The ceramic vessel from Japan’s Jomon period, a time dominated by a hunter-gatherer culture, is lined with cracks, but otherwise appears intact. Two-toned, the vessel is one of thousands originating from an ancient site in western Japan. The ancient practice of pottery can be traced back to 14,000 BC in East Asia, and predates the region’s adoption of farming. Previous evidence points to a boom in pottery production occurring during the warm conditions that followed the last Ice Age.
Publishing in Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences, an international team believes it discovered the reason production increased, a previous unknown.
In its study, the group analyzed 143 ceramic vessels excavated from the ancient Japanese site Torihama.
“We are starting to acquire some idea of why pottery was invented and became such a successful technology,” said co-author Oliver Craig, of Univ. of York’s Dept. of Archaeology, in a prepared statement. “Interestingly, the reason seems to be little to do with subsistence and more to do with the adoption of a cultural tradition.”
Previously, scientists believed that the Earth’s warming during the Holocene prompted further pottery usage for excess food storage and an array of cooking techniques.
“Contrary to expectations, ceramic vessels had a remarkably consistent use, predominantly for processing aquatic resources, indicating that cultural rather than environmental factors were most important for their widespread uptake,” the researchers wrote in their study.
Craig noted the cultural traditions were likely tied to celebratory occasions and competitive feasting.
The vessels, which span 9,000 years, showed scant evidence of plant or land-dwelling meat sources. The researchers performed molecular and isotopic analysis on lipids obtained from the vessels. The results showed an increase in freshwater fish consumption.
“The endurance of this transition means it was embedded in East Asian foragers’ social memory for hundreds of generations, perhaps reflecting the need for a dependable method to exploit sustainable food in an uncertain and changing world,” added Craig.
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