mortality value across the entire Jomon period was found to be just 1.81%, much lower than those from previous studies (12–14%) [5,7,13].4. Discussion and conclusion… the values of mortality attributable to violence both over the entire Jomon period (1.81%) and in each phase (0–3.57%) are much lower than the ones in previous studies (12–14%) [5,7,13] …. In addition, we have found no injured individuals in the Early Jomon period (and perhaps also in the Initial phase, lasting for 5000 years or more, see the electronic supplementary material) though non-injured individuals were discovered for the period. Previous ArticleNext Article VIEW FULL TEXT DOWNLOAD PDF FiguresRelatedReferencesDetailsRelated articlesViolence in the prehistoric period of Japan: the spatio-temporal pattern of skeletal evidence for violence in the Jomon period01 March 2016Biology Letters This IssueNovember 2016Volume 12Issue 11 Article InformationDOI:https://doi.org/10.1098/rsbl.2016.0847PubMed:27903778Published by:Royal SocietyOnline ISSN:1744-957XHistory: Published online01/11/2016Published in print30/11/2016 License:© 2016 The Author(s)Published by the Royal Society. All rights reserved. Citations and impact Subjectsbehaviourevolution Large datasets are available through Biology Letters' partnership with Dryad

Group migration and cultural change following the Akahoya volcanic ashfall: Identifying the pottery production centers at the beginning of the Early Jomon period of Japan

Volcanic ash from the Akahoya volcano was deposited over almost all of the Japanese Archipelago after the eruption of the Kikai caldera in the southern part of Kyushu Island at around 7300 cal. BP, corresponding to the end of the Initial Jomon. The Akahoya ashfall had a crucial influence on the Jomon culture of the Tokai region of Honshu Island, more than 800 km away from the eruption source. The ash also accumulated in the Tokai region, resulting in a sudden decrease in the size of bivalves in shellmiddens, in a reduction in the number of middens and settlements, in the number of saddle-querns, grinding stones, and arrowheads of the lithic assemblages. The ashfall is presumed to have resulted also in a reduction of game animals. This caused serious damage to the vegetation and obstructed the routes for obsidian procurement. A new type of ceramic, the Kijima pottery, appeared in the western part of the Tokai region immediately after the ashfall, and it spread rapidly to eastern Tokai. Petrological and chemical analyses of pottery show that clay sources are located in western Tokai rather than in the eastern part of this region, pointing to some degree to population migration from west to east.

A partial nuclear genome of the Jomons who lived 3000 years ago in Fukushima, Japan

The Jomon period of the Japanese Archipelago, characterized by cord-marked ‘jomon’ potteries, has yielded abundant human skeletal remains. However, the genetic origins of the Jomon people and their relationships with modern populations have not been clarified. We determined a total of 115 million base pair nuclear genome sequences from two Jomon individuals (male and female each) from the Sanganji Shell Mound (dated 3000 years before present) with the Jomon-characteristic mitochondrial DNA haplogroup N9b, and compared these nuclear genome sequences with those of worldwide populations. We found that the Jomon population lineage is best considered to have diverged before diversification of present-day East Eurasian populations, with no evidence of gene flow events between the Jomon and other continental populations. This suggests that the Sanganji Jomon people descended from an early phase of population dispersals in East Asia. We also estimated that the modern mainland Japanese inherited <20% of Jomon peoples’ genomes. Our findings, based on the first analysis of Jomon nuclear genome sequence data, firmly demonstrate that the modern mainland Japanese resulted from genetic admixture of the indigenous Jomon people and later migrants.

Spatio-temporal distribution of hunter–gatherer archaeological sites in the Hokkaido region (northern Japan): An overview

