Starch and Stone: Preliminary Evidence from Jomon Period Ground Stone in Southwestern Hokkaido

Summary

Lithic assemblages from Jomon Period sites contain a wide variety of artifacts that were chipped or ground from a number of raw materials. Typological frameworks exist to aid interpretations about function and use, but many details are still unknown when it comes to how Jomon people incorporated this array of stone objects into their lives. The place of ground stone implements within Jomon lithic technology and society is particularly intriguing, as questions about the quantities and variations in form have not been highlighted in recent discussions. In terms of resource use and food production, ground stone has become an increasingly popular line of study at sites around the world. Microscopic analysis of residues and use-wear have the potential to explore the resources that were being processed by Jomon communities, but also to shed light on whether some tool forms were linked to particular tasks and the wider implications of processing activities. The results of a preliminary study of the starch and phytolith remains extracted from ground stone implements from the Yagi site will be presented here, and discussed within the wider setting of the Jomon Period in southwestern Hokkaido.

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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