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An Unusual Case? Hunter-Gatherer Adaptations to an Island Environment: A Case Study from Okinawa, Japan
Hiroto Takamiyaa a Department of Cultural Studies, Sapporo University, Sapporo, Japan

To cite this Article Takamiya, Hiroto(2006) 'An Unusual Case? Hunter-Gatherer Adaptations to an Island Environment: A

Case Study from Okinawa, Japan', The Journal of Island and Coastal Archaeology, 1: 1, 49 66 To link to this Article: DOI: 10.1080/15564890600585855 URL: http://dx.doi.org/10.1080/15564890600585855

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Journal of Island & Coastal Archaeology, 1:4966, 2006 Copyright 2006 Taylor & Francis Group, LLC ISSN: 1556-4894 print / 1556-1828 online DOI:10.1080/15564890600585855

An Unusual Case? Hunter-Gatherer Adaptations to an Island Environment: A Case Study from Okinawa, Japan
Hiroto Takamiya
Department of Cultural Studies, Sapporo University, Sapporo, Japan
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ABSTRACT

Homo sapiens sapiens had spread into most diverse environments by the end of the Pleistocene, but many islands were not settled until the Holocene. One explanation is that because of space and resource limitations in many island environments, it was difcult for hunter-gatherers to survive there. Although some islands were colonized successfully by hunter-gatherers, agriculture may have been necessary to settle many islands permanently. Islands successfully colonized by hunter-gatherers were large, close to continents or larger islands, or had abundant marine resources (especially large sea mammals), or a combination of these elements. Relatively small and remote, the Ryukyu Islands south of Japan, were not characterized by the conditions mentioned above. The rst humans who successfully colonized the Okinawa group of islands were Late Jomon people. In this paper, I examine subsistence strategies of prehistoric Okinawans using recent faunal and oral data, demonstrating that they lived on the islands using a foraging-based economy. In the process, I explore the reasons hunter-gatherers were able successfully to colonize Okinawa island environments for several thousand years.
Keywords gatherers colonization, zooarchaeology, palaeoethnobotany, Okinawa, Japan, hunter-

Received 29 August 2005; accepted 1 December 2005. Address correspondence to Hiroto Takamiya, 3-7 Nishioka, Toyohira-ku, Department of Cultural Studies, Sapporo University, Sapporo, Hokkaido 062-0035, Japan. E-mail: takamiya@sapporo-u.ac.jp

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INTRODUCTION

Many islands were occupied by human populations relatively recently. For instance, all colonized islands in Polynesia were settled by humans within the last 3,500 years (e.g., Kirch 1984, 2000), the West Indies were rst occupied about 4,0005,000 years ago (see Keegan and Diamond 1987; Keegan 1994), and the Mediterranean islands were settled largely during the Holocene. The Mediterranean case is particularly interesting because Homo sapiens sapiens clearly had the technology to cross the water gap to the island of Melos for obsidian during the late Pleistocene, but humans do not appear to have colonized the islands until much later (Cherry 1981, 1990, 1992, 2004; Patton 1996). In contrast, the islands of Okinawa were occupied during the late Pleistocene and, although they were once believed to have been occupied continuously by humans, paleodemographic studies suggest that successful island colonization (in terms of long-term reproductive success; see Kirch 1980:142; Mithen 1990:4) occurred only during the mid-Holocene (Takamiya 1996, 1997a, 1998a). Thus, it appears that only a few islands were successfully settled by Homo sapiens sapiens during the Pleistocene, including western Melanesia (Spriggs 1996, 1997; White 2004), Cyprus (Cherry 2004), and Californias Channel Islands (Erlandson et al. 2004). Why were our ancestors unable to colonize many islands successfully until recent times? It has been suggested that agriculture was necessary to colonize successfully many islands (Cherry 1981; Patton 1996). Many island environments have limited natural resources, especially terrestrial ones, and space for foraging activities to sustain human population is also limited. As a result, many islands were in fact colonized success50

