Quaternary International 237 (2011) 93e102

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Quaternary International
journal homepage: www.elsevier.com/locate/quaint

Human cultures and environmental changes in the PleistoceneeHolocene

transition in the Japanese Archipelago
Hiroyuki Sato a, Masami Izuho b, Kazuki Morisaki c, *
a
Department of Archaeology, Faculty of Letters, The University of Tokyo, 7-3-1 Hongo, Bunkyo-ku, Tokyo 113-0033, Japan
b
Archaeology Laboratory, Faculty of Social Sciences and Humanities, Tokyo Metropolitan University, 1-1 Minamiosawa, Hachioji-shi, Tokyo 192-0397, Japan
c
National Research Institute for Cultural Properties, Nara, 94-1 Miyanowaki, Kinomoto-cho, Kashihara-shi, Nara 634-0025, Japan

a r t i c l e i n f o a b s t r a c t

Article history: The accumulated archaeological records have shown that hunter-gatherer societies turned from mobile
Available online 14 January 2011 to sedentary ways of life through the transition from the terminal Pleistocene to the initial Holocene
(ca. 15e8 ka) in Japanese Archipelago. This paper discusses the historical processes seen among
prehistoric human cultures, societies, subsistence and environmental changes in this transitional period,
namely the shift to the ‘Jomon’ culture. After the AT eruption, which is a huge volcanic eruption in
Southern Kyushu in ca. 25000 14C BP, population contraction of large mammals as well as a rapid shift to
cold/dry condition and expansion of coniferous forest pushed hunter-gatherers to change their hunting
target from large mammals by broad foraging to middle to small mammals in small areas, and formed
‘matured’ regional societies. The ‘Jomon’ culture is thought to have stemmed from these societies, but is
more varied, regional, and sophisticated than the Palaeolithic one resulting from the complex environ-
mental change of the PleistoceneeHolocene transition. The emergence of oceanic climate and fine-
grained ecological settings shaped the unique culture. For example, the spread of broadleaf forests
supplied plentiful nuts, and continental shelves formed through coastal transgression furnished ample
marine resources. Because these new ecological settings were formed, the ‘Jomon’ population could have
become dependent on gathering and fishing, and shifted to a sedentary subsistence strategy. Further-
more, increase of precipitation and diverse rainfall patterns encouraged diverse ecological settings,
leading to the formation of various regional Jomon cultures. This paper presents such complex trajec-
tories for the ‘Jomon’ culture.
Ó 2011 Elsevier Ltd and INQUA. All rights reserved.

1. Introduction 2. Palaeoenvironment of the Late Pleistocene and the

A drastic change in palaeoclimate from the terminal Pleistocene
to the initial Holocene has been recognized in the Japanese archi-
pelago, in accordance with global climatic change. Although more
investigation is required, floral and faunal data which were
changed according to climatic fluctuations have been documented.
The goal of this research is to compare reconstructed human
activities based on a tremendous amount of archaeological data
with the various environmental data. This paper discusses the
historical processes seen among prehistoric human cultures, soci-
eties, subsistence and environmental changes in the Pleistocene-
Holocene transition, namely the shift to the ‘Jomon’ culture.
* Corresponding author. Fax: þ81 744 21 6390.
E-mail addresses: hsato@l.u-tokyo.ac.jp (H. Sato), izuhom@tmu.ac.jp (M. Izuho),
morisaki@nabunken.go.jp (K. Morisaki).
Holocene
Empirical archaeological records have demonstrated that
hunter-gatherer societies shifted from mobile to sedentary lifeways
in this transitional period. There are more than 16,000 sites
attributed to the Palaeolithic to Incipient Neolithic (Jomon) iden-
tified in the Japanese Archipelago (Database Committee of Japanese
Palaeolithic Research Association, 2010). Because of this, the spatio-
temporal arrangement of archaeological phenomena is accurately
understood to the highest degree in the world’s archaeological
records. On the other hand, because of the scarce data sets for
reconstructing natural environments, examination of spatio-
temporal correspondences between the variability in archaeolog-
ical data and environmental changes is still unreliable. The present
study is a preliminary attempt to propose a set of hypotheses which
need to be addressed in future research.
The sampled sediment cores of Lake Suigetsu in Fukui Prefecture,
and Lake Togo in Tottori Prefecture (Fukuzawa, 1999), and the deep-

