Jomon

From northern China, millet agriculture spread to Korea and the Maritime Russian Far East by 3500–2700 BC. While the expansion of agricultural societies across the Sea of Japan did not occur until around 900 BC, the intervening period saw major transformations in the Japanese archipelago. The cultural florescence of Middle Jōmon central Honshu underwent a collapse and reorganisation into more decentralised settlements. Mobility increased as Late Jōmon influences spread from eastern into western Japan, and populations expanded to offshore islands such as Okinawa and the Kurils. In Kyushu and other parts of western Japan, the eastern Jōmon expansion was associated with the cultivation of adzuki and soybeans but, contrary to earlier assessments, there is no evidence for the introduction of cereal crops at this time. Here, we analyse archaeological and historical linguistic evidence of connections between the Eurasian mainland and the Japanese Islands c. 3500 to 900 BC. A re-evaluation ...

Shintō is the first and the basic religion of Japan. In most works on Shintō it is said that its central object is kami but almost nothing is said about etymology and meaning of this concept. In this paper I made an attempt to clarify this question. In Ainu religion there is concept kamuy that looks much alike kami. Ainu concept kamuy can be explained through the concept of ramat. Japanese concept kami also shapes a pair with concept of tamashii. I have come to the following conclusions: Japanese tamashii originated from Ainu ramat and Japanese kami originated from Ainu kamuy; ramat/tamashii means “vital energy exists”, it is something like energy/ether that fills the universe; kamuy means “item filled by [ramat]”; kamuy/kami are beings/items that have a lot of ramat and can share it; aim of any Shintō rite is to get more ramat/tamashii.

This research aims to explore plant food consumption of hunting-gathering populations in prehistoric northern Japan, spanning the Early Jomon to Final Jomon (about 7000-2800 BP). The people between these periods are often regarded as elaborate hunter-gatherers, and did use various plant resources around settlements. A series of questions on which I focus how prehistoric people selected plant food resources over the long term. Examples come from three habitation sites: the Ikenai site in Akita, Sannai-Maruyama and Korekawa-Nakai sites in Aomori. The focus is micro-plant remains that are extracted from grinding stone tools. The research evaluates the possibility of the diverse ways of wild plant uses by Japanese prehistoric hunter-gatherers.

In the islands of Ryūkyū there are some toponyms containing the component pira/hira that originated from the Ainu word pira "cliff" / "rock": Kabiraiishizaki in the island of Ishigaki, the island of Hirari near Ishigaki, Kotohira in the island of Yoron, Takahira in the island of Takeshima, and Takahira in the island of Yakushima. The component pira/hira can't originate from any other language except Ainu. Toponyms with the same component pira/hira exist in Hokkaidō. Toponyms with the pira/hira component evidently should be traced back to the Jōmon language. The fact that toponyms of Jōmon origin can be decoded through modern Ainu means that the language of Jōmon and modern Ainu are pretty close. The fact that in the islands of Ryūkyū there are toponyms with the same component as in the island of Hokkaidō means that in ancient times Ainu inhabited the whole Japanese archipelago from Ryūkyū to Hokkaidō.

This article examines the relationship betwee n archaeological practices a nd the public , focusing on the interaction of prehistoric Jomo n archaeology a nd present-day social movements in Japa n. Where previous studies have emphasized the social influences upon archaeological practices and interpretatio ns, this article seeks to understa nd how archaeology sh apes ideological discourses, stimulates cultural activities, a nd builds new la ndscapes in the prese nt. Three case studies are presented that show how " the Jomon " has become a flexible symbol that supports left-wing ideologies and associated environme ntal and anti-nuclear activism, inspires discursive art-based social moveme nts that look to the Jomon as a source of cultural " roots, " and helps accelerate existing social movements such as rural revitalization and environmental co nservatio n movements. Broade ning the attempts in this article to diverse research subjects contributes to establishing a model for anthropological approaches to the study of archaeology as cultural resources .