fully for the rst time not by foragers, but by farmers. Cherry (1981) hypothesized that it was difcult for foragers to colonize successfully Mediterranean islands because of the lack of subsistence resources. Many island cases seem to support Cherrys hypothesis. There are several exceptions. Hunter-gatherers successfully occupied islands including the Aleutians (Yesner 1981), the California Channel Islands (Erlandson 1994; Erlandson et al. 2004; Kennett and Clifford 2004; Porcasi and Fujita 2000), Great Britain (Darvill 1987), and Japan (Habu 2004; see also Crawford 2006). These exceptions suggest that island environments can be successfully occupied by hunter-gatherers under certain conditions. These conditions include islands that are large, located near continents or larger islands, or where large sea mammals are abundant. In many cases, a combination of these conditions may have facilitated human foragers successfully colonizing islands. The islands of the central Ryukyus (Figure 1; also for site locations) are small and located near neither a large continental landmass nor another large island. No large sea mammals appear to have been consistently available. In short, none of the conditions mentioned above are true for the islands of the Okinawa group. Yet many scholars believe that these islands were settled continuously by hunter-gatherers during prehistoric times until ca. AD 1100, when remains of cultigens begin to appear in the archaeological record. Agriculture may have been practiced slightly earlier on the Ryukyus, but some speculate that the islands were occupied continuously by hunter-gatherers for several thousand years prior to the introduction of agriculture. Based on archaeological data from around the world, however, I have hypothesized that the initial successful colonizers of the Okinawa group may have been farmers (Takamiya 1993).

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Figure 1. Map of the Okinawa Islands and sites mentioned in the text (drafted by S. Fitzpatrick).

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Were they farmers or foragers? This question is worth examining because it may provide new perspectives on the colonization of islands by human populations. For the last 10 years or so, plant remains have been recovered from Okinawan sites using otation techniques, providing the opportunity to test my hypothesis. In this paper, I present faunal and new oral data to examine the method of subsistence economy of the initial successful colonizers of Okinawa and their descendants. In the process, I explore whether these colonizing populations were foragers or farmers, and then discuss the subsistence strategies necessary for the successful colonization of the Ryukyu Islands. First, however, I discuss the nature of prehistoric huntergatherer adaptations to island environments around the world.
ISLAND COLONIZATION: A COMPARATIVE FRAMEWORK

As mentioned earlier, only a handful of islands were successfully colonized by hunter-gatherers. These islands are large, close to continents or large islands, rich in marine resources, or possess some combination of these factors. Cyprus has a land area of more than 9250 km2 and is located in close proximity to the European continent. The islands of New Britain and New Ireland are 37810 km2 and 8650 km2 in size, respectively. The smaller Guadalcanal (6500 km2 ) and Buka (492 km2 ) were settled by humans during the late Pleistocene, but they were connected as Greater Bougainville (ca. 46400 km2 ) during this epoch (Spriggs 1997). The Pleistocene colonization of these islands is probably best explained by the size of the islands during the last glacial of this epoch and the translocation of plants (Spriggs 1997) and animals (White 2004).
52

Californias Channel Islands are small (from 37 km2 to 242 km2 ; Erlandson et al. 2004), but close to the continental mainland (Arnold 2001; Erlandson et al. 2004; Porcasi and Fujita 2000). Pleistocene occupation of the Channel Islands was facilitated by the short distance between the mainland and the islands, which are also characterized by abundant marine resources including large sea mammals (Erlandson et al. 2004; Porcasi and Fujita 2000). Kodiak Island has an area of 9293 km2 , is only 50 km from mainland Alaska, and is rich in sea mammals and other marine resources (Fitzhugh 2003). Most of the Aleutian Islands are relatively small (the largest is Unimak at 4119 km2 ), but the eastern islands are close to the continent and all are rich in sea mammals and other marine resources (Yesner 1981). Hunter-gatherers also settled Luzon (Ogawa 2000), one of the largest islands in the Philippines with an area of 104688 km2 . Most of the smaller Philippine islands are situated relatively close to Luzon and exchange systems developed with farmers may also have contributed to the survival of forager populations (Bailey et al. 1989; Ogawa 2000). According to Keegan and Diamond (1987), several of the Caribbean islands in the Greater Antilles were settled by prehistoric hunter-gatherers who maintained this way of life until Spanish contact (see also Hofman and Hoogland 2003; Keegan 1994). The Lesser Antilles (the largest of which is Guadeloupe, with an area of only 1786 km2 ) may have been used as migration routes to the Greater Antilles, but apparently were never settled permanently by huntergatherers. Keegan and Diamond (1987) argued that the Greater Antilles were large enough to support a permanent hunter-gatherer population, while the Lesser Antilles were not.

