Diatoms from Lake Kushu: A pilot study to test the potential of a Late Quaternary palaeoenvironmental archive from Rebun Island (Hokkaido Region, Japan)

Schmidt, Mareike; Tarasov, Pavel E.; Hoelzmann, Philipp; Meyer, Hanno; Leipe, Christian

doi:10.1016/j.jseaes.2016.03.005

Cited by 13 publications

(4 citation statements)

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“…290-cm-long section (369.5–76.5 cm) of the RK12 sediment core from Lake Kushu (Fig 1E) allows a high-resolution insight into changes in vegetation cover on Rebun Island during the 1st–16th century AD. Lake Kushu has a small surface area of 0.5 km 2 and hosts an excellent sedimentary archive of the local vegetation, climate, and human impacts on the island’s ecosystem [44]. Except for neighbouring Rishiri Island, the closest pollen source area outside Rebun Island is the main island of Hokkaido situated 45 km to the east.…”

Section: Results and Interpretationmentioning

confidence: 99%

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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: Results and Interpretationmentioning

confidence: 99%

“…The climate of Rebun Island, which occupies an area of 82 km 2 [44], is mainly influenced by the East Asian monsoon system. During the warm season, the East Asian summer monsoon (EASM) circulation transports warm and moist air masses from the south or southeast to Rebun Island.…”

Section: Study Site and Environmental Settingmentioning

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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“…The lake is surrounded by dense vegetation, which effectively limits any sediment in-washing. Dominant sources of sediment include autochthonous biological productivity, aeolian input and minor fluvial input (Schmidt et al, 2016).…”

Section: Lake Kushu In Rebun Islandmentioning

confidence: 99%

Improved age estimates for Holocene Ko-g and Ma-f~j tephras in northern Japan using Bayesian statistical modelling

Chen

Blockley

Staff

et al. 2022

Quaternary Geochronology

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“…Rebun Island occupies an area of about 82 km 2 (Schmidt et al, 2016). It extends for over 20 km from north to south and for up to 6–8 km from east to west.…”

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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Diatoms from Lake Kushu: A pilot study to test the potential of a Late Quaternary palaeoenvironmental archive from Rebun Island (Hokkaido Region, Japan)

Cited by 13 publications

References 54 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

Improved age estimates for Holocene Ko-g and Ma-f~j tephras in northern Japan using Bayesian statistical modelling

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

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