The origins of the Japanese people is not entirely clear yet. It is common for Japanese people to think that Japan is not part of Asia since it is an island, cut off from the continent. This tells a lot about how they see themselves in relation to their neighbours. But in spite of what the Japanese may think of themselves, they do not have extraterrestrial origins, and are indeed related to several peoples in Asia.

We shall have to go back a long way through history and analyse in depth the genetics, culture and language of the archipelago and try to find out whether the Japanese are indeed unique, and in what way.

During the last Ice Age, which ended approximately 15,000 years ago, Japan was connected to the continent through several land bridges, notably one linking the Ryukyu Islands to Taiwan and Kyushu, one linking Kyushu to the Korean peninsula, and another one connecting Hokkaido to Sakhalin and the Siberian mainland. In fact, the Philippines and Indonesia were also connected to the Asian mainland. This allowed migrations from China and Austronesia towards Japan, about 35,000 years ago. These were the ancestors of the modern Ryukyuans (Okinawans), and the first inhabitants of all Japan.

The Ainu came from Siberia and settled in Hokkaido and Honshu some 15,000 years ago, just before the water levels started rising again. Nowadays the Ryukuyans, the Ainus and the Japanese are considered three ethnically separate groups. We will see why.

Six episodes—the Jomon, Yayoi, Tohoku Yayoi, Satsumon and Ainu, Okhotsk, and Gusuku—of agricultural development are examined. These events involve both indigenous adaptations as well as migration and diffusion to and within the Japanese archipelago. All but Jomon subsistence adaptations began as a result of migration and diffusion. Jomon populations engaged in niche construction/anthropogenesis that ranged from annual plant encouragement and probably management, lacquer tree (Toxicodendron verniciflua) and nut tree (Castanea crenata and Aesculus turbinata) management, and probable domestication of barnyard millet and soybean as well as cultivation of bottle gourd and hemp and possible cultivation of Perilla and adzuki. These characteristics place the Jomon in a middle ground that is neither hunting and gathering nor traditionally conceptualized agriculture. A brief comparison with China shows late Upper Paleolithic and Early Neolithic/Early Jomon similarities that can inform discussions about agricultural origins. The Okhotsk raised pigs, grew a few crops, hunted and gathered; this culture also does not fit traditional definitions of an agricultural economy. The other episodes involve forms of agriculture similar to those found in mainland East Asia.

de Boer, E.; Yang, M.; Kawagoe, A. & Barnes, G. (2020) "Japan considered from the hypothesis of farmer/language spread." Evolutionary Human Sciences 2: e13, 20pp.
Formally, the Farming/Language Dispersal hypothesis as applied to Japan relates to the introduction of agriculture and spread of the Japanese language (between ca. 500 BC–AD 800). We review current data from genetics, archaeology, and linguistics in relation to this hypothesis. However, evidence bases for these disciplines are drawn from different periods. Genetic data have primarily been sampled from present-day Japanese and prehistoric Jōmon peoples (14,000–300 BC), preceding the introduction of rice agriculture. The best archaeological evidence for agriculture comes from western Japan during the Yayoi period (ca. 900 BC–AD 250), but little is known about northeastern Japan, which is a focal point here. And despite considerable hypothesizing about prehistoric language, the spread of historic lan- guages/ dialects through the islands is more accessible but difficult to relate to prehistory. Though the lack of Yayoi skeletal material available for DNA analysis greatly inhibits direct study of how the pre-agricul- tural Jōmon peoples interacted with rice agriculturalists, our review of Jōmon genetics sets the stage for further research into their relationships. Modern linguistic research plays an unexpected role in bringing Izumo (Shimane Prefecture) and the Japan Sea coast into consideration in the populating of northeastern Honshu by agriculturalists beyond the Kantō region.