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Table 1. Cultural Chronology of Prehistoric Okinawa (the Central Ryukyus). Okinawa Paleolithic Scheme I Shell midden Initial Scheme II Jomon Initial Early Middle Late Final Yayoi-Heian Early Late Gusuku 6,670 140 6,450 140 4,880 130 3,370 80 3,600 80
14

Uncalibrated C dates (RYBP)

Mainland Japan Jomon Incipient Initial Early Middle Late Final Yayoi Kofun-Historic Historic

Early Middle Late

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Gusuku
14

C dating after Takamiya (1994).

The human history of these islands suggests that most islands where huntergatherers settled are nearly 10000 km2 or greater in size, or that the small islands colonized were close to a continent and/or rich in large sea mammals and other marine resources. While it is not possible to review all the cases, I suspect most islands successfully colonized by hunter-gatherers are characterized by these conditions. Additional supporting examples are Tasmania (Jones 1977) and Alaskas Alexander Archipelago (Moss 2004). The only exception I could nd is Manus Island in the Bismarck Archipelago during the Pleistocene (Spriggs 1997; White 2004). The island today is 1639 km2 in size and situated several hundred kilometers from New Guinea and New Ireland. According to Spriggs (1997), the island was much larger near the end of the Pleistocene, however, and its hunter-gatherers might have husbanded

Canarium. Even Manus Island may have been abandoned between 12000 BP and 10000 BP (Spriggs 1997:63). Finally, the above observations indicate the possible uniqueness of the Ryukyu Islands, which consist of small and relatively remote islands. The largest, the main island of Okinawa, has an area of about 1200 km2 . Unlike other small islands successfully colonized by prehistoric hunter-gatherers, the islands of Okinawa are not particularly rich in large sea mammals. Therefore, a closer examination of prehistoric subsistence on Okinawa is worthwhile.
AN OKINAWA CASE STUDY

The chronology of the Okinawa region is typically subdivided by archaeologists into several major periods beginning with the Paleolithic (Table 1). Some researchers prefer Scheme I, but I use the terms in Scheme II, with which most

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readers will be more familiar. Table 1 also provides a comparison with the general chronology of mainland Japan except Hokkaido. For decades, it has generally been accepted that humans continuously occupied the Okinawa group since the Paleolithic. However, it now appears likely that human groups either left the region or became extinct by the end of the Pleistocene. Humans attempted in vain to re-colonize the islands during the Initial and Early Jomon periods, but only during the later part of the Middle and Late Jomon period did the rst successful colonization of the islands occur (Takamiya 1996, 1997a). I have termed this point the Late Jomon to represent the rst period of successful colonization (Takamiya 1993).
Okinawa Subsistence: Late Jomon to Yayoi-Heian. How were humans able