1040-6182/$ e see front matter Ó 2011 Elsevier Ltd and INQUA. All rights reserved.
doi:10.1016/j.quaint.2011.01.006
94 H. Sato et al. / Quaternary International 237 (2011) 93e102

sea sediments from piston cores from the Japan Sea and the Pacific
Ocean, have shown that the ‘DansgaardeOeschger Cycle’ was
present in the area in and around the Japanese Archipelago (Fig. 1;
Tada, 1999). In the glacial period, because of eustatic change of sea
level (regression), the Japanese Archipelago merged into two land-
masses: the Palaeo-Honshu Island consisting of the present Honshu,
Shikoku, and Kyushu Islands, and the Palaeo-Sakhalin-Hokkaido-
Kurile Peninsula (hereafter, Palaeo-SHK peninsula) in which Hok-
kaido was connected to the Russian Continent via the present
Sakhalin Island. Because the Palaeo-Japan Sea was surrounded by
these landmasses and the Korean Peninsula, some currents from the
Pacific Ocean presently flowing into the Japan Sea did not stream
into the Palaeo-Japan Sea (Fig. 2; Oba,1993). This condition made the
terrestrial climate much colder and drier than today.
In this climatic condition, the cool temperate coniferous forest
extended over eastern Japan, similar to the present floral commu-
nity of the Lower Amur and Premorye regions, while the
coniferebroadleaf mixed forest extended in western Japan. These
forests hardly ever had edible plant foods. The deciduous broadleaf
forest flourished during the Jomon Period, and was only restricted
along the coastal zone of the Pacific Ocean in western Japan (Ono
and Igarashi, 1991; Tsuji, 2004). In northeastern Hokkaido, the
now-disappeared cold steppe and/or open forest mainly consisting
of Larix gmelinii, was present (Ono and Igarashi, 1991).
The Pleistocene large mammalian fauna was composed of two
faunal groups: the “mammoth (Mammuthus primigenius) complex”
and the “Paleoloxodon-Shinomegaceroides complex”. The former
group migrated from Siberia to Hokkaido via Sakhalin Island during
the Late Pleistocene (ca. 45e20 ka), and the latter group came from
northern China to the Japanese Archipelago (mainly the Palaeo-
Honshu Island) via the Korean Peninsula during the Middle Pleis-
tocene (ca. 300e130 ka), probably escaping from environmental
deterioration due to colder climate (Kawamura, 1998). These two
faunal groups moved northward in response to warmer climate and