This paper deals with the fragmentation and dispersal of clay figurines (dogū) in the mountain area of Central Japan during the prehistoric Middle Jōmon period (c. 2500-1500 BC), specifically focusing on their contexts and possible role within the social system. The Shakadō site group in Yamanashi prefecture, which was occupied throughout this long phase, and where more than thousand figurine parts were found, will be taken as a case study. These finds consist of broken and incomplete parts— a practice commonly considered as deliberate and ceremonial in nature. Examination of the find contexts shows that throughout the period, figurine parts are found exclusively within settlement boundaries, mostly associated with locations of every-day activities such as middens, an outcome that is not in conflict with theories about protection and/or regeneration of village life. Regarding the high ratios of missing figurine parts at sites, the significant discovery of two matching figurine parts found 230m apart in neighbouring settlements has been widely interpreted as evidence of sharing practices exceeding village or kinship boundaries— and a role for Shakadō as regional ritual centre. Although such a hypothesis is preliminary, pending more (and longer-distance) finds of matching parts, it will be suggested here that the theoretical concepts of ‘fragmentation’ and ‘enchainment’ (Chapman 2000) might provide a framework for understanding the ideological and social dimensions of Middle Jōmon figurine practices.

The Jomon people of Japan used pottery from an early period and over a long time (Habu 2004 p201 - 213) and the pottery evidence can help develop a different way to understand hunter-gatherers during the late Pleistocene and Holocene than proceeding models of hunter-gatherer behaviour. Rowley- Conwy (in Panter-Brick et al 2001 p39 – 40) uses the example of Jomon as a critique of the ‘Original Affluent Society’. This suggests that hunter-gatherers conform to a unified model with little personal property, egalitarian society, sporadic gatherings, highly mobile individuals moving between bands, fluid organisation, no territorial claims, no food storage and no local group identity that evolves in one direction towards agriculture. He contrasts these characteristics with anthropology’s view of variability as synchronic and adaptive (ibid, p44) with archaeology seeing variability as diachronic and progressive. He uses (ibid, p59) Jomon society as evidence to undermine the progressive argument that complexity did not ‘progress’ to agriculture and complexity was adaptive. Technology at different scales provides a mechanism of change.

The use of starch residue analysis, an archaeobotanical tool, has become progressively more widespread across the world in the past few decades. Starch grains have been used to support key hypotheses regarding residue analysis as well as in the study of ancient plant utilization and diet. They are important sources of information in contexts where alternative plant remains are poorly preserved. This paper offers an overview of the methodology of starch residue analysis and will examine two key case studies in Japan. Common problems are discussed, and extra caution should be taken in the interpretation of results; notably, taphonomy should be given great consideration. Despite these issues, the technique is being applied more frequently to Japanese archaeological case studies, especially with the integration of other lines of archaeobotanical evidence. Starch residue analysis continues to be an evolving discipline, particularly in Japan, and like all relatively innovative approaches to reconstruct past plant food cultures, its issues will certainly be addressed over time.

Word ama seems to be of not Japanese origin due to the following reason: kanji by which word ama is written (海人・ 海女・海士) are read according to irregular way of reading; in Okinawa such divers are named umi-n-chu, in Izu peninsula they are named kaito, both names mean “people of sea”, both are transparent for speakers of correspondent idioms, while word ama is completely dim from the point of view of Japanese language. From the other hand in Ainu language there are the following words: am-pa “to carry” lit.: “to grab and go”; am-us-pe – “crab”, lit.: “being that grabs”. It seems highly possible that the same root (i.e.: am “to grab”) is in word ama. Initially word ama had the following appearance: ʔam ʔwa “people who grab [shellfishes]” / “people with claws” and later it became ʔamma, ʔama and finally ama.