Table 2. Late Jomon Faunal Remains. Scientic Name Chondrichthyes Lamniformes Osteichthyes Serranidae Lutjanidae Sparidae Lethrinidae Labridae Scaridae Diodontidae Reptilia Testudinidae Cheloniidae Mammalia Muridae Delphinidae Canidae Dugongidae Suidae Common English Name shark Japanese Name same-moku

grouper snapper porgy emperorsh wrass parrotsh porcupine sh tortoise turtle mouse dolphin dog dugong wild boar

hata-ka fuedai-ka tai-ka fuefukidai-ka bera-ka budai-ka harisenbon-ka rikugame-ka umigame-ka nezumi-ka mairuka-ka inu-ka jugon-ka inoshishi-ka

to colonize Okinawa during the Late Jomon period, and was colonization based on a farming or foraging strategy? If they were farmers, this fact would be extremely important for Japanese prehistory, as it would be the rst good evidence for food production in the archipelago. If foragers, it would provide a rare case of a prehistoric foraging adaptation to an island environment. To identify the subsistence economy of prehistoric peoples, I review the faunal remains recovered from archaeological sites, and then discuss the latest evidence for plant use to help establish whether foraging or farming was prevalent.
Faunal Remains. Early on, Okinawan archaeologists realized the importance of analyzing faunal remains to understand paleodiet. Faunal analysis has been carried out intensively for the last 30 years at various sites (e.g., Okinawa Prefecture Board of Education

1978, 1987). Commonly reported vertebrate taxa recovered from these sites are listed in Table 2. The number of identied specimens (NISP) for vertebrate remains reported often ranges from 100 to 50,000. Numerous invertebrate remains have also been identied, and it is not unusual for more than 100,000 minimum number of individuals (MNI) from more than 100 discrete shellsh taxa to be identied. These studies reveal no clear evidence for the presence of domesticated animals other than dogs at archaeological sites dating to the Late Jomon, Final Jomon, and Yayoi-Heian periods (e.g., Takamiya 2005, forthcoming; Toizumi 2003). Although Minagawa et al. (2005) argued that some bones identied as being those of wild boar may not be

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100% wild, further research is necessary to support this conclusion. Even if some wild boars were not completely wild, they were probably not an important food resource as Toizumi (2003), has suggested. In terms of taxa identied, no considerable change in species has been found that would indicate that a large number of animal extinctions occurred or new species (domesticated or not) were introduced during these periods (Takamiya 2005, forthcoming; Toizumi 2003). However, it has been demonstrated that prehistoric people spent more time and energy, and took more risks to obtain the required amount of protein over time (Pearson 1994; Takamiya 1999a, 2005, forthcoming). From the evidence currently available, it appears that prehistoric peoples on Okinawa archipelago consumed primarily, if not exclusively, wild animal species and that they were shers, collectors, and hunters. However, this evidence is not enough to suggest that they were solely a foraging group. It must also be demonstrated that these people depended heavily on the gathering of wild plants.
Plant Remains. Compared with faunal remains, which are typically larger and more highly visible in archaeological deposits, plant remains are small, fragile, less visible, and more difcult to recover. It was previously thought that recovering plant remains from archaeological sites was nearly impossible in this region. Prior to 1992, plant remains from Okinawan sites were few in number and largely recovered accidentally. Due to a lack of systematic collection techniques for archaeobotanical remains, our understanding of plant use in the past was limited. To improve our knowledge of prehistoric plant utilization, I have used otation to recover systematically

plant remains from several Okinawan archaeological sites since 1992. How do these ndings compare with those remains recovered incidentally? Late Jomon plant use is not well understood. Two sites, the Kogachibaru shell midden (Watanabe 1989) and the Kamino shell midden (Kamimura and Honda 1984), have yielded incidental plant remains. At both sites, Machilus thumbergii (red nanmu) was recovered. While Watanabe (1989) thought that M. thumbergii was not an important resource due to its lack of adequate carbohydrates and absence in the ethnographical literature, it may nonetheless have contributed to the Late Jomon diet. There is evidence that M. thumbergii was stored for later consumption at the Kamino shell midden (Kamimura and Honda 1984). At the Mebaru site in northern Okinawa, otation was employed to recover plant remains and search for domesticated varieties. No remains of cultigens were identied, nor were weed or grass remains. All remains (more than 50 taxa) belong to wild species including M. thumbergii (Takamiya 1999b). This site was waterlogged and numerous identiable nuts were recovered from storage baskets (Ginoza Village Board of Education 1999). Oomatsu and Tsuji (1999) analyzed the botanical remains and identied only wild species, mostly acorns from one species of oak (Quercus miyagii Koidz). Thus, the analyses of plant remains from the Kogachibaru, Kamino, and Mebaru sites all suggest that Late Jomon people collected only wild plants. Archaeobotanical remains were also recovered from the Takachikuchibaru shell midden, an Early Yayoi-Heian site located on Okinawa. All identied plant remains were wild species such as nuts and grapes (Takamiya 2003, 2004, 2005). Plant remains from the Yomisaki

