Obsidian Access and Territoriality at the Upper Paleolithic Shimaki Site, Hokkaido, Japan

Summary

Although Hokkaido Japan boasts a rich concentration of obsidian resources, studies focusing on its role within Paleolithic hunter-gatherer subsistence and territorial systems are in their infancy as high-quality geochemical analysis is just emerging. Combining XRF geochemical obsidian sourcing analysis coupled with qualitative and quantitative data on individual artifacts, we are able to conduct fine-grained exploration of tool stone procurement, consumption, and use of an entire artifact assemblage (tools and debitage) from the Last Glacial Maximum occupation (21,400 14C years ago) of the Shimaki site. We first compile XRF geochemical obsidian sourcing data on all artifacts to map the abundance of obsidian sources utilized at the site. Next, we correlate obsidian source and tool/debitage type to reveal underlying preference patterns based on specific raw material characteristics (e.g. size, shape). Consumption rates of tools are then compared to construct behavioral scenarios of how the obsidian resources were managed after procurement or exchange, as well as group mobility patterns in relation to subsistence resources. Finally, we speculate about the possible extent of and influence of geographic barriers on Shimaki hunter-gatherers’ foraging territory.

SAA 2015 abstracts made available in tDAR courtesy of the Society for American Archaeology and Center for Digital Antiquity Collaborative Program to improve digital data in archaeology. If you are the author of this presentation you may upload your paper, poster, presentation, or associated data (up to 3 files/30MB) for free. Please visit http://www.tdar.org/SAA2015 for instructions and more information.

This Resource is Part of the Following Collections

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

Keywords