Ancient mtDNA of Tohoku district Jomon

Anthropological Science

Ancient mitochondrial DNA sequences of Jomon teeth samples from Sanganji, Tohoku district, Japan

Hideaki KANZAWA-KIRIYAMA et al.

Abstract We investigated mitochondrial DNA haplogroups of four Jomon individuals from the Sanganji shell mound in Fukushima, Tohoku district, Japan. Partial nucleotide sequences of the coding and control region of mitochondrial DNA were determined. The success rate of sequencing increased when we analyzed short DNA sequences. We identified haplogroups from all four samples that were analyzed; haplogroup frequencies were 50% (n = 2) for N9b and 50% (n = 2) for M7a2. Haplogroup N9b has been previously observed in high frequencies in the other Tohoku Jomon, Hokkaido Jomon, Okhotsk, and Ainu peoples, whereas its frequency was reported to be low in the Kanto Jomon and the modern mainland Japanese. Sub-haplogroup M7a2 has previously been reported in the Hokkaido Jomon, Okhotsk, and modern Udegey (southern Siberia) peoples, but not in the Kanto Jomon, Ainu, or Ryukyuan peoples. Principal component analysis and phylogenetic network analysis revealed that, based on haplogroup frequencies, the Tohoku Jomon was genetically closer to the Hokkaido Jomon and Udegey people, than to the Kanto Jomon or mainland modern Japanese. The available evidence suggests genetic differences between the Tohoku and Kanto regions in the Jomon period, and greater genetic similarity between the Tohoku Jomon and the other investigated ancient (Hokkaido Jomon, Okhotsk) and modern (Siberian, Udegey in particular) populations. At the same time, the Tohoku and Hokkaido Jomon seem to differ in sub-haplotype representations, suggesting complexity in Jomon population structure and history.

Link

Pottery-using hunter-gatherer cooks from Japan

From an accompanying piece:

Pottery usage among hunter-gatherers was considered somewhat anomalous and counter-intuitive; fragile pots did not seem to have a place in the mobile lifestyles thought to characterize most human existence before the advent of farming villages during the Neolithic, from about 10,000 years ago in the eastern Mediterranean. But the discovery of lipids on ceramic vessels in East Asia dating from the Late Pleistocene, about 15,000–12,000 years ago, presented by Craig et al.2 in a paper published on Nature's website today, suggests that some hunter-gatherers used pots for cooking. The report also provides a demonstration of how science should be integral to our piecing together of history. 

... 

Our knowledge that ceramic containers were being made and used by hunter-gatherers in the Late Pleistocene in various parts of East Asia — from Japan to far eastern Russia and north and south China — means that pottery usage among hunter-gatherers is no longer seen as anomalous in the Old World. In fact, there may be evidence for routes of the introduction of pottery into Europe that are not associated with the introduction of farming13.

From the paper itself:

From both the bulk stable isotope data and the more specific product identifications based on available lipid data, we suggest that aquatic products were the most frequently processed products in Incipient Jōmon pottery, through the fluctuating climate and across a range of environments, from Hokkaido in the north to Kyushu in the south. Whether ceramic vessels were integral to the processing of aquatic resources or, as is suggested by their rarity, were used only occasionally, perhaps ceremonially or as a prestige technology24, remains debatable.

Nature (2013) doi:10.1038/nature12109

Earliest evidence for the use of pottery 

O. E. Craig et al.


Pottery was a hunter-gatherer innovation that first emerged in East Asia between 20,000 and 12,000 calibrated years before present1, 2 (cal BP), towards the end of the Late Pleistocene epoch, a period of time when humans were adjusting to changing climates and new environments. Ceramic container technologies were one of a range of late glacial adaptations that were pivotal to structuring subsequent cultural trajectories in different regions of the world, but the reasons for their emergence and widespread uptake are poorly understood. The first ceramic containers must have provided prehistoric hunter-gatherers with attractive new strategies for processing and consuming foodstuffs, but virtually nothing is known of how early pots were used. Here we report the chemical analysis of food residues associated with Late Pleistocene pottery, focusing on one of the best-studied prehistoric ceramic sequences in the world, the Japanese Jomon. We demonstrate that lipids can be recovered reliably from charred surface deposits adhering to pottery dating from about 15,000 to 11,800?cal?BP (the Incipient Jomon period), the oldest pottery so far investigated, and that in most cases these organic compounds are unequivocally derived from processing freshwater and marine organisms. Stable isotope data support the lipid evidence and suggest that most of the 101 charred deposits analysed, from across the major islands of Japan, were derived from high-trophic-level aquatic food. Productive aquatic ecotones were heavily exploited by late glacial foragers3, perhaps providing an initial impetus for investment in ceramic container technology, and paving the way for further intensification of pottery use by hunter-gatherers in the early Holocene epoch. Now that we have shown that it is possible to analyse organic residues from some of the world’s earliest ceramic vessels, the subsequent development of this critical technology can be clarified through further widespread testing of hunter-gatherer pottery from later periods.

