The goal of this contribution is to stimulate a wider reflection on the role of food consumption practices throughout prehistory. We focussed on the Jōmon communities of Hokkaidō Island in Northern Japan since these mobile foragers underwent a process of economic diversification and intensification, eventually leading to higher levels of sedentism across the Pleistocene-Holocene transition. Moreover, dynamic social settings and expansion of the subsistence base at the start of the Holocene would have provided rich opportunities for novel food combinations, and potentially, the rise of diverse regional cuisines. We investigated tool kits and resource landscapes, and sampled pottery from a range of sites, phases and regions. We then applied organic residue analysis to confirm the actual spatiotemporal patterning in cuisine. Although we predicted that ruminants and nuts would have played a major role in local cuisine, especially in inland areas, our results indicate that aquatic resources were central to pottery-based cuisines across the island, and that other food groups had probably been processed in other ways. While organic residue analysis enabled us to reconstruct some major patterns in Jōmon cuisine, we conclude that archaeologists will need to look “beyond the cooking pot” to fully appreciate the full diversity of local foodways.

这一贡献的目的是激发人们对整个史前食品消费实践的作用进行更广泛的反思。由于这些流动性觅食者经历了经济多样化和集约化进程，最终导致整个更新世-全新世过渡期的久坐不动，因此我们集中于日本北部北海道岛的宗门社区。此外，全新世初期充满活力的社会环境和生存基础的扩大将为新颖的食物组合提供丰富的机会，并有可能带来各种区域美食的兴起。我们调查了工具包和资源状况，并从一系列地点，阶段和地区采样了陶器。然后，我们应用有机残留物分析来确认烹饪中的实际时空模式。尽管我们预测反刍动物和坚果将在当地美食（特别是在内陆地区）中发挥重要作用，但我们的结果表明，水生资源是全岛以陶器为基础的美食的核心，其他食物类别可能是在其他地区加工的方法。尽管有机残留物分析使我们能够重建乔蒙美食的一些主要模式，但我们得出的结论是，考古学家将需要“超越烹饪锅”，以充分欣赏当地美食的多样性。