Japanscapes

The long Japanese island chain in the north-western Pacific is characterised by diverse environments and climatic conditions. Here the rich natural food and material resources promoted a long sequence of foraging cultures, known as Jomon, which extended from around 14,000 BCE until ca. 3000 BCE in the south (Kyushu Island) and even to the middle of the 19th century CE in the north (Hokkaido region) of the archipelago. Archaeobotanical studies provide evidence that the Jomon not only relied on hunting, fishing, and gathering, but were also involved in the cultivation, management, and domestication of certain plants. However, many of these developments remain poorly understood.

Charred naked barley (Hordeum vulgare var. nudum) grains recovered from cultural layers of hunter-gatherer Okhotsk groups directly radiocarbon-dated to the 8th century CE at the archaeological site Hamanaka 2, Rebun Island, northern Japan. — Charred naked barley (*Hordeum vulgare* var. *nudum*) grains recovered from cultural layers of hunter-gatherer Okhotsk groups directly radiocarbon-dated to the 8th century CE at the archaeological site Hamanaka 2, Rebun Island, northern Japan.

© Christian Leipe

Charred naked barley (*Hordeum vulgare* var. *nudum*) grains recovered from cultural layers of hunter-gatherer Okhotsk groups directly radiocarbon-dated to the 8th century CE at the archaeological site Hamanaka 2, Rebun Island, northern Japan.

© Christian Leipe

A 50-cm sediment core sequence extracted by a peat borer from a lake in the northern Kanto Plain, central Japan, identified as a suitable archive of climate- and human-induced environmental change. The black inclusions on the left are fruits of water caltrop (Trapa natans), useful material for radiocarbon (14C) dating to build a chronology for the sediment core. — A 50-cm sediment core sequence extracted by a peat borer from a lake in the northern Kanto Plain, central Japan, identified as a suitable archive of climate- and human-induced environmental change. The black inclusions on the left are fruits of water caltrop (*Trapa natans*), useful material for radiocarbon (¹⁴C) dating to build a chronology for the sediment core.

© Christian Leipe

A 50-cm sediment core sequence extracted by a peat borer from a lake in the northern Kanto Plain, central Japan, identified as a suitable archive of climate- and human-induced environmental change. The black inclusions on the left are fruits of water caltrop (*Trapa natans*), useful material for radiocarbon (¹⁴C) dating to build a chronology for the sediment core.

© Christian Leipe

Fundamental cultural changes induced by newcomer populations from the Asian continent occurred during the 1st millennium BCE. While the southern and central parts of Japan started shifting from foraging to farming, ultimately leading to early state formation, the north saw the broadening of foraging economies by the introduction of crops as a supplementary food source.

With its numerous archaeological sites, Japan is an excellent place to employ archaeobotany to study how complex hunter-gatherers made use of various plants and subsistence strategies, and the transition to agricultural intensification and the associated changes in social organisation.

Another aim is to examine human-environment interactions by integrating archaeological, archaeobotanical, and paleoenvironmental data. Little is known about how humans impacted landscapes and vegetation along the spatially diverse cultural trajectories of pre- and early historic times. On the other hand, previous studies suggest that many cultural transitions and changes in subsistence strategies in the region coincide with climate-induced environmental changes. Whether there is a causal relationship between these developments remains to be examined. Therefore, the project seeks to unravel Holocene culture-climate-environment transformations with new bio- and mineralogical proxy records from well-dated, high-resolution sediment sequences from different key locations.

The 120-m-long Inariyama tumulus in Gyoda City dated to the 2nd half of the 5th century CE is considered to be the oldest within the Sakitama burial mound cluster in Saitama Prefecture, central Japan. These large burial mounds (called kofun in Japanese) started to appear in Japan during the 3rd century CE and are witnesses to an increasing political complexity during the Kofun period (250–592 CE), which preceded the establishment of the centralised state of ancient Japan. — The 120-m-long Inariyama tumulus in Gyoda City dated to the 2nd half of the 5th century CE is considered to be the oldest within the Sakitama burial mound cluster in Saitama Prefecture, central Japan. These large burial mounds (called *kofun* in Japanese) started to appear in Japan during the 3rd century CE and are witnesses to an increasing political complexity during the Kofun period (250–592 CE), which preceded the establishment of the centralised state of ancient Japan.

© Christian Leipe

The 120-m-long Inariyama tumulus in Gyoda City dated to the 2nd half of the 5th century CE is considered to be the oldest within the Sakitama burial mound cluster in Saitama Prefecture, central Japan. These large burial mounds (called *kofun* in Japanese) started to appear in Japan during the 3rd century CE and are witnesses to an increasing political complexity during the Kofun period (250–592 CE), which preceded the establishment of the centralised state of ancient Japan.

© Christian Leipe

The project is conducted in cooperation with partners from the World Heritage Promotion Office, Hokkaido Government, Sapporo, Japan; the Institute for Space-Earth Environmental Research (ISEE), Nagoya University, Japan; the Center for Obsidian and Lithic Studies, Meiji University, Tokyo, Japan; the Konan Cultural Heritage Center, Kumagaya City Board of Education, Kumagaya, Japan; the Eurasia Department of the German Archaeological Institute, Berlin, Germany; the Institute of Geological Sciences, Freie Universität Berlin, Germany; the University of Alberta, Edmonton, Canada; and the School of Geographical Sciences, University of Nottingham Ningbo China.