Fishing and Early Jomon Foodways at Sannai Maruyama, Japan
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Fishing and Early Jomon Foodways at Sannai Maruyama, Japan By Mio Katayama A dissertation submitted in partial satisfaction of the requirements for the degree of Doctor of Philosophy in Anthropology in the Graduate Division of the University of California, Berkeley Committee in charge: Professor Junko Habu, Chair Professor Christine Hastorf Professor Mack Horton Spring 2011 Abstract Fishing and Early Jomon Foodways at Sannai Maruyama, Japan By Mio Katayama Doctor of Philosophy in Anthropology University of California, Berkeley Professor Junko Habu, Chair This thesis examines the economic vs. social and symbolic importance of fish in the foodways of the prehistoric Jomon culture (16,000-2300 cal BP) of Japan. To achieve this goal, quantitative analyses of fish remains excavated from a water-logged midden of the Sannai Maruyama site (Aomori Prefecture, Japan) are conducted. Dated to the Lower Ento–a phase (ca. 5900–5650 cal BP) of the Early Jomon Period, the midden was associated with large amounts of organic remains, including fish bones. The perspective employed in this dissertation, foodways, emphasizes the importance of social and cultural roles of food. Rather than focus on bio-ecological aspects and nutritional values of food, this thesis regards food as one of the central elements of individual cultures. In Japanese archaeology, food of the Jomon Period has been a central them to the discussion reconstructing the lifeways of prehistoric people of the Japanese archipelago. Large amounts of data, including faunal and floral materials, have been accumulated from numerous rescue excavations of Jomon sites that took place between the 1970s and late 1990s. These archaeological data allowed the development of detailed culture historical studies of the Jomon Period that span over 10,000 years. Within the tradition of Japanese archaeology, however, virtually no scholar has adopted the study of foodways as a theoretical approach. This thesis is one of the few attempts to examine Jomon data from this perspective. In this thesis, the relations between Jomon people and fish as their food are examined through zooarchaeological and ethnoarchaeological analyses. Soil samples from the “Northern Valley” midden of the Sannai Maruyama site were obtained, and fish remains in these samples were separated, identified, and quantified. The results indicate that two taxa were particularly important in the diet of the Sannai Maruyama residents: Cobitidae (loaches) and Seriola (yellowtails). These results are used to address the question of why certain fish taxa were selected when the environment provided a great variety of other animals and fish. Energy investments and returns related to fishing and consumption of these two taxa are calculated, and the results are discussed in the context of energy efficiency, the assumption that lies behind the diet breadth model, one of the 1 optimal foraging models .The results indicate that Cobitidae fishing can be explained by cost-benefit calculation, while an abundance of Seriola in the assemblage requires another explanation .The results of these analyses are discussed in the context of the study of prehistoric foodways. 2 I would like to dedicate this dissertation to my family, old and new, for patiently waiting all this time and putting up with my „almost done‟ for such a long time. i Table of Contents Chapter 1 Introduction ………………………………………….................. 1 Chapter 2 Theoretical Orientation: Foodways in Anthropology ……….. 4 2. 1. Introduction: What Are Foodways? ……………………………. 4 2. 2. Study of Food and Foodways: Historical Background ………… 6 2. 3. Anthropology of Food ………………………………………….. 7 2. 3. a. Food, Power, and Commensality ……………………………. 8 2. 3. b. Food, Cultural Code, and Metaphor …………………………. 9 2. 3. c. Food, Identify, and Communication …………………………. 12 2. 3. d. Food, Function, and Environment …………………………… 14 2. 4. The Application of Behavioral Ecological Model to the Study of Foodways at Sannai Maruyama 2. 4. a. Optimal Foraging Models ……………………………………. 16 2.4. b. Diet Breadth Model …………………………………………… 17 Chapter 3Archaeological Background: Sannai Maruyama ……………... 19 3. 1. Site Location ……………………………………………………. 20 3. 2. The Sannai Maruyama and Neighboring Sites …………………. 25 3. 3. History of the Excavation of the Site ………………………….... 27 3. 4. Site Chronology ……………………………………………….... 29 3. 5. Climate ……………………………………………………......… 32 3. 6. Dwellings and Population Estimate …………………………...… 33 3. 7. Other features ………………………………………………...….. 34 Chapter 4 Food Related Archaeological Materials at Sannai Maruyama 36 4. 1. Bone and Antler Fishing Tools ……………………………….... 36 4. 2. Stone Tools …………………………………………………….. 40 4. 2. 1. Cutting and Scraping Tools …………………………. 