Hostname: page-component-76fb5796d-r6qrq Total loading time: 0 Render date: 2024-04-27T00:01:37.176Z Has data issue: false hasContentIssue false
  • English
  • Français

Dating Charred Remains on Pottery and Analyzing Food Habits in the Early Neolithic Period in Northeast Asia

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  09 February 2016

Dai Kunikita ,
Igor Shevkomud ,
Kunio Yoshida ,
Shizuo Onuki ,
Toshiro Yamahara  and
Hiroyuki Matsuzaki
Dai Kunikita*
Affiliation:
Faculty of Letters, The University of Tokyo, 7-3-1 Hongo, Bunkyo-ku Tokyo 113-0033, Japan
Igor Shevkomud
Affiliation:
Museum of Archaeology, Khabarovsk Regional Museum after NI Grodekov, 86 Turgeneva St., Khabarovsk 680000, Russia
Kunio Yoshida
Affiliation:
University Museum, The University of Tokyo, 7-3-1 Hongo, Bunkyo-ku Tokyo 113-0033, Japan
Shizuo Onuki
Affiliation:
Faculty of Letters, The University of Tokyo, 7-3-1 Hongo, Bunkyo-ku Tokyo 113-0033, Japan
Toshiro Yamahara
Affiliation:
Obihiro Centennial City Museum, 2 Midorigaoka, Obihiro-shi Hokkaido 080-0846, Japan
Hiroyuki Matsuzaki
Affiliation:
School of Engineering, The University of Tokyo, 2-11-16 Yayoi, Bunkyo-ku Tokyo 113-0032, Japan
*
2Corresponding author. Email: dkunikita@yahoo.co.jp.
Get access Rights & Permissions [Opens in a new window]

Abstract

This study reconstructs food habits through carbon and nitrogen isotope analysis, and C/N analysis of charred residues inside pottery from Amur River sites in Russia (Goncharka 1 site, Novotroitskoe 10 site, Kondon 1 site) and in Hokkaido, Japan (Taisho 3 site, Yachiyo A site). We obtained dates from 12,330 to 7920 BP for these sites. There are major differences in the carbon and nitrogen isotope ratios between the Taisho 3 site (δ13C: -21.7 to -24.1; δ15N: 11.9–14.7%) and the other sites (δ13C:-22.0 to -27.1%; δ15N: 7.1–13.1%), suggesting that the people of the Taisho 3 site made use of anadromous fish such as salmonids and some species of trout, as well as marine resources. The dates from the other sites except Taisho 3 were assumed to be from a mixture of marine foods, C3 plants and terrestrial animals, and freshwater fish. The food boiled in the pots also indicated a high dependence on marine resources during the initial stages of the emergence of pottery.

Type
Archaeology of Eurasia and Africa
Information
Radiocarbon , Volume 55 , Issue 3: Proceedings of the 21st International Radiocarbon Conference (Part 2 of 2) , 2013 , pp. 1334 - 1340
Copyright
Copyright © 2013 by the Arizona Board of Regents on behalf of the University of Arizona 

Access options

Get access to the full version of this content by using one of the access options below. (Log in options will check for institutional or personal access. Content may require purchase if you do not have access.)