The origin and early dispersal of speakers of Transeurasian languages—that is, Japanese, Korean, Tungusic, Mongolic and Turkic—is among the most disputed issues of Eurasian population history1–3. A key problem is the relationship between linguistic dispersals, agricultural expansions and population movements4,5. Here we address this question by ‘triangulating’ genetics, archaeology and linguistics in a unified perspective. We report wide-ranging datasets from these disciplines, including a comprehensive Transeurasian agropastoral and basic vocabulary; an archaeological database of 255 Neolithic–Bronze Age sites from Northeast Asia; and a collection of ancient genomes from Korea, the Ryukyu islands and early cereal farmers in Japan, complementing previously published genomes from East Asia. Challenging the traditional ‘pastoralist hypothesis’6–8, we show that the common ancestry and primary dispersals of Transeurasian languages can be traced back to the first farmers moving across No...

This paper  focuses on the interregional, long-distance exchange networks during the Middle Jomon (c.3500~2500BC), with regards to an important but frequently overlooked exchange item: amber, which was frequently made into beads or pendants. In Japan, a great deal of important research on beadstone ornament exchange has focussed on sourcing and establishing the extent of the circulation (by means of compiling production and distribution sites), and reconstructing the production processes and typologies. However, although much information is present in excavation site reports concerning structures and artefacts at these sites, relatively little attention has been devoted to the social context in which these ornaments circulated, and the reasons for the appeal of the ornaments leading to such high demand, or the motivation behind the production activities. This paper deals with the materiality of amber, suggesting how its unique physical attributes and the use of ornaments made of this specific material may have mediated social relations in the hunter-gatherer communities of Jomon Japan, as well as their possible role in creating specific identities. Some preliminary evidence will be presented to support the hypothesis that amber ornaments from Awashidai at the Pacific Coast were made by and for hunters, creating social relations among hunters as a group, and may have been used both for sympathetic magic, as well as a sign of personal identity. A brief comparison with the materiality and use context of jade items will be made.

Archaeology of Domestication

Jan Turek -  Letní semestr 2021/2022, rozsah (2/0)
The emergence of the Neolithic introduced one of the most fundamental turning points in the history of humankind. People left this imaginary Eden of symbiosis with animal species to start their new role of stewards and destroyers of the nature. In this way humans completed their departure from nature into the world of their own culture and civilization. With a sedentary life and a newly acquired knowledge of the production and reproduction of their food sources, people set off to the path to their overpopulation and ruling over the entire planet and after more than 12,000 years to continue beyond its gravity. However, not everything was positive on this departure from the paradise, and soon people also tasted the bitter taste of the forbidden fruit that the first farmers seized. Along with the change of diet a general deterioration in the health of the Neolithic population occurred and we can even talk about the first civilisation diseases.
The course is suitable for students of archaeology, social and cultural anthropology, human ecology, history and other social sciences. It includes an outline of the current discussion on the conditions, methods and evidence of the emergence of cereal agriculture in the Western Asia. In addition to archaeological evidence of changes in the subsistence strategy, changes in the symbolic systems, cosmology and religion of the first agricultural civilizations, as well as demographic and social aspects of neolithisation, will be taken into account. The process of domestication will be investigated in various climatic-ecological contexts with emphasis on explanation of local variability in diversification of agricultural strategies. The topic also includes the spread of the Neolithic way of life outside the Neolithic epicentre, i.e. to the northwest of Asia Minor, the Balkans, Europe and North Africa. Subsequent cultural development and population cultural variability of newly domesticated areas will also be discussed. Finally, we compare the development in Western Asia and Europe to the domestication processes in other parts of the world, such as East/Southeast Asia, Indian Subcontinent, Australia and Polynesia, Americas, Sahel and South Africa. This worldwide review of early sedentary populations and variability of domestication strategies provides a basic reference of current research in the field of archaeology, anthropology and prehistoric human ecology.

