Phylogenetical and Bioarchaeological Studies of the Epi-Jomon Inhabitants in Hokkaido, Japan, with Special Reference to the Human Skeletal Remains Unearthed at the Usu-Moshiri site.

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1 Judging from the findings of cranial and dental morphological analyses, the Epi-Jomon inhabitants in Hokkaido were confirmed to have been phylogenetically transitional from the Jomon in eastern Japan to recent Hokkaido Ainu.2 The limb bone morphology of the Epi-Jomon was basically identical to that of the Jomon in eastern Japan and the antero-posterior flatness of the upper part of the femur, characteristic of the Ainu, had already appeared in the Jomon and Epi-Jomon in Hokkaido.3 The configuration of subtalar articular facets of the calcaneus indicated that the Jomon and Epi-Jomon inhabitants in Hokkaido had a lifeway adapted more to hunting and gathering than the Jomon in western Japam.4 Extremely high incidence of N9b haplogroup in mtDNA was observed in the Jomon and Epi-Jomon in Hokkaido and this distribution pattern of haplogroup was quite different from that of modern Japanese in Honshu.5 Based on the findings of tooth size proportion and mtDNA, two juvenile skeletons (3A and 3B) from a double burial at the Usu-Moshiri site were considered to be sibling, however, the kinship of two adult couples (16A and 16B ; 7M and 7F) from other two double burials were not acknowledged6 The AMS dating using the human skeletal remains from the Usu-Moshiri site confirmed that these individuals lived in the periods from the end of Final Jomon to the beginning of Epi-Jomon.7 The analyses of stable isotope (C and N) demonstrated that the inhabitants of the Usu-Moshiri site took major protein resources from sea mammals such as fur seal and sea lion.