Fig. 1. DansgaardeOeshger Cycles in Japan (Tada, 1999). Correlation of the dark and light layers in C-3 core from the Japan Sea, its organic carbon contents, and d18O records of
Greenland ice cores (Matsui et al., 1998). Interstadial numbers are illustrated on right side of GISP2 d18O peaks.
 H. Sato et al. / Quaternary International 237 (2011) 93e102
Fig. 2. Environmental change in the Palaeo-Japan Sea (modified from Oba, 1993; Oba et al., 1995).
migrated to the south under colder climate conditions (Izuho and
Takahashi, 2005). Large mammals in the Palaeo-Honshu Island
were extinct by 20 ka, in the beginning of MIS2, while those
surviving in Hokkaido ultimately disappeared by 10 ka at the onset
of the Holocene (Takahashi, 2008). The disappearance of large
mammals resulted in the Holocene mammalian fauna in the Japa-
nese Archipelago being solely composed of middle- to small
species. A parsimonious scenario is that overkill and drastic
climatic change caused the terminal Pleistocene extinction of large
mammals, although the environmental change at the transition
from MIS3 to 2 played the major role in the large mammalian
extinction (Izuho, 2005; Izuho and Takahashi, 2005).
During the terminal Pleistocene, climate changes were acceler-
ated, resulting in extreme fluctuations between warm and cool
conditions. In particular, the colder climate in the Late Glacial
seems to have had a great impact on the changes of hunter-gatherer
subsistence. The terminal Pleistocene climatic fluctuations are
recorded in various regions in the world. In the Japanese Archi-
pelago, it is remarkable in the northern region.
The Holocene sea level recession brought oceanic currents
flowing into the Japan Sea, simultaneous with the formation of the
present Japanese Archipelago (Fig. 2). All the Archipelago were
under an oceanic wet and warm climate. The deciduous broadleaf
forest extended through eastern Japan, and the broadleaf evergreen
forest spread over western Japan (Fig. 3; Tsuji, 2001).
The archaeological records in the Japanese Archipelago except
Hokkaido have witnessed continuous changes of cultures from the
Pleistocene to the Holocene. The latter half of the Late Pleistocene
(45e15 ka) belongs to the cultural period of Upper Palaeolithic,
but the Late Glacial in the Late Pleistocene was coincident with
the Incipient Jomon (15e10 ka). The Earliest (Initial) to the Latest
95
Jomon cultures (10e2.8 ka) are in the Holocene. Therefore, the
beginning of the Jomon culture corresponds to Late Glacial
period in the Honshu region and further south. In contrast, in
Hokkaido, microblade industries, having similar characteristics
with those of the Upper Palaeolithic, continued until 10 ka, but no
archaeological record was identified during 10e8 ka. The pottery
culture in Hokkaido first emerged later than the middle Earliest
Jomon.
3. Human activities in the Late Pleistocene
Modern humans migrated into the Japanese Archipelago during
mid-MIS3 maintained the lithic technology called the ‘Bipartite tool
manufacturing technology’, consisting of basal-retouched blade
points and expedient trapezoids (Sato, 1992). At the MIS3/2 tran-
sition, this lithic technology started to change immediately before
the event of AairaeTanzawa volcanic ash fall, one of the large
eruptive events in the Japanese Archipelago (ca. 29e26 ka; Machida
and Arai, 2004). This lithic technology was obviously deconstructed
and differentiated into several regional technologies after the AT
eruption, partly induced by faunal and floral changes. Population
contraction of large mammals as well as a rapid shift to cold/dry
conditions and expansion of coniferous forest pushed hunter-
gatherers to change their hunting target from large mammals by
broad foraging to middle to small mammals in small areas, mainly
in southwestern part of the Palaeo-Honshu Island. Human groups
in the northeastern part of the Palaeo-Honshu Island took basically
the same adaptive trajectory, although large mammals were hun-
ted in relatively high frequency because large mammals from
northern areas, such as the Palaeo-SHK Peninsula, sometimes
entered. Thus, various stylistic hunting weapons and lithic
96 H. Sato et al. / Quaternary International 237 (2011) 93e102

Fig. 3. Differences of vegetation between LGM and Holocene (after Tsuji, 2001).

technologies were highly adaptive to regional settings such as
availability of lithic raw materials, mammals, and edible plants
under the regional variability in MIS2 (Fig. 4). The regional differ-
ences would have been created by “matured” regional societies and
enhanced social relationships among societies (Sato, 1992;
Morisaki, 2010).
On the other hand, microblade industry was consistently found
during the Palaeo-SHK Peninsula throughout MIS2. The microblade
technology, normally regarded as an adaptive strategy for
sustaining highly mobile foraging, was still adopted, probably
because the Pleistocene mammals survived until the later part of
the MIS2. Under the fluctuating environment in the Pleistocene, the
principal stable food source is thought to have been from animals,
while the plant resources were poor during the Pleistocene.
4. Human activities of PleistoceneeHolocene transition; from
the Palaeolithic to the Incipient Jomon
4.1. Final Palaeolithic
In the PleistoceneeHolocene transition, various regional socie-
ties took unique and different trajectories to reach sedentary life-
ways (i.e., ‘Jomonization’). During the terminal Pleistocene, before
the Bølling/Allerød interstadial, various regional lithic industries

