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

Abstract

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.

Genetic evidence for a western Chinese origin of broomcorn millet (Panicum miliaceum)

“…Broomcorn millet, along with several other crops, appears in the Okhotsk culture on Hokkaido in the mid-1st millennium AD. The genetic patterns support the idea that broomcorn millet, like barley, had a second independent introduction to Japan from the Russian Far East ( Crawford, 2011 ; Leipe et al, 2017 ).…”

Barley heads east: Genetic analyses reveal routes of spread through diverse Eurasian landscapes

“…There is evidence that two distinct barley genepools spread into Japan, one from the Russian Far East (predominantly K 8_7; pale pink) and the other from eastern China (predominantly K 8_3; yellow); individuals from K 8_7 are in the northern-most Japanese island, Hokkaido, and the Russian territory of Sakhalin ( Fig 3A ), while most barley in Japan belongs to genepool K 8_3. Leipe et al [ 90 ] provide the earliest date yet for the cultivation of barley in Hokkaido, during the Okhotsk culture (ca. 440–890 cal.…”

Bringing Home Animals: Final-Stage Jomon and Okhotsk Culture Food Technologies

“…Despite their persistent focus on the exploitation of marine resources, in practice the Okhotsk groups operated in mixed forager economies, where wild and domestic plants were sometimes used (Crawford, 2011;Leipe et al, 2017), along with the keeping of domestic dogs, and in some cases, also pigs (Sus scrofa inoi) (Watanobe et al, 2001;Amano, 2003;Hirasawa & Kato, 2019). However, regional variability is observed among the Okhotsk communities -especially between the north and east coasts of Hokkaido, where Okhotsk populations show divergent burial practices and economic packages (in the east, this means absence of pig breeding and focus on sea mammal hunting instead of marine fishing).…”

“…In addition, the Okhotsk functioned as key intermediaries in a long-distance trading network in northeast Asia that allowed them to trade for important resources such as metal tools (Amano, 2003), and possibly domestic plants such as barley (Hordeum vulgare) and millet (Panicum miliare) (Crawford;Leipe et al, 2017). Eventually, the result of these interactions may have contributed to the Okhotsk and Satsumon cultures' fusion into the Tobinitai Culture in the 12 th or 13 th century CE in Eastern Hokkaido (Amano, 1979).…”

“…Finally, contribution from the plant food web was considered, since plant use is well documented throughout the Late Holocene (Crawford, 2011;Leipe et al, 2017), including the use of barley and millet, as well as several wild species. In addition, chestnuts (genus Castanea) have been widely exploited across the prehistoric Japanese archipelago, and, in fact, their role in the adoption of pottery had been previously suggested (cf.…”