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and Nagarabaru Higashi shellmidden, dating between about AD 500 and AD 700, also yielded only wild specimens (Takamiya 1997b, 1998b, 2000, 2003), suggesting that hunter-gatherers sustained this way of life at least until AD 500700. Rice remains were recovered from Nagarabaru Higashi, but Accelerator Mass Spectrometry (AMS) radiocarbon dating of rice grains themselves suggest that they are modern (Kinoshita 2003). The earliest evidence for cultigens, dated between about AD 700 and AD 900 comes from the Nazakibaru site (Takamiya 2003, 2004, 2005), but this evidence may represent a failed attempt at agriculture as it does not seem to be followed by rapid population growth. The subsistence economy of the Final Jomon is the least understood. Different settlement patterns, a decrease in the quantity of faunal remains, and an increase in stone axes and plantprocessing tools compared with the Late Jomon have implied to some that agriculture was practiced during the Final Jomon period (Nitta 1982). Prior to 1992, several sites had yielded plant remains exclusively from wild species (e.g., Ginowan City Board of Education 1991; Okinawa Prefecture Board of Education 1989). While there is a paucity of plant remains recovered from the Final Jomon, I am studying archaeobotanical samples from the Final Jomon site of Sumiyoshi shell midden. My analysis is not yet complete, but the samples analyzed so far contain no cultigens. The Ueharanuribaru site yielded a feature interpreted as agriculture-related by the excavator (Ginowan City Board of Education 1995), but this interpretation remains controversial (Kishimoto, personal communication 2005; Okinawa Prefectural Archaeological Center 2005; Shinzato, personal communication 2005).

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Based on studies to date, it appears that Final Jomon populations were likely to have been hunter-gatherers since the Late Jomon, and most of the Yayoi-Heian populations (except the Nazakibaru people) were hunter-gatherers. Unlike the case of New Zealand, where farmers colonized uninhabited islands, encountered cost-effective ightless birds in an environment unfavorable for agriculture, and became foragers, people in Okinawa struggled to survive in situ. Theoretically, it is difcult to imagine that foragers (Late Jomon) became successful farmers (Final Jomon) and then returned to foraging (Yayoi-Heian) in a smaller island environment. I would argue that in the case of Okinawa, it was hunter-gatherers, not agriculturists, who successfully colonized the islands. They maintained this mode of subsistence for at least the next 3,000 years. How were they able to colonize and adapt successfully to this environment without agriculture? An examination of faunal remains provides a clue to answer this question.
SUCCESSFUL COLONIZATION BY FORAGERS

I have postulated that the timing of successful colonization to the central Ryukyu Islands took place in what I term the Late Jomon Period (Takamiya 1993). Initially, I hypothesized that the likely reason that humans successfully colonized this island environment was that they were farmers (see Cherry 1981) or that they established subsistence strategies focused on nuts and coral reef shes (Takamiya 1993). Recent faunal and archaeobotanical evidence does not support the farming hypothesis. Before examining the second hypothesis, it is reasonable to explain why I proposed it.

