TY - JOUR
T1 - Of the sea and volcano
T2 - A petrographic provenance investigation of locally produced and imported ware of Pre-Younger Dryas Tanegashima Island, Japan
AU - Iizuka, Fumie
AU - Izuho, Masami
AU - Wada, Keiji
AU - Barnard, Hans
AU - Vandiver, Pamela
AU - Morisaki, Kazuki
AU - Wendt, Carl
AU - Aldenderfer, Mark
N1 - Funding Information:
For example, the earliest radiocarbon dates associated with pottery have been obtained in southern China. They date as early as 20,000–17,000 cal BP (Boaretto et al., 2009; Cohen, 2013: Cohen et al., 2017; Wu et al., 2012) between the terminal Last Glacial Maximum (LGM) and the Oldest Dryas (OD). Suggestions have been made that the producers were mobile hunter-gatherers associated with the Upper Paleolithic (Qu et al., 2013; Patania et al., 2019a, 2019b). However, at well-reported sites like Yuchanyan, Xianrendong, and Diatonghuan, there are earlier reports of macro- and/or micro-botanical remains of rice in the process of domestication, supposedly occurring around the beginning of the Holocene (Iizuka, 2018; Lu et al., 2010; Yuan, 2002; Zhang, 2002; Zhao, 1998; Zuo et al., 2017). Those who support LGM-OD dates question these inferences (Cohen, 2013; Patania et al., 2019b). Furthermore, the cobble-tool industry continues in the LGM and the early Holocene, overlapping with the appearance of pottery (Qu et al., 2013), rendering the elucidation of the timing of behavioral change between pre-ceramic and ceramic periods difficult (Iizuka, 2018).We thank the following individuals and institutions that facilitated this research: Hideto Dogome, Ryoichi Maesako, Koji Okubo, and Aya Manabe at the Kagoshima Prefectural Archaeology Center, Kazuhiro Ishido at the Minamitane Town Board of Education, Akira Iwase and Shunsaku Egusa at Tokyo Metropolitan University, Kathleen Hull at the University of California, Merced (UC Merced), Kagoshima Prefectural Archaeological Center, Tokyo Metropolitan University, Hokkaido University of Education, UC Merced, Cotsen Institute of Archaeology at the University of California, Los Angeles, California State University Fullerton, and the University of Arizona. Takeyuki Ueki, Yusuke Yokoyama, Yousuke Miyairi, and Junichiro Okita gave insights on our analyses and interpretations. Seijiro Nakagawa, Satoru Ichikawa, and Yasutoyo Sameshima facilitated data acquisition. Karisa Terry has given insightful comments on this paper and kind support. Japan Society for Promotion of Science (grants 17K03213 and 17KK0028, PI: Fumie Iizuka) allowed this research. We also thank the anonymous reviewers and Andrea Zerboni for their help in improving this paper.
Publisher Copyright:
© 2020 Elsevier Ltd and INQUA
PY - 2022/1/20
Y1 - 2022/1/20
N2 - In the southern part of Kyushu Island in southern Japan and the small islands further south the earliest pottery is found beneath the Satsuma tephra, which has been well dated to ca. 12,800 cal BP. Here we focus on Incipient Jomon pottery, 14,000/13,500–12,800 cal BP, from the Sankakuyama I site on Tanegashima Island. Previous visual analysis of the fabrics suggested that about half of the vessels were not locally made. In this study, we conducted both ceramic and raw material petrography and an electron microprobe study on samples of pottery. Our results indicate that pottery was mainly produced in situ, away from the coast, but that there is some clear non-local material which came from either Yakushima Island or Kyushu Island proper. Yakushima has no reported Incipient Jomon sites. There should be undiscovered sites on Yakushima if pottery circulated from there rather than Sankakuyama I residents embedding production in their logistical moves on Yakushima. Minor signatures of non-local geology in locally produced pottery are probably the result of volcanic eruptions and sea currents. Pottery production began when Tanegashima was disconnected from Kyushu and probably about to be separated from Yakushima. During the Incipient Jomon period, Tanegashima had become isolated. We conclude that pottery producers were hunter-gatherers who were mainly sedentary, living in a mild environmental with ecotone properties. They occasionally engaged in costly communication and exchange, which may have involved transporting pottery by watercraft and on foot, to buffer risks. Our study is among the first to investigate the pottery economy of the late Pleistocene and the decisions made by its producers and users in response to environmental variability and change. The research contributes to the debate on the origins of pottery and the Upper Paleolithic to Neolithic transition.
AB - In the southern part of Kyushu Island in southern Japan and the small islands further south the earliest pottery is found beneath the Satsuma tephra, which has been well dated to ca. 12,800 cal BP. Here we focus on Incipient Jomon pottery, 14,000/13,500–12,800 cal BP, from the Sankakuyama I site on Tanegashima Island. Previous visual analysis of the fabrics suggested that about half of the vessels were not locally made. In this study, we conducted both ceramic and raw material petrography and an electron microprobe study on samples of pottery. Our results indicate that pottery was mainly produced in situ, away from the coast, but that there is some clear non-local material which came from either Yakushima Island or Kyushu Island proper. Yakushima has no reported Incipient Jomon sites. There should be undiscovered sites on Yakushima if pottery circulated from there rather than Sankakuyama I residents embedding production in their logistical moves on Yakushima. Minor signatures of non-local geology in locally produced pottery are probably the result of volcanic eruptions and sea currents. Pottery production began when Tanegashima was disconnected from Kyushu and probably about to be separated from Yakushima. During the Incipient Jomon period, Tanegashima had become isolated. We conclude that pottery producers were hunter-gatherers who were mainly sedentary, living in a mild environmental with ecotone properties. They occasionally engaged in costly communication and exchange, which may have involved transporting pottery by watercraft and on foot, to buffer risks. Our study is among the first to investigate the pottery economy of the late Pleistocene and the decisions made by its producers and users in response to environmental variability and change. The research contributes to the debate on the origins of pottery and the Upper Paleolithic to Neolithic transition.
KW - Ceramic sourcing
KW - Hunter-gatherers
KW - Late Pleistocene
KW - Marine navigation
KW - Origins of pottery
KW - Production and circulation
KW - Sea level rise
KW - Southern Japan
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U2 - 10.1016/j.quaint.2020.10.009
DO - 10.1016/j.quaint.2020.10.009
M3 - Article
AN - SCOPUS:85097141416
VL - 608-609
SP - 88
EP - 111
JO - Quaternary International
JF - Quaternary International
SN - 1040-6182
ER -