An Interdisciplinary Inquiry into the Emergence of Jomon Culture-Paleo-environment and Exploitation-based on the Excavation of Peat Bog Layers at the Unoki Site in Niigata Prefecture, Japan

本项目旨在评价绳纹文化的出现与日本更新世-全新世过渡的关系。为了实现这一目标，我们在新泻县Tsunan地区的Unoki遗址挖掘了泥炭沼泽，并从跨学科的角度调查了绳纹时期当地环境变化的本质和人类行为模式。我们发现了一系列的五个泥炭层，从绳纹时期的早期到晚期，有丰富的植物遗迹，以及支持时间、地质和考古数据。基于这些证据，我们假设了早期绳纹遗址的典型位置（聚集在河流低地周围）、早期陶器的功能以及绳纹人采用的土地开发模式，同时评估了它们与当时环境变化的相关性。

The purpose of this project is to evaluate the emergence of Jomon culture in correlation with the Pleistocene-Holocene transition in Japan. In order to achieve this aim, we excavated peat bogs at the Unoki site in Tsunan area of Niigata prefecture and investigated the nature of changes in the local environment and patterns of human behavior during the Jomon period from an interdisciplinary perspective. We detected a series of five peat layers with abundant botanical remains from the Incipient to the Final Jomon periods along with supporting chronometric, geological and archaeological data. Based on these evidences, we hypothesize the typical location of the Incipient Jomon sites(clustered around river lowlands), the function of early potteries, and the patterns of land exploitation adopted by Jomon people, assessing at the same time their correlation to the concurrent changes in the environment.