The spatio-temporal distribution of archaeological sites in the Hokkaido region reveals hunter–gatherer population dynamics from the Upper Palaeolithic (&gt;14,000 cal. yr BP) through the Neolithic/Jomon and Epi Jomom period ( c. 14,000–1300 cal. yr BP) to the historic Ainu period ( c. 700–100 cal. yr BP). It appears that most cultural transitions coincide with periods of climate and environmental change. However, this observation does not automatically mean causality and, therefore, other potential driving factors must be checked. The data support the hypothesis that Palaeolithic subsistence was (at least partly) based on terrestrial hunting. Paralleled by lateglacial climate amelioration, rising sea levels and a change in marine currents, this strategy shifted towards marine resources and plant exploitation at the beginning of the Jomon period. Along with continuous Holocene climate warming, Hokkaido’s Neolithic Jomon population increased culminating in the Middle Jomon period (5000–4000 cal. yr BP). Simultaneously, Jomon subsistence underwent a process of diversification and intensification in exploitation of food resources. This practice probably allowed the persistence of the Middle Jomon culture beyond the Holocene temperature optimum (around 5000 cal. yr BP). Thereafter, the population decreased until the end of the Jomon culture accompanied by a trend towards cooler climate conditions and a shift in subsistence towards a more narrow range of food resources with increased hunting and less plant food. Population re-increased during the Satsumon/Okhotsk culture periods (1500–700 cal. yr BP), which may be the result of Okhotsk immigration because of climate cooling in the regions north of Hokkaido and enhanced inner-Hokkaido trade (between Satsumon and Okhotsk) and trade with communities outside Hokkaido. During the Ainu period ( c. 700–100 cal. yr BP), site, and possibly population numbers, re-decreased significantly and concentrated in eastern Hokkaido. Whether social and/or climatic factors brought about the Satsumon–Ainu cultural transition and the observed change in population pattern remains unresolved.

Spatial trends of past occupation sites in southwestern part of Kanto region in Jomon Period, Japan

Spatial trends of past occupation sites in southwestern part of Kanto region in Jomon Period, Japan

Maximum likelihood estimate of life expectancy in the prehistoric Jomon: Canine pulp volume reduction suggests a longer life expectancy than previously thought.

Recent theoretical progress potentially refutes past claims that paleodemographic estimations are flawed by statistical problems, including age mimicry and sample bias due to differential preservation. The life expectancy at age 15 of the Jomon period prehistoric populace in Japan was initially estimated to have been ∼16 years while a more recent analysis suggested 31.5 years. In this study, we provide alternative results based on a new methodology. The material comprises 234 mandibular canines from Jomon period skeletal remains and a reference sample of 363 mandibular canines of recent-modern Japanese. Dental pulp reduction is used as the age-indicator, which because of tooth durability is presumed to minimize the effect of differential preservation. Maximum likelihood estimation, which theoretically avoids age mimicry, was applied. Our methods also adjusted for the known pulp volume reduction rate among recent-modern Japanese to provide a better fit for observations in the Jomon period sample. Without adjustment for the known rate in pulp volume reduction, estimates of Jomon life expectancy at age 15 were dubiously long. However, when the rate was adjusted, the estimate results in a value that falls within the range of modern hunter-gatherers, with significantly better fit to the observations. The rate-adjusted result of 32.2 years more likely represents the true life expectancy of the Jomon people at age 15, than the result without adjustment. Considering ∼7% rate of antemortem loss of the mandibular canine observed in our Jomon period sample, actual life expectancy at age 15 may have been as high as ∼35.3 years.

Obsidian resource use from the Jomon to Okhotsk period on Rebun Island: An analysis of archaeological obsidian

Hokkaido obsidian sources have been widely exploited by hunter-gatherer groups in Northeast Asia since the Upper Paleolithic (~30,000cal. BP). Rebun Island is located 50km from the northwest tip of Hokkaido in the Sea of Japan. Given that obsidian does not occur naturally on Rebun Island, all obsidian materials found there are the result prehistoric transportation of these resources. Examination of 133 obsidian artifacts collected from excavations on Rebun Island employing portable X-ray fluorescence (pXRF) provides data for assessment of obsidian resource use during the Middle Jomon, Epi-Jomon, and Okhotsk periods on Rebun Island. Previously published data are also consulted for the Late and Final Jomon, and Epi-Jomon period on Rebun Island. The findings of this study suggest that the most prevalent changes in obsidian resource use on Rebun Island occur between the Middle and Late Jomon periods, and the Late Jomon and Okhotsk periods. These results demonstrate that variation in obsidian resource use during these periods is closely associated with patterns of culture change, in Hokkaido, and on Rebun Island.

Morphological features of the fibula in Jomon hunter-gatherers from the shell mounds of the Pacific coastal area.

