Ōdai Yamamoto I Site

Ōdai Yamamoto I Site
大平山元I遺跡
Ōdai Yamamoto I Site
Ōdai Yamamoto I site
Ōdai Yamamoto I Site (Japan)
LocationSotogahama, Aomori, Japan
RegionTōhoku region
Coordinates41°04′02″N 140°33′18″E / 41.06722°N 140.55500°E / 41.06722; 140.55500
Typesettlement
History
FoundedJōmon period
Site notes
Discovered1998
Excavation dates1998
Public accessYes (facilities are under construction at the site)

The Ōdai Yamamoto I Site (Japanese: 大平山元I遺跡, Hepburn: Ōdaiyamamoto ichi iseki) is a Jōmon archaeological site in the town of Sotogahama, Aomori Prefecture, in the Tōhoku region of northern Japan. Excavations in 1998 uncovered forty-six earthenware fragments which have been dated as early as 14,500 BCE (ca 16,500 BP); this places them among the earliest pottery currently known. As the earliest in Japan, this marks the transition from the Japanese Paleolithic to Incipient Jōmon. Other pottery of a similar date has been found at Gasya and Khummi on the lower Amur River. Such a date puts the development of pottery before the warming at the end of the Pleistocene.

Early history

The Ōdai Yamamoto I site is located on a fluvial terrace at an altitude of 26 meters (85 ft) on the left bank of the Kanita River that flows into Mutsu Bay on the eastern side of the Tsugaru Peninsula.[1] Thirty of the forty-six fragments of pottery, all from the same vessel, had carbonized residues, suggesting its use for the cooking of foodstuffs.[2] Eight AMS radiocarbon dates were generated from five of the fragments and three pieces of associated charred wood; these suggested a date of 11,800 to 11,500 BCE.[2] With calibration, this dating was pushed back to 14,500 to 14,000, as early as around 16,500 BP.[2][3][4] Other datings have given a range between 13780 ± 170 and 12680 ± 140 BCE.[5] This makes the Ōdai Yamamoto I site important to the understanding of the transition between the Pleistocene and the Holocene.[2][6]

Modern history

The site forms part of a serial nomination submitted in 2009 for future inscription on the UNESCO World Heritage List, under criteria iii and iv: Jōmon Archaeological Sites in Hokkaidō, Northern Tōhoku, and other regions.[7][8][9] In recognition of their importance, the excavated artifacts have been designated a Municipal Cultural Property.[10]

Stoneware and pottery excavated from the Ōdai Yamamoto I site is preserved at the Oyama Furusato Museum at Oyama Elementary School. The site received protection as a National Historic Site of Japan in 2013.[1] Other pottery of a similar date has been found at Gasya and Khummi on the lower Amur River.[11]

Interpretation

Pottery shards found during the rebuilding of a private residence in 1998 were submitted for radiocarbon dating by the Aomori Prefectural Board of Education,[2] and were found to have been produced 16,500 years ago, making it the oldest known pottery in Japan and the second oldest known pottery in the world—the oldest was found in Hunan, China and dated about 1,000 years earlier.[12] A total of 148 square meters (1,590 ft2) was excavated in 1998.[2] Further finds included axes, spearheads, arrowheads, scrapers, blades, and anvils, mostly of local shale but some also of obsidian.[2] The arrowheads are of special significance as they push back the beginnings of the history of archery. As no indication of permanent dwellings have been found at the site, it is assumed that the ancient inhabitants of this area were still nomadic.[2]

Genetics

Jōmon samples from the Ōdai Yamamoto I site differ from Jōmon samples of Hokkaido and geographically close eastern Honshu.[13] Ōdai Yamamoto Jōmon were found to have C1a1 and are genetically close to ancient and modern Northeast Asian groups but notably different from other Jōmon samples such as Ikawazu or Urawa Jōmon.[14] Similarly, the Nagano Jōmon from the Yugora cave site are closely related to contemporary East Asians but genetically different from the Ainu people which are direct descendants of the Hokkaido Jōmon.[13]

