Adoption of Ceramic Technology: Case Study from Incipient Jomon of Southern Kyushu (ca. 13,500/14,000 – 12,000 cal yr BP)

Summary

Hunter-gatherers of late-Pleistocene Japan were among the first in the world to adopt ceramic technology. Archaeologists have suggested that in southern Kyushu, these people of Incipient Jomon (13500/14000-12000 cal yr BP) also used large grinding stones, stored food, occupied pit houses, and made boats for navigation; they had signatures of reduced residential mobility. Nevertheless, there have not been systematic tests to assess the hypothesized decreased residential mobility. Identification and evaluation of pottery production zones and circulation provides us clues to the economy helping us to infer degrees of sedentism. Detailed analyses of production processes allow us to assess prioritized performance characteristics and functions intended by producers. Inferred functions would help contextualize pottery production, consumption, and transportation patterns. The objective of our study is to better understand economy and degrees of sedentism, and intended pottery function, when ceramic technology emerged in southern Kyushu. We examined pottery from three Incipient Jomon sites in Kagoshima Prefecture; two from the northeastern Satsuma Peninsula surrounding Kagoshima Bay, and one from Tanegashima Island. Ceramics were analyzed visually, mineralogically, with xeroradiography, and with porosity tests. We present our results on ceramic sourcing and technological study and provide inferences on production zones, circulation, and producers’ intended functions.

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This Resource is Part of the Following Collections

• Society for American Archaeology 80th Annual Meeting, San Francisco, CA (2015)

Keywords

Spatial Coverage