Human behavioral change and the distributional dynamics of early Japanese pottery

Sedentism, pottery and inland fishing in Late Glacial Japan: a reassessment of the Maedakochi site

“…What is the significance of the results of our re-examination of samples from the Maedakochi site in light of the updated chronology presented here? Figure 9 plots the number of archaeological sites with pottery for every thousand years from 17 000–10 000 BP, and shows that the emergence of pottery pre-dates the Late Glacial (Figure 9; Morisaki & Natsuki 2017). The Maedakochi site has yielded material covering a narrower date range compared with other sites of the pre-Late Glacial warm period in Japan.…”

“…As the climate warmed during the early Late Glacial, settlements with pit-houses and evidence for arrowhead manufacture and the consistent use of pottery appeared—predominantly in the Pacific coastal regions of south-western Japan (also see Taniguchi 2005). Hence, climatic amelioration did not induce the ‘initial’ appearance of pottery, but, rather, the ‘development’ of sedentary lifestyles that utilised ceramics (Kajiwara 1998; Imamura 1999; Taniguchi 2005; Morisaki & Natsuki 2017).…”

“…Using previously published radiocarbon dates, Morisaki and Natsuki (2017) analysed the diachronic distribution of lithic assemblages, early pottery and pit-houses across the Japanese archipelago, demonstrating that small amounts of ‘ice-age’ pottery were used by mobile hunter-gatherers in various regions beyond the warmer parts of the islands, including northern and eastern Japan, and the coastal region along the Japan Sea. As the climate warmed during the early Late Glacial, settlements with pit-houses and evidence for arrowhead manufacture and the consistent use of pottery appeared—predominantly in the Pacific coastal regions of south-western Japan (also see Taniguchi 2005).…”

Rethinking the Disappearance of Microblade Technology in the Terminal Pleistocene of Hokkaido, Northern Japan: Looking at Archaeological and Palaeoenvironmental Evidence

“…We have no reliable radiocarbon dates from archaeological sites to fill the gaps beginning from around 13,700 years ago in Hokkaido to the time when the Holocene began [26,54,97,98]. Using techno-typology, some argue that the lithic assemblages accompanying the small boat-shaped tools can be chronologically located to the period from around 13,700 years ago to 11,650 years ago [54].…”

“…Here, it is interesting to note that the clear failure of the traditions that were brought by the groups that migrated from Honshu reflects the Taisho-3 and Kyushirataki-5 techno-complexes during the terminal Pleistocene. Beyond one temporal gap, archaeological sites with potteries did not appear in eastern Hokkaido until the Holocene [98]. After the second half of the Preboreal, the number of sites suddenly increased in Hokkaido [27,89,100,101].…”