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Many anthropological studies indicate that selection of food items is determined by an assessment of costbenet, risk, and reliability (Bettinger 1980, 1991; Earle 1980; Jochim 1976; Keene 1981; Kelly 1995; Meehan 1977; OConnell and Hawkes 1981; Smith 1981; Smith and Winterhalder 1981; Winterhalder 2001). In other words, hunter-gatherers tend to obtain satisfactory output with the lowest possible input; they tend to avoid food items that involve higher risk, even if these foods are considered more desirable. People tend to focus on items that are less variable and more predictable. Therefore, it is expected that the initial successful settlers of the island foraged for foods characterized by one or a combination of these three factors. Among naturally available food resources, early Okinawan settlers may have utilized coral reef resources and nuts rst. As Perlman (1980:271273) and Yesner (1980) suggested, many marine environmentsand coral reefs specically (e.g., Okinawa)are highly productive. Perlman (1980:277) also noted that return rates for many aquatic resources (shellsh/sh) are relatively high, concluding that populations optimizing meat protein or calories should concentrate on aquatic resources. The islands of Okinawa are surrounded by an extensive coral reef environment. As Pearson (1981:14) stressed, Okinawas reefs are exceedingly rich; the Central Ryukyus lie within the zone of the richest and most diverse coral reefs in the world. Nonetheless, marine resources alone were probably an inadequate source of calories on Okinawa. Yesner (1980) noted that marine resources in both high- and low-latitude areas are productive, but the latter may provide insufcient calories because of a lack of large sea mammals. Along some lower-latitude

coastlines, humans typically need plant foods to complement protein-rich marine resources (Erlandson 1988; Yesner 1980). Thus, plant foods must have been a signicant dietary contribution in prehistoric Okinawa. Among those plant foods available, nuts may have played an important role (Pearson 1981). They are relatively predictable, easy to collect, and produce high caloric returns, and so must have been a logical selection (Harris 1977:206). Based on these arguments, aquatic resources (especially from coral reef environments) and nuts may have been the initial contributors to the subsistence of early Okinawan foragers. Archaeobotanical remains seem to support the idea that nuts were important to the prehistoric diet (Oomatsu and Tsuji 1999; Takamiya 1993, 1999b). Data on vertebrate remains from Okinawan sites are usually reported with only the taxa and MNI identied. Taxa listed in Table 2 are commonly reported, but no signicant quantitative difference is observed between sites or periods. Using NISP values rather than MNI, I analyzed faunal remains at the class level with NISP samples numbering more than 1,000. The four shellmidden sites, Kogachibaru (Okinawa Prefecture Board of Education 1987), Kigahama (Okinawa Prefecture Board of Education 1978), Chiarabaru (Gushikawa City Board of Education 1986), and Furuzamami Locality II (Okinawa Prefecture Board of Education 1982) yielded from 3,890 to 51,637 NISP samples (Figure 2). Bony sh (Osteichthyes) were ranked rst at all four sites, with a frequency of between 70% and 90% (mean = 80%). The difference between this rst-ranked faunal class and the second ranked class was at least 40% at the Chiarabaru shell midden and more than 80% at the Furuzamami II shell midden. Furthermore, nearly all Osteichthyes remains in the region consisted

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Figure 2. Late Jomon vertebrate utilization (NISP > 1,000).

of coral reef shes such as parrotshes (Scaridae) and wrasses (Labridae). As predicted, the Late Jomon populations seem to have obtained their protein primarily from coral reef environments. NISP counts provide some information about earlier periods as well. The only Initial/Early Jomon site in this region with a reasonable number of faunal remains is the Noguni B site (Okinawa Prefecture Board of Education 1984). The site is well known because it has yielded the earliest pottery on the island and the remains of at least 600 wild boar (MNI). The site report does not provide NISP values for mammals, but other classes are reported. Therefore, the analysis was conducted using MNI for mammals and NISP for the other classes. The Oike site (Toshima Village Board of Education 1994), contempo-

rary with Noguni B, has also yielded faunal remains with NISP of more than 1,000. Although the site is located on Takara Island, roughly 350 km north of Naha City, the faunal remains from this site are included in my analysis (Figure 3). In contrast to the Late Jomon population, Initial/Early Jomon populations at Oike and Noguni B seem to have preferred mammals, consuming lesser amounts of coral reef sh and reptiles. At Noguni B, more than 95% of the faunal remains consist of mammals, almost all of which are wild boar. Wild boars, unlike coral reef shes, are neither predictable nor stable, but are instead a risky resource item on Okinawa. Even today, hunters are sometimes killed or severely injured by wild boar attacks. This suggests that the Initial/Early Jomon

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Figure 3. Initial/Early Jomon vertebrate utilization (NISP > 1,000).

