title: Ancient lipids document continuity in the use of early hunter-gatherer pottery through 9,000 years of Japanese prehistory.
abstract: The earliest pots in the world are from East Asia and date to the Late Pleistocene. However, ceramic vessels were only produced in large numbers during the warmer and more stable climatic conditions of the Holocene. It has long been assumed that the expansion of pottery was linked with increased sedentism and exploitation of new resources that became available with the ameliorated climate, but this hypothesis has never been tested. Through chemical analysis of their contents, we herein investigate the use of pottery across an exceptionally long 9,000-y sequence from the Jōmon site of Torihama in western Japan, intermittently occupied from the Late Pleistocene to the mid-Holocene. Molecular and isotopic analyses of lipids from 143 vessels provides clear evidence that pottery across this sequence was predominantly used for cooking marine and freshwater resources, with evidence for diversification in the range of aquatic products processed during the Holocene. Conversely, there is little indication that ruminant animals or plants were processed in pottery, although it is evident from the faunal and macrobotanical remains that these foods were heavily exploited. Supported by other residue analysis data from Japan, our results show that the link between pottery and fishing was established in the Late Paleolithic and lasted well into the Holocene, despite environmental and socio-economic change. Cooking aquatic products in pottery represents an enduring social aspect of East Asian hunter-gatherers, a tradition based on a dependable technology for exploiting a sustainable resource in an uncertain and changing world.
authors.affiliation: Department of Archaeology, BioArCh, University of York, York YO10 5DD, United Kingdom;
authors.forename: Alexandre
authors.initials: A
authors.lastname: Lucquin
authors.affiliation: Department of Anthropology, University of Nevada, Las Vegas, NV 89154;
authors.forename: Kevin
authors.initials: K
authors.lastname: Gibbs
authors.affiliation: World Heritage Center Division, Shizuoka Prefectural Government, Aoi-ku, Shizuoka City 420-8601, Japan;
authors.forename: Junzo
authors.initials: J
authors.lastname: Uchiyama
authors.affiliation: Department of Archaeology, BioArCh, University of York, York YO10 5DD, United Kingdom;
authors.forename: Hayley
authors.initials: H
authors.lastname: Saul
authors.affiliation: Fukui Prefectural Wakasa History Museum, Obama, Fukui 917-0241, Japan;
authors.forename: Mayumi
authors.initials: M
authors.lastname: Ajimoto
authors.affiliation: Department of Archaeology, BioArCh, University of York, York YO10 5DD, United Kingdom;
authors.forename: Yvette
authors.initials: Y
authors.lastname: Eley
authors.affiliation: Department of Archaeology, BioArCh, University of York, York YO10 5DD, United Kingdom;
authors.forename: Anita
authors.initials: A
authors.lastname: Radini
authors.affiliation: School of Archaeological Sciences, University of Bradford, Bradford BD7 1DP, United Kingdom;
authors.forename: Carl P
authors.initials: CP
authors.lastname: Heron
authors.affiliation: Department of Archaeology, BioArCh, University of York, York YO10 5DD, United Kingdom;
authors.forename: Shinya
authors.initials: S
authors.lastname: Shoda
authors.affiliation: Niigata Prefectural Museum of History, Nagaoka, Niigata 940-2035, Japan;
authors.forename: Yastami
authors.initials: Y
authors.lastname: Nishida
authors.affiliation: Department of Archaeology, BioArCh, University of York, York YO10 5DD, United Kingdom;
authors.forename: Jasmine
authors.initials: J
authors.lastname: Lundy
authors.affiliation: Arctic Centre, University of Groningen, Groningen 9718 CW, The Netherlands;
authors.forename: Peter
authors.initials: P
authors.lastname: Jordan
authors.affiliation: Archaeological Research Laboratory, Department of Archaeology and Classical Studies, Stockholm University, SE 10691 Stockholm, Sweden.
authors.forename: Sven
authors.initials: S
authors.lastname: Isaksson
authors.affiliation: Department of Archaeology, BioArCh, University of York, York YO10 5DD, United Kingdom; oliver.craig@york.ac.uk.
authors.forename: Oliver E
authors.initials: OE
authors.lastname: Craig
keywords: archaeology; ceramic; isotope; plant microfossil; residue analysis