Fig. 4. Stylistic variability of hunting weapons in the Late Upper Palaeolithic (after Morisaki, 2010).
 H. Sato et al. / Quaternary International 237 (2011) 93e102 97

Fig. 5. Diffusion of microblade industry with wedge-shaped microcore from Palaeo-SHK Peninsula (after Anzai, 2009).
98 H. Sato et al. / Quaternary International 237 (2011) 93e102
characterized by curated bifacial technologies and microblade
technologies were distributed in the northeastern Palaeo-Honshu
Island, while flake technologies, microblade technologies, and
normal bifacial technologies were distributed in southwestern
Palaeo-Honshu Island. Later, microblade technologies with wedge-
shaped cores from the Palaeo-SHK Peninsula were brought into the
northeastern Palaeo-Honshu Island ca. 17e15 ka (Fig. 5). Although
the MikoshibaeChojakubo technocomplex has been regarded as
a widespread cultural phase in the initial Jomon Culture in the
archipelago, its emergence was likely a socioecological conse-
quence of inter-social contacts through diffusion of microblade
technologies (Anzai, 2002).
4.2. Early Incipient Jomon
It is immediately prior to the warming event of the Late Glacial
that the oldest potteries appeared in the Japanese archaeological
Fig. 6. Correlation between environmental change and archaeological chronology from Late Upper Palaeolithic to Initial Jomon (after Kudo, 2006; from the Collections of The Center
for the Study of the First Americans, Department of Anthropology, Texas A;M University).
records, represented by the potteries from the Odai-Yamamoto site,
Aomori prefecture. Following this period, a formal type of pottery
(characterized by linear-relief, i.e. ‘Ryukisenmon’) appeared
throughout the assemblages of Palaeo-Honshu Island (Fig. 6; Kudo,
2006), while microblade industries were still consistent in Hok-
kaido. However, a notable discovery is that the Incipient Jomon
assemblage with the potteries was found with the stemmed points
characterized by the Honshu-type of chaîne opératoire (Nagai,
2009) from the Taisho 3 site in Obihiro, Hokkaido (Fig. 7).
Because microblade industries were predominant during this
period in Hokkaido, the occupation of the Taisho 3 was possibly
a migration episode from the Palaeo-Honshu Island in response to
a climate change of the Late Glacial.
Though the Incipient Jomon potteries share regionally uniform
styles to some extent, a notable difference is found among the lithic
technologies. In Kyushu, microblade industries with bifacial
wedge-shaped core from the Korean peninsula are present. In the
 H. Sato et al. / Quaternary International 237 (2011) 93e102 99

Fig. 7. Lithic assemblage and pottery from Taisho 3 site in Obihiro, Hokkaido.