Figure 4. Vertebrate utilization: Initial/Early vs. Late Jomon.

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population did not possess the most effective subsistence strategy in this type of environment. Figure 4 compares the results of the faunal analysis of the Initial/Early period with that of the Late Jomon period. The inhabitants of the former may not have had an adequate technological repertoire to exploit effectively coral reef habitats. Alternatively, due to sea-level uctuations during this time, stable coral reefs may not have been available or easily accessible these are research questions to be explored in the future. Analysis of shellsh remains also provides compelling results. Six Late Jomon sites have yielded more than 100 mollusk species, with a total MNI of between 4,000 and 198,000. They are Kigahama (Okinawa Prefecture Board of Education 1978), the Furuzamami I and II localities (Okinawa Prefecture Board of Education 1982), Chiarabaru (Gushikawa City Board of Education 1986), Kogachibaru (Okinawa Prefecture Board of Education 1987), and Hyakuna No. 2 (Okinawa Prefecture Board of Education 1981). To understand shellsh-exploitation strategies during this period, two assumptions were made. First, although huntergatherers may have known of many edible plant and animal species in their environment, they tended to concentrate on several major species (Lee 1968; OConnell and Hawkes 1981; Winterhalder 2001). This strategy had certain evolutionary ecological advantages (Smith and Winterhalder 1981; Winterhalder 2001). While more than 100 species were identied at each site, the top 10 ranked species were considered the most important resources for site inhabitants. The result of this exercise did not produce a clear pattern for this period, however, which leads to a second assumption. If species A is ranked in the top 10 and also found in at least half of the sites (i.e., at least

three sites for Late Jomon), then species A was an important dietary resource during this time. This is a ubiquitous approach often adopted by paleoethnobotanists (e.g., Popper 1988). Six species are most common at the six Late Jomon sites. They include Marmarstomata argyrostoma (medium gastropod), Conomurex luhuanus (medium gastropod), Atactodea striata (medium bivalve), Lunella coronata granulata (medium gastropod), Theliostyla albicilla (small gastropod), and Gafrarium tumidum (small bivalve). The rst three species are also found at sites during the Final Jomon and Early Yayoi-Heian periods and are considered core species (e.g., Takamiya 2005, forthcoming). The rest seem characteristic of the Late Jomon mollusk-gathering strategy. These species are small (with an average weight of shell around 4.4 g; Table 3) and can be easily and safely collected, even by children. Mollusk procurement during the Initial/Early Jomon at Noguni B (Okinawa Prefecture Board of Education 1984) included three core species and no Late Jomon species (Table 3). Instead, two large shellsh species, Tectus maximus and Lunatica marmorata, are present, the former of which weighs approximately 30 g on average (Okinawa Prefecture Board of Education 1982). Large T. maximus tend to be distributed on the sea slope of coral reefs, a risky habitat from which to collect food. Kurozumi (1988) suggested that these shellsh might have been collected primarily by males. Lunatica marmorata weighs at least 400 g (Okinawa Prefecture Board of Education 1982). Furthermore, it inhabits depths of about 10 to 15 m (Okutani and Soyama 1987). Shellsh remains from the Oike site (Toshima Village Board of Education 1994) included two core species (M. argyrostoma

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Table 3. Average Individual Shell Weight of the Important Mollusk Species from the Furuzamami and Tokijinbaru Sites. Furuzamami (g) (A) Core species M. argyrostoma C. luhuanus A. striata Average Late Jomon species L. coronata granulata T. albicilla G. tumidum Average Tokijinbaru (g) (B) Average (g) (A+B)/2 29.3 16.1 1.6 15.7 1.6 2.1 9.6 4.4

