Migration and adaptation of Jomon people during Pleistocene/Holocene transition period in Hokkaido, Japan

Abstract

This study examined temporal changes in the archaeological records of the Pleistocene/Holocene transition in Hokkaido, northern Japan, based on assemblage composition, radiocarbon ages, projectile point flaking pattern, and site distribution, with a particular focus on the lithic reduction technique. It explained the formation processes of Jomon society in response to climate change as follows. In Hokkaido, pottery emerged during the Late Glacial (LG) warm period (ca. 15,000–13,000 cal BP) because the Incipient Jomon people migrated from Honshu to the north. The Incipient Jomon communities coexisted with the Terminal Upper Paleolithic (TUP) people that had continued to occupy the region since the stage prior to the LG warm period, but the Incipient Jomon population was relatively small. During the LG cold period (ca. 13,000–11,500 cal BP), the subsistence and settlement strategies adopted by the Incipient Jomon people could not continue in Hokkaido. There is currently no reliable evidence of human activity during the LG cold period.

Nevertheless, the analysis of stone tool-making patterns has revealed that stone tool making originating among the TUP people is found in an early Initial Jomon assemblage from the Taisho 6 site. It has an accepted date range of 11,000–10,000 cal BP. This indicates that TUP people's more mobile lifestyle might have enabled them to adapt to the LG cold environment. In the initial Holocene, there was a change in subsistence strategy evidenced in the increase in pottery vessels and the emergence of tools for processing of plant foods. The dramatic warming at the beginning of the Holocene is thought to have significantly changed the TUP people's subsistence strategies and lifestyles.

Introduction

It is well known that pottery vessels in Northeast Asia and East Asia appeared as early as the Late Pleistocene and were used by people with a hunter-gatherer lifestyle. The presence of pottery has been viewed as a marker in setting the period following the Paleolithic (Barnes, 1999; Chard, 1974; Jordan and Zvelevil, 2009; Kuzmin, 2006). The invention of early pottery in the region began prior to settled village life based on agricultural societies; this situation differs from that in the Near East and Europe where pottery appeared after the development of plant cultivation and herding, or almost simultaneously with agriculture (Kuzmin, 2010a). Assumptions of a revolutionary socioeconomic change to the Neolithic period during the Pleistocene/Holocene transition in East and Northeast Asia (Childe, 1939) are no longer viable. However, the transformation of hunter-gatherer lifestyles from mobile to sedentary remains a key topic of the Paleolithic/Neolithic transition, and environmental changes can be focused on as important driving forces for cultural changes and the emergence of pottery (Cohen, 2013; Gibbs and Jordan, 2016; Gibbs et al., 2017; Kuzmin, 2013). Based on studies of pottery function, factors leading to increasingly sedentary lifeways have been discussed with regard to subsistence strategies for efficiently exploiting nearby resources, such as aquatic resources (Craig et al., 2013; Lucquin et al., 2018). The varied regional timing of pottery's appearance in East and Northeast Asia is explained by the diverse climatic conditions and ecological settings found throughout this region (Kuzmin, 2010b; Sato and Natsuki, 2017).

The emergence of pottery in the Japanese archipelago occurred in the transitional Incipient Jomon period (c. 17,000–11,500 cal BP) as the highly mobile lifestyle of the Paleolithic changed to the sedentary lifestyle of the Jomon (Morisaki and Natsuki, 2017; Morisaki et al., 2019). Incipient Jomon archaeological components do not necessarily indicate a gradual transition to sedentary life but represent fluctuating relationships between environmental change and human behavior in the transition from the Pleistocene to the Holocene periods (Iizuka and Izuho, 2017; Morisaki and Natsuki, 2017; Morisaki and Sato, 2014). Some studies focusing on the increase and decrease in the number of archaeological sites and pottery vessels have pointed out the relationship between demographic change and climate fluctuation (Nakazawa et al., 2011; Taniguchi, 2011). Evidence for the efficient use of a variety of resources and a settlement pattern suggesting low mobility is more prominent in the Initial Jomon period (ca. 11,500–7000 cal BP). This includes the emergence of shell mounds and the increase of pebble tools for processing plant foods, pottery vessels, pit-houses, and storage pits. In addition, regional differences in pottery types, the development of exchange networks between regions, and increased evidence of rituals and ornaments are also characteristics of archaeological changes from the Incipient to Initial Jomon periods (Taniguchi, 2011).

To date, there are at least 2400 Incipient Jomon sites in Japan, which are widely distributed from Kyushu Island in the south to Hokkaido in the north (Japanese Paleolithic Research Association, 2010). Although excavations of many Incipient Jomon sites have been reported in Japan, only a few Incipient Jomon sites in Hokkaido have been recorded, and they have only recently been discovered through excavations of the Taisho 3 site (Obihiro Board of Education, 2006). This site expanded the geographic distribution of Jomon sites, indicating that the Jomon people migrated north into Hokkaido during the Late Glacial (LG) warming. Residue analyses of pottery vessels from the site (Craig et al., 2013; Kunikita et al., 2013) suggest that fishing might have intensified in the subsistence strategy of the Incipient Jomon period. New scenarios explaining human migration from Asia to the Americas posit a northward expansion and possible population pressure of the Jomon people based on archaeological evidence of the LG period of Japan (Buvit and Terry, 2016; Buvit et al., 2016; e.g., Iizuka, 2018). Regardless of whether these hypotheses are correct, it is important to consider the spread of new technologies and lifestyles from the perspective of human migration and adaptation. Such an explanation, however, has relied on little evidence from Hokkaido; therefore, it is necessary to update information on the distribution and dates of the Incipient Jomon to obtain a more detailed context of the initial cultural expansion and those that occurred later.

There are few known cases of early pottery at the end of the Pleistocene, and the stable use of pottery in Hokkaido seems to have begun at the onset of the Holocene (Morisaki and Natsuki, 2017). In addition, the Incipient Jomon assemblages are thought to have coexisted with Terminal Upper Paleolithic (TUP) assemblages in the region (Yamahara, 2008), but the transition from those two to the Initial Jomon is still unclear. Considering the situation, archaeological sites, including the Incipient and Initial Jomon, and TUP, need to be examined to reveal the continuity or discontinuity of the Jomon presence.

This paper compares paleoclimatic changes and lithic assemblage changes that occurred in Hokkaido in the Pleistocene/Holocene transition to contribute to the understanding of the emergence of hunter-gatherer societies with pottery use and the relationship between human behavior and environmental changes in Northeast Asia and East Asia. It examines not only the appearance of Jomon society but also the continuity or discontinuity in Hokkaido and assesses it in association with human migration and adaptation corresponding with paleoclimatic fluctuation. It especially focuses on the stone tool assemblages for the evaluation.