Jomon Pottery Production in Central Japan

Abstract

Energy dispersive X-ray fluorescence (EDXRF) analysis was used to examine the chemical composition of Jomon potsherds. Jomon is the name of a prehistoric hunter-gatherer culture in Japan that lasted from about 12,500 to 2,300 B.P. It is characterized by the production and use of pottery, large settlements, and longdistance trade. Potsherd samples were taken from three Jomon sites in the Kanto and Chubu regions in central Japan. The majority of the samples are dated to the Moroiso phase (c. 5000 B.P.) of the early Jomon period. Linear discriminant analysis, with and without cross-validation, and multivariate analysis of variance (MANOV A) indicate that there are three distinct chemical groups that coincide with the three sites. Stepwise discriminant analysis indicates that the iron (Fe), nickel (Ni), lead (Pb), strontium (Sr), yttrium (Y), and zinc (Zn) are the most significant chemical discriminators between the three sites. These findings are interpreted as indicating that each settlement produced its own pottery, utilizing local materials. The misclassified sherds could be the result of some form of trade or exchange, or of movement of people between communities. KEYWORDS: Jomon hunter-gatherers, Japan, energy dispersive X-ray fluorescence (EDXRF), multivariate analysis of variance (MANOVA), discriminant analysis.

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