References

Kudo, Y, Kobayashi, K, Sakamoto, M, Matsuzaki, H. 2007. Toukyouto Shimoyakebe iseki ni okeru 14C nendai kenkyu [A study on the radiocarbon ages in Shimoyakebe site, Tokyo]. Kokogaku Kenkyu 53(4):56–76.Google Scholar
Kunikita, D, Yoshida, K. 2011. Doudaira iseki syutudo siryo no 14C nendai sokutei to tanso/tisso douitai bunseki [Radiocarbon dating and carbon and nitrogen analysis in the Doudaira site]. In: Doudaira iseki. Niigata: Tsunanmati Board of Education. p 393–401.Google Scholar
Kunikita, D, Yoshida, K, Miyazaki, Y, Matsuzaki, H. 2006. Hokkaido ni okeru dokifutyakubutsu to mokutan no nendaisa [Difference between radiocarbon ages of charcoal and charred remains on pottery in the Hokkaido Island, Japan]. The 9th Symposium of Japanese AMS Society Proceedings. Tokyo: The University of Tokyo. p 41–6. In Japanese with English abstract.Google Scholar
Kunikita, D, Yoshida, K, Miyazaki, Y, Saito, K, Endo, A, Matsuzaki, H, Ito, S, Kobayashi, T, Fujimoto, T, Kuznetsov, AM, Krupyanko, AA, Tabarev, AM. 2007. Analysis of radiocarbon dates of an archaeological site in the Russian Far East: the marine reservoir effect as seen on charred remains on pottery. Nuclear Instruments and Methods in Physics Research B 259(1): 467–73.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Kunikita, D, Shevkomud, IY, Yoshida, K. 2011. Amuru karyuiki ni okeru shinsekkibunka hensen no nendaikenkyu to syokuseibunseki [A study on the periods of Neolithic cultural transition and an analysis of food habits in the lower reaches of the Amur River.] In: A Study on the Formation and Transformation Process of Sedentary Food Gathering Society in Northeast Asia. Tokyo: The University of Tokyo. p 201–36. In Japanese with English summary.Google Scholar
Kuzmin, YV. 2006. Palaeoenvironment and chronology. In: Nelson, SM, Derevianko, AP, Kuzmin, YV, Bland, RL, editors. Archaeology of the Russian Far East: Essays in Stone Age Prehistory. England: BAR International Series 1540. Oxford: Archaeopress. p 13–40.Google Scholar
Kuzmin, YV. 2010. Radiocarbon chronology for prehistric complexes of the Russian Far East: 15 years later. Radiocarbon 54(3–4):727–36.Google Scholar
Kuzmin, YV. 2012. The origin of pottery in East Asia and its relationship to environmental changes in the Late Glacial. Radiocarbon 52(2–3):415–20.Google Scholar
Kuzmin, YV, Burr, GS, Jull, AJT. 2001. Radiocarbon reservoir correction ages in the Peter the Great Gulf, Sea of Japan, and eastern coast of the Kunashir, southern Kuriles (Northwestern Pacific). Radiocarbon 43(2A):477–81.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Kuzmin, YV, Richards, MP, Yoneda, M. 2002. Palaeodietary patterning and radiocarbon dating of Neolithic populations in the Primorye Province, Russian Far East. Ancient Biomolecules 4(2):53–8.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Nakamura, T, Taniguchi, Y, Tsuji, S, Oda, H. 2001. Radiocarbon dating of charred residues on the earliest pottery in Japan. Radiocarbon 43(2B):1129–38.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Sakamoto, M. 2007. Tanso 14 nendaihou ni yoru Hokkaido/Roshia renpou shutsudo ibutsu no kousei nendai no kentou [Study of calibrated dates of artifacts in the Russia and Hokkaido by radiocarbon dating]. In: Usuki, I, editor. Hokkaido ni okeru kodai kara kinsei no iseki no rekinendai. Hokkaido: Sapporo Gakuin University. p 7–31.Google Scholar
Shevkomud, IY, Kuzmin, YV. 2009. Khronologiya kamennogo veka Nizhnego Priamurya (Dalny Vostok Rossii) [Stone Age chronology of the Lower Amur River basin (Russian Far East)]. In: Shevkomud, IY, editor. Kulturnaya Khronologiya i Drugie Problemy v Issledovaniyakh Drevnostei Vostoka Azii. Khabarovsk: Khabarovsky Kraevoi Muzei. p 7–46.Google Scholar
Yoneda, M, Hirota, M, Uchida, M, Uzawa, K, Tanaka, A, Shibata, Y, Morita, M. 2001. Marine radiocarbon reservoir effect in the western North Pacific observed in archaeological fauna. Radiocarbon 43(2A):465–71.Google Scholar
Yoshida, K, Nishida, Y. 2009. Koukokagaku ga saguru kaendoki [Study of Kaen pottery by archaeological science]. In: Country of ‘Kaen pottery’. Niigata: Niigata Prefectural Museum of History. p 87–99.Google Scholar
Yoshida, K, Ohmichi, J, Kinose, M, Iijima, H, Oono, A, Abe, N, Miyazaki, Y, Matsuzaki, H. 2004. The application of 14C dating to potsherds of the Jomon period. Nuclear Instruments and Methods in Physics Research B 223–224:716–22.Google Scholar