Anthropologists who did fieldwork among Ainu in the end of 19th and in the beginning of 20th centuries wrote down legend about mythical ethnicity living in Hokkaido and Sakhalin before Ainu; the ethnicity was named corpok-kur or tonci. Some anthropologists considered the tribe as really existed and some considered it as mythical. The legend inspired some anthropologists to think that Jōmon and Ainu aren’t related. Corpok-kur and ton-ci are clearly etymologized Ainu words; also words that look much alike were used by Ainu to name their dwellings. Geographical distribution of the legend evidences that it was spread there where Ainu were already more or less japanized, i.e.: it was spread in Hokkaido, Sakhalin but was unknown in northern Kuril islands. These facts along with data of archaeology and physical anthropology evidence that corpok-kur is nothing but a mythical tribe while artifacts of Jōmon are products of direct ancestors of Ainu.

Pioneers of Ainu language studies (Basil Hall Chamberlain, Neil Gordon Munro) having obviously no notion about the history of the language and knowing only modern Ainu, could correctly interpret place names i.e.: words that were in everyday use in 4th – 5th centuries AD, that Ainu language has changed relatively slowly and on the available material of modern Ainu dialects it is quite possible to reconstruct language of about (1500 BC – 300 BC). Tamura points on the fact that V and VC syllables of modern Ainu actually begin with glottal stop, that means in language of ancient stages only CV and VCV syllables were allowed. Having this information we can conclude that in Late Jōmon Ainu morphemes borders could not be inside syllables. It’s possible to state that Ainu of Late Jōmon was a higher analytical language than modern Ainu, while Ainu of much earlier stage probably was isolating.

UNLIKE MANY OTHER PREHISTORIC HUNTER-GATHERER CULTURES, the Jomon culture (c. 12,500-2300 B.P.) in Japan is characterized by the production and use of pottery (Pearson 1990, 1992). The great antiquity of Jomon pottery, the oldest of which is dated to 12,700 B.P., has attracted the attention not only of archaeologists working on East Asia but also researchers who investigate the origins of pottery in world prehistory. Nevertheless, for many Japanese archaeologists, the primary goal of studying Jomon pottery has been to establish a detailed chronology of the Jomon period. From the pioneering studies of Yamanouchi (1937, 1939, 1964) to the present, typological study of pottery has figured predominantly in the investigation of the Jomon culture. Since Yamanouchi's initial classification, pottery types have been further subdivided, and these units have subsequently been further refined. Today, most Jomon researchers agree on a basic typological ordering of Jomon pottery (see the chro...

The close connection between humans and dogs in the prehistoric past, often with a focus on
a hunting relationship, has long been proposed, yet has rarely been evaluated. This thesis
investigates parallels in environment, culture, adaptation and dog mortuary phenomenon
among three complex hunter-gatherer groups in the early Holocene. Although dog
domestication appears to have occurred in the late Upper Palaeolithic, the first instances of
intentional, individual dog burials are not seen until after the Pleistocene-Holocene
Transition. These burials appear nearly simultaneously among culturally and geographically
unrelated early Holocene complex hunter-gatherers in three distinct locations: the midsouth
United States, northern Europe and eastern Japan; coinciding with the onset of significant
postglacial warming that triggered dramatic environmental change throughout the northern
temperate zone; specifically the establishment of temperate deciduous forests. Along with
this new environment came new ungulate prey species, and with the new prey species
important hunting adaptations by humans. Ethnozooarchaeological fieldwork conducted
with modern hunters in the United States and Japan, along with additional ethnographic
material confirms the use of hunting dogs in temperate deciduous forests as a preferred
method which yields improved results, in contrast to boreal forests or open tundra, where
dogs can be a detriment. In densely forested environments, prey species often rely on
concealment, rather than flight, to escape predators and human hunters. Dogs give vital
assistance to hunters in these conditions, performing superhuman tasks such as locating
concealed prey, tracking wounded animals, and bringing them to bay. This thesis presents a
previously unidentified link between the first worldwide occurrences of individual,
intentional dog burials and changes in hunting environments and prey species brought about
by early Holocene climate change.