One study, published in the Cambridge University Press in 2020, suggests that the Jōmon people were rather heterogeneous, and that many Jōmon groups were descended from an ancient "Altaic-like" population (close to modern Tungusic-speakers, samplified by Oroqen), which established itself over the local hunter gatherers.[14] This “Altaic-like” population migrated from Northeast Asia in about 6000BC, and coexisted with other unrelated tribes and/or intermixed with them, before being replaced by the later Yayoi people. C1a1 and C2 are linked to the "Tungusic-like people", which arrived in the Jōmon period archipelago from Northeast Asia in about 6,000 BCE and introduced the Incipient Jōmon culture, typified by early ceramic cultures such as the Ōdai Yamamoto I Site.[14]

See also

References

  1. ^ a b "Odai Yamamoto Site". Jomon Prehistoric Sites in Northern Japan. Jomon Japan. Retrieved October 6, 2025.
  2. ^ a b c d e f g h Kaner, S. (2003). "Jomon pottery, Japan". Current World Archaeology. Current Publishing. Archived from the original on March 18, 2013. Retrieved June 12, 2012.{{cite web}}: CS1 maint: bot: original URL status unknown (link)
  3. ^ Habu, Junko (2004). Ancient Jomon of Japan (Case Studies in Early Societies). Cambridge University Press. pp. 34–42. ISBN 978-0-521-77213-6.
  4. ^ "大平山元Ｉ遺跡 －日本最古の土器出土－" [Ōdaiyamamoto Ichi Site - Excavation of Japan's Earliest Earthenware] (in Japanese). Aomori Prefecture. Archived from the original on June 20, 2012. Retrieved June 12, 2012.
  5. ^ Jaubert, Jacques (2006). "Recent Paleolithic Studies in Japan-Proceedings for Tainted Evidence and Restoration of Confidence in the Pleistocene Archaeology of the Japanese Archipelago by K. Yajima (Review)". Bulletin de la Société préhistorique française (in French). 103 (2). Société Préhistorique Française: 404–6. JSTOR 41221027.
  6. ^ Stark, Miriam T., ed. (2005). "Early Communities in East Asia:Economic and Sociopolitical Organization at the Local and Regional Levels". Archaeology of Asia (Blackwell Studies in Global Archaeology). Wiley-Blackwell. pp. 77–95. ISBN 978-1-405-10212-4.
  7. ^ "Jomon Prehistoric Sites in Northern Japan". UNESCO. Retrieved October 7, 2025.
  8. ^ "「北海道・北東北を中心とした縄文遺跡群」の世界文化遺産登録をめざして" [Towards World Heritage Inscription of "Jōmon Archaeological Sites in Hokkaidō, Northern Tōhoku, and other regions"] (in Japanese). Hokkaidō Government Board of Education. Archived from the original on May 8, 2013. Retrieved June 12, 2012.
  9. ^ "北海道・北東北を中心とした縄文遺跡群" [Jōmon Archaeological Sites in Hokkaidō, Northern Tōhoku, and other regions] (in Japanese). Aomori City. Archived from the original on April 20, 2012. Retrieved June 12, 2012.
  10. ^ "外ヶ浜町文化財一覧" [List of the Cultural Properties of Sotogahama] (PDF) (in Japanese). Sotogahama Town. Archived from the original (PDF) on March 4, 2016. Retrieved June 18, 2012.
  11. ^ Liu, Li; Chen, Xingcan (2012). The Archaeology of China: From the Late Paleolithic to the Early Bronze Age. Cambridge University Press. pp. 68–9. ISBN 978-0-521-64432-7.
  12. ^ Kuzmin, Yaroslav V. (2013). "Origin of Old World Pottery as Viewed from the Early 2010s: When, Where and Why?". World Archaeology. 45 (4): 542, 546, 549. JSTOR 26619379.
  13. ^ a b Crawford, Gary W. (2008). "The Jomon in Early Agriculture Discourse: Issues Arising from Matsui, Kanehara and Pearson". World Archaeology. 40 (4): 446. JSTOR 40388288.
  14. ^ a b c Chaubey, Gyaneshwer; Driem, George van (2020). "Munda languages are father tongues, but Japanese and Korean are not". Evolutionary Human Sciences. 2: e19. doi:10.1017/ehs.2020.14. ISSN 2513-843X. PMC 10427457. PMID 37588351.
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