20.6 15.1 2.1

37.9 17.1 1.2

1.6 1.8 14.8

N/A 2.4 4.4

Data from Okinawa Prefecture Board of Education (1982), Nakijin Village Board of Education (1977).
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and C. luhuanus) and, again, no Late Jomon shellsh species were within the most abundant 10 species. Instead, two large species (Tridacna maxima and L. marmorata) were found. T. maxima weighs approximately 220 g, and while it can be found on the lagoon oor, extracting it is difcult even with iron tools because it becomes embedded in the coral rock matrix (Kurozumi, personal communication 1995). This fact suggests that Initial/Early Jomon shellsh procurement was riskier and more costly than that of the Late Jomon.
SUMMARY AND CONCLUSIONS

Many archaeologists and anthropologists in Japan, and in particular Okinawa, readily accept that the islands were successfully colonized by hunter-gatherers from ca. 32000 to 18000 BP by people who maintained foraging economies until just before the Gusuku period (ca. AD 11001400). A continuous human presence on Okinawa since the Pleistocene has been questioned by recent studies, but any sustained presence of huntergatherer populations on these small and

remote islands would be unusual in the context of island colonization worldwide. Many islands were colonized by farmers rather than foragers during the Holocene. There are exceptions such as when the island is large, in close proximity to a continent or larger island, or provides rich marine resources, especially large sea mammals. The islands of Okinawa do not satisfy these conditions. Why were prehistoric peoples able to occupy the Ryukyu Islands when they did and what was the subsistence economy of the initial successful colonizers of the islands? A review of island colonization around the world suggests that food production was necessary to colonize many small islands like Okinawa. Faunal remains from Late Jomon, Final Jomon, and the YayoiHeian sites, however, contain no unequivocal evidence of domesticated animals except for dogs. Systematic recovery and analysis of plant remains supports the idea that prehistoric people were gatherers of wild plants. At the Mebaru site, independent analyses by Oomatsu and Tsuji (1999) and Takamiya (1999b) revealed that the Late Jomon

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population gathered wild plants, probably focusing on carbohydrate-rich nuts as an important source of calories. Thus, the islands were successfully colonized by foragers rather than farmers. Plant remains collected from other pre-Gusuku sites indicate that this mode of subsistence continued for at least 3,000 years (Takamiya 2004, 2005). Detailed analysis of Late Jomon faunal remains suggests that shes from coral reef environments were the most important protein resource during this period. Coral reef shes are the most cost efcient to procure in the area. In contrast, Initial/Early Jomon people either concentrated heavily on wild boar or focused on wild boar, reptile, and coral reef shes. The vertebrateprocurement system utilized during this period appears to have been much less efcient compared with that of the Late Jomon. In terms of mollusks, Late Jomon populations as opposed to the Initial/Early Jomon people, seem to have selected the least-cost species. When combined with evidence for the harvesting of wild plant foods, these faunal data suggest that the central Ryukyu Islands were rst successfully colonized by humans when they established the most efcient subsistence strategy for this particular environment. This conclusion suggests that foragers can successfully settle small islands such as Okinawa when coral reef sh and shellsh are abundant enough to supply the protein needs of a human population and where wild plant foods, most likely nuts, can provide a complementary source of carbohydrates and calories.
ACKNOWLEDGMENTS

sisted my own efforts to collect data. As the research progressed, they also gave me up-to-date information that facilitated my analyses of the material. I cannot list them individually, but sincerely appreciate their support. I particularly thank T. Kurozumi, Y. Kishimoto, and T. Shinzato, who claried various questions I had regarding Okinawan subsistence. Bob and Pattie Rechtman, Scott Fitzpatrick, and Jon Erlandson all read earlier drafts of the paper and made many useful editorial suggestions. Two anonymous reviewers also graciously read this paper and provided valuable comments that greatly improved its overall content and interpretation.
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