southwestern part of the Palaeo-Honshu Island except for Kyushu, In contrast to the potteries, a notable regional difference is
arrowheads with few bifacial-stemmed points and bifacial points found in the lithic assemblages (Fig. 8). Stone tools from the Hinata
are found. In northeastern Palaeo-Honshu Island, developed bifa- Cave were bifaces, large bifacial points, arrowheads, scrapers, drills,
cial-stemmed point and bifacial points with arrowheads were and axes. The forms of these tools are highly standardized. More-
extensive. In northeastern Honshu, projectile points remained until over, it is noteworthy that small tools such as arrowheads were
the Early Jomon period. made on flakes from biface reductions (Sagawa and Suzuki, 2006).
Currently, cross dating of assemblages based on the radiocarbon The Hanamiyama site has yielded large bifacial points and many
dates is available (Table 1). For example, the Manpukuji site in stemmed points with uniquely formed ones (called the “Hana-
Kanagawa prefecture, the Seiko-Sanso B site in Nagano prefecture, miyama” type), although bifacial points are thicker and less elab-
the Layer 9 of the Kamikuroiwa Cave in Ehime prefecture, and the orated than those of the Hinata Cave. The Hanamiyama assemblage
Senpukuji Cave layer 10e7 (Ryukisenmon pottery) in Nagasaki also includes scrapers and drills, with few stone axes. Lithic
prefecture all fall into the time between 12,500 and 12,000 14C BP. assemblage from the Seiko-Sanso B site contains elaborately
The Western Terrace of Hinata Caves in Yamagata prefecture and manufactured large and narrow points, the Hanamiyama-like
Hanamiyama site in the Kanagawa prefecture are also thought to stemmed points, and numerous edgeeground axes. The forest
be comparable, because their potteries resemble those of the Seiko- setting around the site may explain the presence of numerous stone
Sanso B site and the Manpukuji site. Ryukisenmon potteries of the axes. The Kamikuroiwa Cave assemblage has wide but thin and
Hinata Cave, the Manpukuji site, the Hanamiyama site, and the elaborated stemmed points. Fine bifacially shaped microblade
Seiko-Sanso B site share common characteristics (Ryukisenmon, cores are found in Senpukuji Cave, probably because the site is close
type 1), while those of the Kamikuroiwa Cave and the Sempukuji to the continent.
Cave are a bit different (Ryukisenmon, type 2). But as far as What does the observed inter-regional variability in lithic
potteries are concerned, similarity is evident in the Palaeo-Honshu technologies mean? Highly elaborated complex lithic technology
Island. observed in the Hinata Cave lithic assemblage indicates a reliable
and scheduled foraging strategy. The technological characteristics
Table 1 of lithic assemblage from the Seiko-Sanso B site resemble those of
Pottery type and Radiocarbon dates from archaeological sites of early Incipient Jomon. the Hinata Cave. In contrast, pointed tools of the Hanamiyama,
Sites 14
C ages Methods Typology of pottery characterized by less regular flake technologies than those of the
Hinata cave e e Ryukisenmon, type 1 Hinata and Seiko-Sanso, would be representative of a different
Hanamiyama e e Ryukisenmon, type 1 foraging strategy. A similar situation is seen in the Kamikuroiwa
a
Manpukuji 12330  40 AMS Ryukisenmon, type 1 Cave, though the bifacial points from the Cave are stylistically
Seiko-Sanso B 12340  50, AMS Ryukisenmon, type 1
different from Hanamiyama. The industry in northwestern
12160  40, 12000 40
Kamikuroiwa 12530  40 AMS Ryukisenmon, type 2 Kyushu, represented in the Senpukuji Cave assemblage, lacked
layer 9 bifacial points, but likely included composite technology with
Senpukuji 12220  80a AMS Ryukisenmon, type 2 microblade. This is a highly reliable, versatile, and costly tech-
layer 8 nology, suggesting that people employed a risk minimizing
a
Charred remains on pottery. strategy for hunting.
100 H. Sato et al. / Quaternary International 237 (2011) 93e102