Link

Body form variation of prehistoric Jomon (Fukase et al. 2012)

Am J Phys Anthropol DOI: 10.1002/ajpa.22112
 
Geographic variation in body form of prehistoric Jomon males in the Japanese archipelago: Its ecogeographic implications 

Hitoshi Fukase et al.

Diversity of human body size and shape is often biogeographically interpreted in association with climatic conditions. According to Bergmann's and Allen's rules, populations in regions with a cold climate are expected to display an overall larger body and smaller/shorter extremities than those in warm/hot environments. In the present study, the skeletal limb size and proportions of prehistoric Jomon hunter-gatherers, who extensively inhabited subarctic to subtropical areas in the ancient Japanese archipelago, were examined to evaluate whether or not the inter-regional differences follow such ecogeographic patterns. Results showed that the Jomon intralimb proportions including relative distal limb lengths did not differ significantly among five regions from northern Hokkaido to the southern Okinawa Islands. This suggests a limited co-variability of the intralimb proportions with climate, particularly within genealogically close populations. In contrast, femoral head breadth (associated with body mass) and skeletal limb lengths were found to be significantly and positively correlated with latitude, suggesting a north-south geographical cline in the body size. This gradient therefore comprehensively conforms to Bergmann's rule, and may stem from multiple potential factors such as phylogenetic constraints, microevolutionary adaptation to climatic/geographic conditions during the Jomon period, and nutritional and physiological response during ontogeny. Specifically, the remarkably small-bodied Jomon in the Okinawa Islands can also be explained as an adjustment to subtropical and insular environments. Thus, the findings obtained in this study indicate that Jomon people, while maintaining fundamental intralimb proportions, displayed body size variation in concert with ambient surroundings. 

Link

Craniofacial study of the Jomon of Japan

American Journal of Physical Anthropology doi:10.1002/ajpa.20985

Regional differences in craniofacial diversity and the population history of Jomon Japan

Tsunehiko Hanihara, Hajime Ishida

Abstract

The people associated with the Jomon culture, the Neolithic inhabitants of Japan, are one of the key groups in the population history of East Asia, because they retain many archaic characters that may be traced back to Eurasian Upper Palaeolithic hunter-gatherers. In this study, the regional diversity of the Jomon skeletal series was estimated by applying the R-matrix method to 34 craniofacial measurements. The patterns of intraregional variation indicate little effect on the genetic structure of the Jomon from long-term gene flow stemming from an outside source. The regional diversities were further estimated by pooling all individuals into regional aggregates, and by computing the mean variance within local groups in each region. Although the pattern of phenotypic variation differs depending on the unit of analysis, the gradient of the diversity retains its identity. The Hokkaido region, the northernmost part of the Japanese archipelago, has the highest variance, followed by the regions of eastern Japan, while the southwestern regions have the lowest variance. These findings suggest that the Jomon ancestors of the northern part of Japan might have expanded southward to Honshu Island. Global analyses including samples from Eurasia, Africa, and Australia dating roughly to the same chronological periods as those of the Jomon samples, indicate that the Jomon cranial series share part of their ancestral gene pool with early northeastern Asians. The present findings support the archeologically suggested population growth and expansion in the northern half of the Eurasian continent during the late Pleistocene and early Holocene periods.

Link

Ancient mtDNA from Jomon skeletons

American Journal of Physical Anthropology doi: 10.1002/ajpa.20923

Mitochondrial DNA analysis of Jomon skeletons from the Funadomari site, Hokkaido, and its implication for the origins of Native American

Noburu Adachi et al.

Abstract

Ancient DNA recovered from 16 Jomon skeletons excavated from Funadomari site, Hokkaido, Japan was analyzed to elucidate the genealogy of the early settlers of the Japanese archipelago. Both the control and coding regions of their mitochondrial DNA were analyzed in detail, and we could securely assign 14 mtDNAs to relevant haplogroups. Haplogroups D1a, M7a, and N9b were observed in these individuals, and N9b was by far the most predominant. The fact that haplogroups N9b and M7a were observed in Hokkaido Jomons bore out the hypothesis that these haplogroups are the (pre-) Jomon contribution to the modern Japanese mtDNA pool. Moreover, the fact that Hokkaido Jomons shared haplogroup D1 with Native Americans validates the hypothesized genetic affinity of the Jomon people to Native Americans, providing direct evidence for the genetic relationships between these populations. However, probably due to the small sample size or close consanguinity among the members of the site, the frequencies of the haplogroups in Funadomari skeletons were quite different from any modern populations, including Hokkaido Ainu, who have been regarded as the direct descendant of the Hokkaido Jomon people. It appears that the genetic study of ancient populations in northern part of Japan brings important information to the understanding of human migration in northeast Asia and America.

Link