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Abstract

From northern China, millet agriculture spread to Korea and the Maritime Russian Far East by 3500–2700 BC. While the expansion of agricultural societies across the Sea of Japan did not occur until around 900 BC, the intervening period saw major transformations in the Japanese archipelago. The cultural florescence of Middle Jōmon central Honshu underwent a collapse and reorganisation into more decentralised settlements. Mobility increased as Late Jōmon influences spread from eastern into western Japan, and populations expanded to offshore islands such as Okinawa and the Kurils. In Kyushu and other parts of western Japan, the eastern Jōmon expansion was associated with the cultivation of adzuki and soybeans but, contrary to earlier assessments, there is no evidence for the introduction of cereal crops at this time. Here, we analyse archaeological and historical linguistic evidence of connections between the Eurasian mainland and the Japanese Islands c. 3500 to 900 BC. A re-evaluation of archaeological material discussed since the 1920s concludes that the transformations in Jōmon society during this period were at least in part a response to contacts with Eurasian Bronze Age cultures. Evidence for linguistic contact between Koreanic and the Ainuic languages which are presumed to have been spoken by Jōmon populations is also consistent with new Bronze Age mobilities. Although prehistoric Japan was one of the most isolated regions of Eurasia, we conclude that the historical evolution of societies in the Japanese archipelago after the third millennium BC was linked with processes of Bronze Age globalisation.

紀元前 3500–2700 年頃、アワ・キビ農耕が中国東北部から朝鮮半島と極東ロシアに広がった. 農耕社会が実際に日本海を渡るのは、時代をはるかに下る紀元前900年頃まで待たねばならない. しかし、この時期、日本列島の縄文社会にも大きな変化がみられる. 中部地方の縄文中期文化の輝きは失われ、大型集落は放棄され、分散型居住パターンへと社会の再編成が行われた. 縄文後期の文化要素が東から西日本へ広がり、琉球列島や千島列島等の離島への移動が多くなり、社会の流動性が増した. 九州等、列島西部では、東方からの縄文文化がダイズ・アズキ栽培と共に広がった. 一方、この時期には穀物栽培の証拠は認められていない. 本論では、考古学と言語学の分析により起源前 3500~900 年頃の間のユーラシア大陸と日本列島の交流について検討する. そのうえで、 1920 年代以来議論された考古資料の再評価の結果、縄文後晩期の社会変化は少なくても部分的には大陸の青銅器時代文化との接触に起因すると論じる. 縄文人が話したと推定されるアイヌ語族(Ainuic)と朝鮮語族 (Koreanic) との言語的交流も青銅器時代の新しい流動性と一致する. 先史時代の日本列島はユーラシアで最も孤立した地域の一つだったにも関わらず、紀元前3千年紀後の列島の歴史的展開は青銅器時代のグローバリゼーションのプロセスと関連していたと結論する.