14
Fig. 8. Inter-regional variability in Palaeo-Honshu Island at 12,500e12,000 C BP.
 H. Sato et al. / Quaternary International 237 (2011) 93e102
Generally speaking, in the northeastern Palaeo-Honshu Island,
hunter-gatherers traditionally employed highly costly but highly
curated chaîne opératoire in making bifaces. They adopted the mode
in manufacturing several tools in the Incipient Jomon (Hinata Cave
and Seiko-Sanso B) (Oba, 2006). In the southwestern Palaeo-Hon-
shu island (Hanamiyama, Manpukuji, and Kamikuroiwa), such
specialized technology did not develop. The common technology in
Jomon was relatively less standardized and had less specialized
flexible technologies than those of the northeast island, where tool
manufacture seems to have already been ongoing.
The observed difference in technologies could have been linked
to the differences in environmental changes between the two
regions. In the southwestern Palaeo-Honshu Island, climate became
warmer and stabilized, and plant foods grew earlier than the
northeast. These various food resources made hunter-gatherers in
the southwestern part of Palaeo-Honshu Island adopt non-special-
ized and flexible technology. On the other hand, in the northeast,
hunter-gatherers organized specialized and curated technologies in
order to exploit scarce food resources. The difference in palae-
oecology would have shaped the technological difference.
Multi-layered socioecological settings affected differences in
lithic technologies, hunting weapons, and behavioral strategies. In
future research, it is necessary to identify background conditions
in creating the observed inter-regional variability.
4.3. Late Incipient Jomon
Although many archaeological sites with Ryukisenmon pottery
have been found throughout the Japanese archipelago, sites of
the subsequent period (late Incipient Jomon) represented by nail-
impressed or cord-marked (i.e. ‘Tsumegatamon’ or ‘Tajomon’) Tsu-
megatamon or Tajomon potteries are scarce. In Hokkaido, no pottery
tradition was recognized until 8 ka, the middle Earliest Jomon. The
Younger Dryas cold climate may have affected these phenomena.
Interestingly, pit houses started to appear mainly in the south-
western Palaeo-Honshu Island in the late Incipient Jomon, as the
total number of archaeological sites started to decrease. However, it
is after the earliest Jomon when large-scale settlements were con-
structed throughout the Japanese archipelago. The earliest Jomon
corresponds to the beginning of stable oceanic climate in the
Holocene. The Holocene climatic amelioration brought various
resources to the hunter-gatherers. First, the spread of broadleaf
forests supplied plentiful nuts. Second, continental shelves formed
through coastal transgression furnished ample marine resources.
Because these new ecological settings were formed, the Jomon
population could have become dependent on gathering and fishing,
and shifted to a sedentary subsistence strategy. Moreover, increased
precipitation and emerged diverse rainfall patterns accelerated the
diversity in ecological settings, leading to the formation of various
regional Jomon cultures (Sato, 2008).
5. Concluding remarks
Through complex environmental change of the Pleistoce-
neeHolocene transition, a unique Neolithic culture (Jomon culture)
was formed under the oceanic climate and fine-grained ecological
settings. The Jomon culture was composed of sedentary hunter-
gatherer cultures and differed from continental Neolithic cultures.
In the circum-Japan Sea area, it is only in some regions of China
(around the Yangtze River, and north and south China) and Japan
where transitions from Palaeolithic to Neolithic are tracked in
archaeological records (Onuki, 2003). The well-known Osipovka
culture, once supposed to be the homeland of Jomon culture, is
regarded to be a local pottery culture, because it was restricted only
in the Lower and Middle Amur and not found in other areas
101
(Shevkomud, 2006). The archaeological phases between the Osi-
povka culture and initial Neolithic culture around 8 ka have not
been found in the Russian Far East. The lack of archaeological data
in the beginning of the Holocene is also seen in Hokkaido, Sakhalin,
Korea, and China. This observation must be considered in discus-
sing the cultural transformation from Palaeolithic to Jomon.
Acknowledgments
Special thanks to Yuichi Nakazawa for his helpful comments
on this paper. Thanks also to Yuichiro Kudo who helped us to
investigate radiocarbon data from Incipient Jomon sites. This
work was supported by the Grant-in-Aid for Scientific Research
(A)(21242026) and the Grant-in-Aid for Research Activity Start-up
(21820082) of Japan Society for the Promotion of Science.
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