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Growth and decline in complex hunter-gatherer societies: a case study from the Jomon period Sannai Maruyama site, Japan

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  02 January 2015

Junko Habu
Junko Habu*
Affiliation:
*Department of Anthropology, University of California, Berkeley CA 94720, USA (Email: habu@berkeley.edu)
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Extract

The Sannai Maruyama site (3900-2300 BC) is one of the largest known from Japan's Jomon period (14000-300 BC). This study shows that over 1500 years the number of dwellings, their size, the type of stone tools and the fondness for figurines varied greatly. Nor was it a story of gradual increase in complexity: the settlement grew in intensity up to a peak associated with numerous grinding stones, and then declined to a smaller settlement containing larger buildings, many arrowheads and virtually no figurines. Using a bundle of ingenious analyses, the author explains what happened.

Keywords

JapanJomonhunter-gatherersubsistencesettlementhouse-sizelithicsfigurines
Type
Research Article
Information
Antiquity , Volume 82 , Issue 317 , September 2008 , pp. 571 - 584
Copyright
Copyright © Antiquity Publications Ltd 2008

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