41 4. 2. 2. Grinding and Pounding Tools ………………………. 42 4. 2. 3. Other Stone Tools Potentially Related to Fish Processing or the Production of Fishing Tools ………………………………… 42 4. 2. 3. a. Awls ………………………………………………. 42 4. 2. 3. b. Whetstones ………………………………………... 43 4. 3. Pottery ………………………………………………………….. 43 4. 4. Basketry, Woven Fibers, and Wooden Artifacts ……………….. 44 4. 7. Floral Remains: Plant Use at the Site …………………………… 45 ii 4. 8. Faunal Remains …………………………………………………. 46 4. 8. b. Fish .. …………………………………………………………… 47 4. 9. Summary …………………………………………………………. 50 Chapter 5 Methodology ……………………………………………………. 51 5. 1. Diet Breadth Model and Its Issues ……………………………... 51 5. 2. Examination of Cost-Return Efficiency ………………………... 52 5. 3. Conclusion ……………………………………………………… 54 Chapter 6 Quantitative Analyses of Fish Remains ………………………. 55 6. 1. Excavation of Northern Valley ………………………………… 55 6. 1. a. Sample Collection Area: I-Trench Extension (Ai-Torenchi Kakucho) 55 6. 2. Condition of the Faunal Remains from the Northern Valley Area 56 6. 3. My Sampling Strategy to Collect Fish Remains ……………….. 58 6. 3. a. Sampling Strategy – First Stage ……………………... 58 6. 3. b. Sampling Strategy- Second Stage ……………………. 59 6. 3. c. Sampling Strategy – Third Stage …………………… 63 6. 4. MNI of the Fish Remains ………………………………………. 66 6. 5. Chronological Information for Layers 3 and 15 ………………... 67 6. 6. Conclusion ………………………………………………………. 71 Chapter 7 Testing the Optimal Foraging Model ………………………….. 72 7. 1. Information on the Two Taxa: Seriola and Cobitidae …………... 73 7. 1. 1. Seriola (yellowtail) …………………………………… 73 7. 1. 2. Cobitidae (loaches) …………………………………… 74 7. 2. Archaeological Fishing Technology …………………………….. 74 7. 2. 1. Seriola ............................................................................ 74 7. 2. 2. Cobitidae ……………………………………………… 75 7. 3. Application of the Diet Breadth Model on Seriola and Cobitidae 76 7. 3. 1. Seriola 7. 3. 1. 1. Travel ………………………………………. 77 7. 3. 1. 2. Fishing …………………………………….... 78 7. 3. 1. 3. Processing …………………………………... 79 7. 3. 1. 4. Storability …………………………………... 79 7. 3. 1. 5. Consumption ………………………………... 80 7. 3. 1. 6. Energy Investments vs. Returns …………….. 81 7. 3. 2. Cobitidae 7. 3. 2. 1. Travel ………………………………………... 82 7. 3. 2. 2 Fishing ……………………………………….. 82 7. 3. 2. 3 Processing ……………………………………. 83 iii 7. 3. 2. 4. Storability ……………………………………. 83 7. 3. 2. 5. Consumption ………………………………… 84 7. 3. 2. 6 Energy Investments vs. Returns ……………… 85 7. 4. Conclusion ………………………………………………………… 85 Chapter 8 Discussion and Conclusion ……………………………………….. 86 8. 1. Loaches and Yellowtail in Sannai Maruyama Foodways ………… 86 8. 1. 1. Loaches and Reconstruction of Jomon Foodways ……... 87 8. 1. 2. Fishing and Division of Labor at Sannai Maruyama …... 87 8. 1. 3. Fishing and Seasonality ………………………………… 88 8. 1. 4. The Role of Fish to the Sannai Maruyama Residents and Their Neighbors ………………………………………………. 88 8. 1. 5 Fishing and Consumption of Small Fish at Sannai Maruyama and Beyond …………………………………………………. 89 8. 2. Alternative Explanations for Yellowtail Fishing …………………. 89 8. 2. 1. Symbolic Significance of Fish …………………………. 90 8. 3. Conclusion ………………………………………………………… 91 iv List of Figures Figure 2-1: Culinary Triangle ………………………………………………….. 10 Figure 3-1: The Location of Aomori Prefecture and the Sannai Maruyama Site 20 Figure 3-2: Site Location, Showing Streams and Bay …………………………. 21 Figure 3-3: Location of the Sannai Maruyama Site and Its Surrounding Area … 22 Figure 3-4: Geological Conditions that Surrounded the Sannai Maruyama Site and Aomori Bay …………………………………………………………………….. 23 Figure 3-5: The Geological Reconstruction of the Area by Kubo et al. ……….. 24 Figure 3-6: Site Excavation Map ………………………………………………. 29 Figure 3-7: Locations of the Water-logged Middens …………………………… 34 Figure 4-1: Examples of Fishhooks from the Sixth Transmission Tower Area … 37 Figure 4-2: Example of a Composite Fishhook …………………………………. 38 Figure 4-3: Examples of Harpoon Heads from the Sixth Transmission Tower Area 39 Figure 4-4: Examples of Stone Awls from the Sixth Transmission Tower Area ... 42 Figure 4-5: Example of Whetstone Fragment ……………………………………. 43 Figure 4-6: Examples of Lower Ento–a Pottery …………………………………... 44 Figure 4-7: An Example of Woven Container ……………………………………. 45 Figure 6-1: Diagram of the Northern Valley Area and I-Trench ………………… 56 Figure 6-2: Calibration Curve of the Radiocarbon Date from Layer 3 (B253797).. 69 Figure 6-3: Calibration Curve of the Radiocarbon Date from Layer 15 (B253798) 69 Figure 6-4: AMS Date Range of Elderberry Seeds from Layer 3: B253797……… 70 v Figure 6-6: AMS Date Range of the Elderberry Seeds from Layer 15: B253798 … 70 Figure 7-2: Examples of Baskets from the Sixth Transmission Tower …………. 76 Figure 7-3: Locations of Contemporary Yellowtail Fishing …………………….. 77 Figure 7-4: Flowchart of Minimal Fish