Was the use of hunting dogs an adaptation to the post-glacial deciduous forest environment in the northern temperate zone? Dog burials in Jomon Japan appear closely associated with a specific environment and with a related subsistence economy involving the hunting of forest ungulates such as sika deer and wild boar. Dogs were valued as important hunting technology, able to track and retrieve wounded animals in difficult, forested environments, or holding them until the hunter made the final kill. Greater numbers of dog burials during the later Jomon phases may reflect a growing dependence on hunting dogs to extract ungulate prey from forests in an increasingly resource-strained seasonal environment.

This study reconstructs biological affi nities in a cranial sample from a collective burial on Cape Bratyev in Babushkin Bay. The burial, found in a rock niche on the Okhotsk Coast, was excavated by S.P. Efimov in 1976 and tentatively attributed to the Old Koryak culture. The sample consists of 13 adult skulls of differing preservation-fi ve male, fi ve female, and three undeterminable. Genome-wide analysis was carried out at the Center for Geogenetics of the University of Copenhagen. Paleogenetic data support the archaeological hypothesis attributing the burial to the Old Koryak culture. The results of the craniometric analysis suggest that the Old Koryak population was heterogeneous. Cranial data indicate population contacts between ancient Koryaks and the Epi-Jōmon people of Hokkaido. Also, they reveal common episodes in the population history of the group from Cape Bratyev and the Okhotsk culture people. Two of the three Okhotsk samples used for comparative analysis demonstrate very close affi nities with individuals studied. According to the previous studies and our current analysis, the Okhotsk people resulted from the admixture of ancient groups related to Chukchi and Eskimo, on the one hand, and Tungus-Manchu groups, on the other. A signifi cant difference between the Old Koryak population and that of Okhotsk culture is that the former includes a component related to Nivkhs.

The origin and early dispersal of speakers of Transeurasian languages—that is, Japanese, Korean, Tungusic, Mongolic and Turkic—is among the most disputed issues of Eurasian population history1–3. A key problem is the relationship between linguistic dispersals, agricultural expansions and population movements4,5. Here we address this question by ‘triangulating’ genetics, archaeology and linguistics in a unified perspective. We report wide-ranging datasets from these disciplines, including a comprehensive Transeurasian agropastoral and basic vocabulary; an archaeological database of 255 Neolithic–Bronze Age sites from Northeast Asia; and a collection of ancient genomes from Korea, the Ryukyu islands and early cereal farmers in Japan, complementing previously published genomes from East Asia. Challenging the traditional ‘pastoralist hypothesis’6–8, we show that the common ancestry and primary dispersals of Transeurasian languages can be traced back to the first farmers moving across No...

Among historians are spread the following stereotypes: roots of Japanese culture were formed in the period of Yayoi, and Jōmon culture didn’t influence on forming Japanese culture. However, Yayoi pottery and architecture are just continuations of Late Jōmon pottery and architecture. Perception of continental issues (for instance: dōtaku) in the period of Yayoi was very irregular, and introduced items became object of cargo cults. In the period of Kofun on the contrary we can see regular spreading of ‘Korean’ techniques. Regular spreading of certain techniques should necessarily correlate with regular presence of corresponding ethnic group. Thus, it is possible to say that there was no serious presence of ‘Korean’ ethnic element upon Japanese archipelago until the beginning of Kofun period. Yayoi period actually should not be considered as a separated culture, but just as a continuation of Late Jōmon.

Comparison of ornaments should be the same as comparison of languages, i.e.: should be compared sets of basic elements and positional distributions of elements. Having applied this methodology to Ainu ornaments and to those of Nivkh, Tungusic people, Tlingit, Maori and Shang I discovered that ornamental traditions of Ainu and Shang demonstrate notable resemblance while the rest traditions differ seriously from Ainu. Main element of Ainu and Shang ornamental traditions is rectangular volute, and this element covers almost all available space. This fact also correlates well with data of genetics. This is a strong proof of southern origin of Ainu. Also it can be one of evidences of Ainu and Sino-Tibetan people relatedness.