The invention of pottery was a fundamental technological advancement with far-reaching economic and cultural consequences. Pottery containers first emerged in East Asia during the Late Pleistocene in a wide range of environmental settings, but became particularly prominent and much more widely dispersed after climatic warming at the start of the Holocene. Some archaeologists argue that this increasing usage was driven by environmental factors, as warmer climates would have generated a wider range of terrestrial plant and animal resources that required processing in pottery. However, this hypothesis has never been directly tested. Here, in one of the largest studies of its kind, we conducted organic residue analysis of >800 pottery vessels selected from 46 Late Pleistocene and Early Holocene sites located across the Japanese archipelago to identify their contents. Our results demonstrate that pottery had a strong association with the processing of aquatic resources, irrespective of the ecological setting. Contrary to expectations, this association remained stable even after the onset of Holocene warming, including in more southerly areas, where expanding forests provided new opportunities for hunting and gathering. Nevertheless, the results indicate that a broader array of aquatic resources was processed in pottery after the start of the Holocene. We suggest this marks a significant change in the role of pottery of hunter-gatherers, corresponding to an increased volume of production, greater variation in forms and sizes, the rise of intensified fishing, the onset of shellfish exploitation, and reduced residential mobility.

ABSTRACT. Recently, primitive-type pottery was discovered in the Russian Far East, China, and Japan. Radiocarbon ages of far earlier than 10,000 BP have been obtained, relating directly or indirectly to the pottery. As an example of these very old 14 C ages for incipient pottery, we report here 14 C ages of charred adhesions on five potsherds and three charred wood fragments that were collected with the archeological artifacts (stone tools from the Chojakubo Culture) in the loam layers at the Odai Yamamoto I site (41°03′44′′N, 140°33′20′′E) in Aomori prefecture, at the northern end of the Japanese main island. The carbonaceous remains on the surface of the potsherds could be ancient food residues or soot from fuel for cooking. These small carbon samples were dated at the Tandetron accelerator mass spectrometry (AMS) 14 C dating facility at Nagoya University, as well as by Beta Analytic Co. Ltd. Except for two charred wood 14 C dates, 7070 ± 40 and 7710 ± 40 BP, all five charred-residue samples and one wood charcoal sample gave older 14 C ages of 12,680-13,780 BP, corresponding to the period of the Chojakubo Culture in Japan. This culture marks the beginning of the Jomon Culture, which is characterized by pottery usage and bow-and-arrow hunting.

ABSTRACT. This paper presents an updated radiocarbon chronology of the earliest pottery sites in the Old World. Ceramic production originated in the Late Glacial period in several regions of East Asia-the Japanese Islands, the Russian Far East, and southern China-at approximately the same time, about 13,700-13,300 BP (about 17,200-14,900 cal BP).

No abstract