The Jomon, one of the ancestral populations of modern Japanese, were hunter-gatherers inhabiting the Japanese archipelago from 11,000 to 300 BC. We evaluated changes in the diaphyseal morphology of the fibula from the middle to the final phase of the Jomon period, compared to the morphology of other historical and modern populations from the Japanese archipelago, to elucidate temporal changes in habitual activities and possible division of labor among males and females. Jomon specimens of 107 males and 97 females were obtained from the shell mounds of the Pacific coastal area of East Japan, distinguishing between middle (3,000-2,000 BC) and late-final (2,000-300 BC) phases of the Jomon period. Mid-shaft morphology of the fibula and tibia were compared to morphological measurements of specimens from Yayoi (37 males, 28 females), medieval (56 males, 56 females), early modern (51 males, 50 females), and modern (125 males, 68 females) periods. Largest values of fibular areas and relative fibular-to-tibial areas were identified in males from the late-final Jomon phase, compared to the middle Jomon phase and after the Yayoi period. These period-specific differences in fibular area were smaller in females, with the largest between-sex difference identified in the late-final Jomon phase. Results confirm a change in the habitual activity pattern of males in the late-final phase. Males of the late-final Jomon phase likely did more long-distance traveling to the inland/mountainous region, as part of an ecological change that occurred during the middle to the late-final Jomon phase. Am J Phys Anthropol 160:708-718, 2016. © 2016 Wiley Periodicals, Inc.

Source Codes, Scripts, and Data for the paper "Summed Probability Distribution of 14C Dates suggests Regional Divergences in the Population Dynamics of the Jomon Period in Eastern Japan"

Source Codes, Scripts, and Data for the paper "Summed Probability Distribution of 14C Dates suggests Regional Divergences in the Population Dynamics of the Jomon Period in Eastern Japan"

Summed Probability Distribution of 14C Dates Suggests Regional Divergences in the Population Dynamics of the Jomon Period in Eastern Japan.

Recent advances in the use of summed probability distribution (SPD) of calibrated 14C dates have opened new possibilities for studying prehistoric demography. The degree of correlation between climate change and population dynamics can now be accurately quantified, and divergences in the demographic history of distinct geographic areas can be statistically assessed. Here we contribute to this research agenda by reconstructing the prehistoric population change of Jomon hunter-gatherers between 7,000 and 3,000 cal BP. We collected 1,433 14C dates from three different regions in Eastern Japan (Kanto, Aomori and Hokkaido) and established that the observed fluctuations in the SPDs were statistically significant. We also introduced a new non-parametric permutation test for comparing multiple sets of SPDs that highlights point of divergences in the population history of different geographic regions. Our analyses indicate a general rise-and-fall pattern shared by the three regions but also some key regional differences during the 6th millennium cal BP. The results confirm some of the patterns suggested by previous archaeological studies based on house and site counts but offer statistical significance and an absolute chronological framework that will enable future studies aiming to establish potential correlation with climatic changes.

Emergence of prehistoric management of plant resources during the incipient to initial Jomon periods in Japan

In Japan plant remains excavated from lowland sites have revealed that people managed and used plant resources, especially arboreal ones, around settlements since the early Jomon period starting at ca. 7000 cal yr BP. This management of arboreal resources mainly consisted of management and use of native Castanea crenata (chestnut) and introduced Toxicodendron vernicifluum (lacquer tree) resources. At present this management system seems to have been established suddenly at the beginning of the early Jomon period. This is partly due to the paucity of sites of the preceding incipient and initial Jomon periods that yielded plant materials. Even in these periods, however, people must have used and did some kind of management of plant resources, because the management system appearing in the early Jomon period seems to be too sophisticated to appear suddenly and includes various introduced plants beside the lacquer tree. To clarify the human–plant relationship during the incipient and initial Jomon periods, we reviewed the studies on plant remains carried out in central to northeastern Japan. Based on the collected materials, we discussed change in the human–plant relationship from the incipient and initial to the early Jomon periods from three points, change in the availability of Castanea crenata resources, change in people's mobility and sedentism, and submergence of sites in relation to the late Glacial to the early Holocene transgression.

Source Codes, Scripts, and Data for the paper "Summed Probability Distribution of 14C Dates suggests Regional Divergences in the Population Dynamics of the Jomon Period in Eastern Japan"

Source Codes, Scripts, and Data for the paper "Summed Probability Distribution of 14C Dates suggests Regional Divergences in the Population Dynamics of the Jomon Period in Eastern Japan"