Storage adaptations among hunter–gatherers: A quantitative approach to the Jomon period

Sakaguchi, Takashi

doi:10.1016/j.jaa.2009.05.001

Cited by 22 publications

(8 citation statements)

References 29 publications

(53 reference statements)

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“…These include the expansion of broadleaf forests, particularly in Southern Japan (Fig. 1), with increased opportunities for the exploitation of terrestrial resources, such as forest game, acorns, and chestnuts, (9,10), but also greater access to marine resources through expansion of the coastal shelf (11). Increased pottery production at this time is often seen as a response to the need for processing these newly available resources, as well as intensification and increased sedentism (12) in response to the ameliorated climate and changing coastline.…”

Section: Significancementioning

confidence: 99%

The impact of environmental change on the use of early pottery by East Asian hunter-gatherers

Lucquin

Robson

Eley

et al. 2018

Proc. Natl. Acad. Sci. U.S.A.

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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.

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Section: Significancementioning

confidence: 99%

The impact of environmental change on the use of early pottery by East Asian hunter-gatherers

Lucquin

Robson

Eley

et al. 2018

Proc. Natl. Acad. Sci. U.S.A.

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“…That is not to say humans consciously chose to begin mistrusting the world in which they lived, or that they were aware of a great deal of choice in the matter of developing DR systems. Such systems appear to have evolved slowly, over millennia, in response to changes in climatic and other environmental pressures (Layton, 2005;Sakaguchi, 2009;Smith and Zeder, 2013). Nevertheless, if it is evident, as argued here, that a certain lifeway, reflecting a particular sort of worldview, embodied ecological sustainability to a degree not seen in subsequent societies, might we benefit by paying attention?…”

Section: Discussionmentioning

confidence: 88%

Hunter-gatherer land management in the human break from ecological sustainability

Feeney

2019

The Anthropocene Review

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Evidence that human societies built on agricultural subsistence have been inherently ecologically unsustainable highlights the value in exploring whether any pre-agricultural subsistence approaches were ecologically sustainable or nearly so. The land management practices of some hunter-gatherer societies have been portrayed as sustainable, even beneficial. Research suggests such practices may fruitfully inform contemporary land management. As a human subsistence foundation, however, they may not have been ecologically sustainable. Figuring centrally in the late Pleistocene shift from immediate-return to delayed-return hunting and gathering, they enabled population growth, helped make possible the development of agriculture, and appear to have caused early environmental degradation. Consistent with this argument is research locating the origins of the Anthropocene near the Pleistocene–Holocene boundary, as societies were taking greater control of food production. It appears then that immediate-return hunting and gathering, which involved little or no land management, was the human lifeway most closely approaching ecological sustainability. Wider recognition of this idea would assist in understanding and addressing today’s ecological challenges.

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“…Unlike Korea there is evidence that both adzuki and soybeans were likely cultivated and domesticated during the Jomon period in Japan (Obata et al, 2007;Fujio, 2021), along with barnyard millet (Echinochloa crusgalli/esculenta) in northern Honshu and southern Hokkaido (Crawford, 2011) and also possibly cannabis (Kobayashi et al, 2008). From the beginnings of the Jomon period wild nuts and acorns were heavily exploited throughout the Japanese archipelago (Sakaguchi, 2009). Further there is evidence for management and probable cultivation of chestnut in the Jomon period (Minaki, 1994;Matsui and Kanehara, 2006;Yoshikawa, 2011;Noshiro and Sasaki, 2014).…”

Section: Evidence For Cereal and Wild Food Use In Japanmentioning

confidence: 99%

The importance of wild resources as a reflection of the resilience and changing nature of early agricultural systems in East Asia and Europe

2022

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We examine the changing importance of wild starch rich plant staples, predominantly tree nuts, in early agricultural societies in East Asia and Europe, focusing on Korea, Japan, and Britain. A comparative review highlights variations in the importance of wild plant staples compared to domesticated crops. The Korean Middle to Late Chulmun periods (c. 3,500–1,500 BC) was characterized by a high reliance on nuts alongside millet. This declines with the transition to rice agriculture, but remains significant during the Mumun period (c. 1,500–300 BC). In Japan, the arrival of rice and millets in the Yayoi Period (c. 1,000 BC−250 AD) saw continued evidence for high levels of reliance on wild resources, which declines only in the Kofun and early historical periods. In Early Neolithic Britain (c. 4,000–3,300 BC) cereal agriculture is accompanied by high evidence for wild plant foods. But during the Middle to Late Neolithic (3,300–c. 2,400/2,200 BC) cereals were abandoned on the mainland with hazelnuts becoming a prominent plant staple. Agriculture returned in the second half of the 3rd millennium BC, followed by a strong decline in wild plant food use during the Middle to Late Bronze Age (1,700–700 BC). Such patterns have previously been attributed to the slow adoption of farming by indigenous peoples, with a continued reliance on wild resources. In light of evidence demonstrating that the dispersal of agriculture was largely driven by a mixture of demic-diffusion and introgression of hunter-gatherers into agricultural groups, a reinterpretation of the role of wild foods is needed. It is argued that the relative importance of wild plant staples provides an indicator of the stability and dependability of agricultural and social systems. A heavy reliance on wild foods in early agricultural societies is tied to the slow adaptation of domesticated crops to new environments, where agricultural and social landscapes are yet to be firmly established, and social systems that could mitigate for poor harvests and storage were often absent. The retained lengthy persistence of wild plant staples in East Asian subsistence systems compared to the British Isles likely reflects differences in the ecological and labor demands for rice compared to Western Asiatic cereals.

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Storage adaptations among hunter–gatherers: A quantitative approach to the Jomon period

Cited by 22 publications

References 29 publications

The impact of environmental change on the use of early pottery by East Asian hunter-gatherers

The impact of environmental change on the use of early pottery by East Asian hunter-gatherers

Hunter-gatherer land management in the human break from ecological sustainability

The importance of wild resources as a reflection of the resilience and changing nature of early agricultural systems in East Asia and Europe

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