Understanding Lifeways and
Biocultural Diversity in Prehistoric Japan

Research at Sannai Maruyama
A central component of the proposed project is the collaborative field/laboratory research at the Sannai Maruyama site.  The site is dated to the Early and Middle Jomon period (ca. 3900-2300 B.C.), and is currently the largest known Jomon settlement.  In collaboration with the Preservation Office of the Sannai Maruyama Site (Sannai Maruyama Iseki Taisaku-shitsu http://sannaimaruyama.pref.aomori.jp/english/index.html) and scholars from Japan, North America and Britain, we will conduct summer field and laboratory work at the site, and analyze the obtained samples.  Our research plans include the following:
 
1) excavation of a pit-dwelling and screening soil samples from its fill and hearth to recover faunal/floral remains and artifacts,
2) sub-sampling of existing soil samples to obtain macro faunal and floral data for quantitative analysis,
3) pollen, phytolith, diatom and parasite egg analysis to understand changes in human-environment interaction,
4) chemical analysis of artifacts to infer exchange systems, and
5) systematic examination of radiocarbon dates to establish a fine-grained chronology. 

This is the first American-Japanese collaborative field/laboratory project of this scale.  The excavation and soil-screening will be conducted in conjunction with the field school course of UC Berkeley.