An investigation of corpses of wild pigs excavated in islands as an indicator for occupations (Nariwari) and environmental changes during the Neolithic

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The objective of this study was to investigate relationships of humans and wild pigs during the Neolithic in Japan by examining zoo~archaeologically corpses of wild pigs excavated in islands to which wild pigs had been brought outside from their natural habitats. As we did last yeai we investigated corpses of wild pigs excavated from Jomon sites in Hokkaido, Izu Oshima Island, Hachijo Island and newly excavated corpses in Sado Island this year. Therefore, we were able to investigate almost all corpses of wild pigs excavated from Jomon sites of islands located in eastern parts of Honshu, the main island of Japan. As a comparison, we added the corpses excavated in Fukushima and Aomori prefecture of Honshu to our investigation. The methods that we adopted to examine these corpses were both a size estimation of animals based on measurements made in teeth and limb bones and an age estimation of animals by examining conditions of dental eruption, stages of dental attrition, and conditions of … More fusion at the tip of limb bones. We also examined bones that have kept the sign of nutritional conditions and diseases, artificial traces that were made due to dismantling and processing of bones, and biting marks by other animals including dogs. As results of our investigation, wild pigs excavated from Hachijo Island, as has previously been suggested, showed their size reduction, alterations in morphology of limb joints, and poor nutritional conditions, all that were not observed in wild pigs in Honshu. Since these attributes were not observed in wild pigs in Honshu, it was highly likely that the attributes observed in wild pigs in Hachijo Island might have resulted from the fact that wild pigs have been living in and confined to an island. To test this, we have begun to examine, by using functional numerical methods, morphology of bones in Ryukyu wild pigs that live at an island condition. We collected all bones of three individual animals and 13 cranial bones in Iriomote Island and we are presently investigating effects of island environments and human impacts on bones of wild pigs by using morphometrics and functional morphological analyses. Isotope measurements and Accelerator Mass Spectrometry (ANTS) dating of bone remains were also made, indicating that there was a slight difference between wild pigs in islands and those in Honshu. As we continue performing these analyses, we are planning to investigate further an importance of wild pig remains in islands. Less