27 Eastern Asia and Japan: human biology

Matsumura, Hirofumi; Oxenham, Marc

doi:10.1002/9781444351071.wbeghm827

Cited by 9 publications

(5 citation statements)

References 24 publications

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“…20,000 cal yr BP; [60]) and immigration ca. 15,000 cal yr BP, with the latter introducing microblade technologies on Hokkaido and Honshu [61, 62]. While they have not been taken into account for a while (e.g.…”

Section: Discussionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Barley (Hordeum vulgare) in the Okhotsk culture (5th–10th century AD) of northern Japan and the role of cultivated plants in hunter–gatherer economies

et al. 2017

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This paper discusses archaeobotanical remains of naked barley recovered from the Okhotsk cultural layers of the Hamanaka 2 archaeological site on Rebun Island, northern Japan. Calibrated ages (68% confidence interval) of the directly dated barley remains suggest that the crop was used at the site ca. 440–890 cal yr AD. Together with the finds from the Oumu site (north-eastern Hokkaido Island), the recovered seed assemblage marks the oldest well-documented evidence for the use of barley in the Hokkaido Region. The archaeobotanical data together with the results of a detailed pollen analysis of contemporaneous sediment layers from the bottom of nearby Lake Kushu point to low-level food production, including cultivation of barley and possible management of wild plants that complemented a wide range of foods derived from hunting, fishing, and gathering. This qualifies the people of the Okhotsk culture as one element of the long-term and spatially broader Holocene hunter–gatherer cultural complex (including also Jomon, Epi-Jomon, Satsumon, and Ainu cultures) of the Japanese archipelago, which may be placed somewhere between the traditionally accepted boundaries between foraging and agriculture. To our knowledge, the archaeobotanical assemblages from the Hokkaido Okhotsk culture sites highlight the north-eastern limit of prehistoric barley dispersal. Seed morphological characteristics identify two different barley phenotypes in the Hokkaido Region. One compact type (naked barley) associated with the Okhotsk culture and a less compact type (hulled barley) associated with Early–Middle Satsumon culture sites. This supports earlier suggestions that the “Satsumon type” barley was likely propagated by the expansion of the Yayoi culture via south-western Japan, while the “Okhotsk type” spread from the continental Russian Far East region, across the Sea of Japan. After the two phenotypes were independently introduced to Hokkaido, the boundary between both barley domains possibly existed ca. 600–1000 cal yr AD across the island region. Despite a large body of studies and numerous theoretical and conceptual debates, the question of how to differentiate between hunter–gatherer and farming economies persists reflecting the wide range of dynamic subsistence strategies used by humans through the Holocene. Our current study contributes to the ongoing discussion of this important issue.

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Section: Discussionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Barley (Hordeum vulgare) in the Okhotsk culture (5th–10th century AD) of northern Japan and the role of cultivated plants in hunter–gatherer economies

et al. 2017

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“…yr BP) introduced microblade tools on Honshu Island (e.g. Imamura, 1996) and likely mixed with local communities (Matsumura and Oxenham, 2013).…”

Section: Study Areamentioning

confidence: 99%

Palaeobotanical records from Rebun Island and their potential for improving the chronological control and understanding human–environment interactions in the Hokkaido Region, Japan

et al. 2016

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Rebun Island with Hamanaka and Funadomari among the 43 documented archaeological sites and the environmental archive stored in the Lake Kushu sediment proves to be one of the key areas to study the interplay between ecology, climate and human activities. This paper focuses on the potential of palaeobotanical records from Rebun Island for improving the chronological control and understanding of late Quaternary climate changes and habitation environments of northern hunter-gatherers in the Hokkaido Region of Japan. A set of 57 radiocarbon dates of the RK12 core (Lake Kushu) demonstrates that it represents a continuous environmental archive covering the last c. 17,000 years. The RK12 pollen record reflects distinct vegetation changes associated with the onset of the lateglacial warming about 15,000 cal. yr BP and the cold climate reversal after c. 13,000 cal. yr BP. The onset of the current Holocene interglacial after c. 11,700 cal. yr BP is marked by a major spread of trees. The middle Holocene ( c. 8000–4000 cal. yr BP) is characterized by a major spread of deciduous oak in the vegetation cover reflecting a temperature increase. A decline of oak and spread of fir and pine is recorded at c. 2000 cal. yr BP. After c. 1100 cal. yr BP, arboreal pollen percentages decrease, possibly linked to intensified usage of wood during the Okhotsk and Ainu culture periods. The results of diatom analysis suggest marshy or deltaic environments at the RK12 coring site prior to c. 10,500 cal. yr BP and a brackish lagoon between c. 10,500 and 7000 cal. yr BP. A freshwater lake developed after 6500 cal. yr BP, likely reflecting sea level stabilization and formation of the sand bar separating the Kushu depression from the sea. Plant macrofossil analysis shows use of various wild plants and also domesticated barley during the Okhotsk and Ainu periods.

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“…In the Late Pleistocene and early Holocene of Southeast Asia, several sets of human remains exhibit Australo-Melanesian characteristics, and it has been argued that an indigenous population possessing this morphological form occupied Southeast Asia. These skeletal data demonstrated significant genetic discontinuity between pre-and post-agricultural populations, suggesting that dramatic agriculturally driven demic expansion occurred in Mainland Southeast Asia (MSEA) beginning in the Neolithic period (see Matsumura and Zuraina 1999;Matsumura and Hudson 2005;Matsumura 2006;Matsumura et al 2008aMatsumura et al , 2008bMatsumura et al , 2011aMatsumura et al , 2011bOxenham et al 2011;Matsumura and Oxenham 2013a, 2013b. This population history scenario for Southeast Asia is known as the 'two-layer' or 'immigration' model, a scenario of human population movement that was first postulated in the middle of the last century (q.v., Jacob 1967).…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 97%

Mid-Holocene Hunter-Gatherers ‘Gaomiao’ in Hunan, China: The First of the Two-layer Model in the Population History of East/Southeast Asia

Matsumura¹,

Hung²,

Nguyen³

et al. 2017

New Perspectives in Southeast Asian and Pacific Prehistory

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27 Eastern Asia and Japan: human biology

Abstract: This chapter focuses on the Holocene population history of Japan and Southeast Asia, as regions strongly influenced by population and cultural developments on the mainland of East Asia. A case is made for significant expansion of agricultural populations in both cases.

Cited by 9 publications

References 24 publications

Barley (Hordeum vulgare) in the Okhotsk culture (5th–10th century AD) of northern Japan and the role of cultivated plants in hunter–gatherer economies

Barley (Hordeum vulgare) in the Okhotsk culture (5th–10th century AD) of northern Japan and the role of cultivated plants in hunter–gatherer economies

Palaeobotanical records from Rebun Island and their potential for improving the chronological control and understanding human–environment interactions in the Hokkaido Region, Japan

Mid-Holocene Hunter-Gatherers ‘Gaomiao’ in Hunan, China: The First of the Two-layer Model in the Population History of East/Southeast Asia

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