Japan - Early Jomon

  General Description   "Consistent warming and a rising sea level pushed the coastal population farther inland during the Early Jomon period, with the temperature peaking several degrees higher than today toward the end of this stage. Water flooded low valleys, and some Kanto sites are as much as fifty kilometers from the present shore. [...].
"The shell mounds of this stage contain chiefly freshwater clams (Yamato shijimi or Corbicula japonica, and marine haigai or Anada granosa) and oysters (magaki or Crossostrea gigas). Animal bones - not numerous - are chiefly those of deer, boars, flying squirrels, and Siberian mountain lions. Investigations indicate that mainly older deer were hunted, that the fast-breeding wild boars were killed indiscriminately, and that mountain lions were dying out. In the more isolated areas of western Japan, animal life was reduced, leaving fewer resources for human survival. The higher temperature encouraged the growth of the evergreen oak forests (Quercus) that covered much of west Japan.
"The warmer temperature was also conducive to the growth of warm-water Anadara granosa as far north as the Daigi shell mound near Matsushima Bay, although its habitat is now south of Tokyo. On the other hand, the coldwater mollusk (Pecten yesoensis), now thriving in northeast Honshu, could not stand the warmth and is therefore missing from the Early Jomon shell mounds of that area.
"Around the middle of the Early Jomon, reliable food sources and somewhat longer stays near the coast produced a dramatic increase in population. According to Koyama’s calculations, the Early Jomon population numbered around 106,000, or five times that of the Earliest Jomon, an increase unmatched at any other stage of the Jomon period.
"Small Early Jomon villages, developed on bluffs, had pit houses grouped in the form of a horseshoe. The presence of pottery of several successive types at a single site indicates continuous habitation. As this occurred, family demands fostered advances in house construction. The older, poorer shelters or huts were now transformed by the introduction of substantial inner posts strong enough to hold a roof over a rectanguloid floor. Rainwater shed by the pitched roof was drained off through surrounding ditches. Kaya (a miscanthus) was probably the roofing grass, fifteen centimeters of which would have been enough to keep the interior dry. Toward the end of the Early Jomon, the inner space took the form of a square with rounded corners. Some fireplaces were moved inside, though rarely were placed in the middle of the floor. Indoor living now offered more attractions.
"Houses were occasionally extended to accommodate growing families, but archaeological evidence reveals few repairs and almost no overlapped houses so often found at Middle Jomon sites. The forty-eight houses of the Minabori shell mound, located on a rather level plateau in Yokohama and distributed to form a rough arc, had doors facing an open space to the north. Because successive rebuilding did not alter this fundamental plan, it is thought that use of the common area had become well established. An improving economy is suggested by storage pits found both inside and outside houses. Such pits were lined by alternating layers of leaves and nuts in order to keep most of the pit’s contents dry, allowing cupboard raids to expose only a little at a time.
"Most of the house pits of Minabori contained Kurohama-type pottery belonging to the middle years of the Early Jomon. These flat-bottomed pots were designed for cooking, and their new shapes made them more practical for indoor living on intensely used floors that were tamped hard. A short-lived spell of tempering the clay with small fibers - a practice that perhaps started in the Tohoku and moved south - may have been connected with attempts to strengthen the walls of the pots when increasing their size and experimenting with flat bottoms. Heavy cord marking is typical, and before the Early Jomon phase was over, Moroiso-type pottery appeared, bearing imprinted and incised decorative arcs and parallel lines made with the end of a small split bamboo stick.
"Recent excavations at the Torihama shell mound in Mikata-cho of Fukui Prefecture point up hitherto unknown advances in the Early Jomon. One of the rather few kitchen middens found on the west side of Japan, it lies beside the Hasu River in a laurel (laurilignosa) forest area dominated by oak. These excavations show that boars, deer, monkeys, raccoon-dogs, bear, serows, otters, martens, and badgers were hunted; several kinds of fish were caught; and a variety of freshwater shellfish, saltwater mollusks, clams, oysters, and ark shells were collected. Walnuts, hazelnuts, and acorns were also gathered. But of special interest are the bottle gourds {Lagenaria siceraria) and "green beans" (Phaseolus sp.) that were pea shaped and found in long narrow pods averaging eleven centimeters in length and thirteen beans to a pod. Many Japanese archaeologists regard both as cultivated plants, indeed suggesting that pollen changes indicate environmental alterations caused by clearing and that trees of foothill forests were cut and used for building materials, wooden tools, and firewood.
"Preserved remarkably well are ropes, reed baskets, and many wooden objects, including oars, boards, adzes, bows, and carved bowls and a comb which are the oldest pieces of lacquer ever found in Japan. Other innovations were polished stone axes, bone needles, and thimblelike bone rings. Vertically angled blades were changed to adze-shaped tools by the use of right-angled tree forks, probably for better hacking and digging of new forms of vegetation.
"Torihama is no longer an isolated case. Gourd seeds have also been found in the Early and Latest Jomon sites of Gifu and Saitama. The Middle Jomon Idojiri "bread," which has long defied analysis, is now thought to have contained some eight skins of beans. The Middle Jomon Tsurune settlement site in Takayama City, Gifu Prefecture, yielded two carbonized beans (Leguminosae) that are reportedly similar to a cultivated continental Asian bean for which there was nothing comparable in Japan." ^[1]

[1]: (Kidder, Jr. 2008, 62-65)