Periodic Reporting for period 4 - ENCOUNTER (Demography, Cultural change, and the Diffusion of Rice and Millet during the Jomon-Yayoi transition in prehistoric Japan)
Berichtszeitraum: 2023-10-01 bis 2024-11-30
Human history is punctuated by episodes of large-scale diffusion of new ideas and people that have often led to era-defining transitions of past societies. Investigating what processes have determined these events, how people have reacted to these, and what long-term consequences they had is a key to understanding the fundamental drivers of cultural and societal changes. The ENCOUNTER project pushed this agenda forward by investigating the timing and the mode of the dispersal of rice and millet farming in the Japanese archipelago during the 1st millennium BCE. This pivotal moment in Japanese prehistory, initiated by waves of migrations from the Korean peninsula, marks the transition between the so-called Jomon and Yayoi periods, and its ultimate consequences are still detectable in the genetic, linguistic, and cultural variation of present-day Japan.
The ENCOUNTER project investigated regional variations in the transition to farming in the Japanese islands, determining the extent by which observed patterns could be explained by environmental conditions (e.g. suitability to rice and millet farming), cultural connectivity, and demographic processes. In pursuing this endeavour, ENCOUNTER has provided an exceptional case study for studying the topical theme of the relationship between migration and cultural change, offering a deep-time perspective on a phenomenon that has long and still does characterise pivotal moments of human history. Our analyses were able to identify regional slowdowns and acceleration in the transmission of the new subsistence practices and evaluate differences in their demographic and cultural impact. Notably, only some of these differences could be explained by the ecological suitability of farming practices, indicating the presence of social and cultural factors driving observed patterns. Several lines of evidence have also revealed the continuity of certain economic and cultural practices, showcasing the complex nature of the encounter between migrant farmers and incumbent hunter-gatherer populations.
The ENCOUNTER project investigated regional variations in the transition to farming in the Japanese islands, determining the extent by which observed patterns could be explained by environmental conditions (e.g. suitability to rice and millet farming), cultural connectivity, and demographic processes. In pursuing this endeavour, ENCOUNTER has provided an exceptional case study for studying the topical theme of the relationship between migration and cultural change, offering a deep-time perspective on a phenomenon that has long and still does characterise pivotal moments of human history. Our analyses were able to identify regional slowdowns and acceleration in the transmission of the new subsistence practices and evaluate differences in their demographic and cultural impact. Notably, only some of these differences could be explained by the ecological suitability of farming practices, indicating the presence of social and cultural factors driving observed patterns. Several lines of evidence have also revealed the continuity of certain economic and cultural practices, showcasing the complex nature of the encounter between migrant farmers and incumbent hunter-gatherer populations.
The ENCOUNTER project (fig.1) was organised into five core work packages (WP), each focusing on different aspects of the transition to rice and millet agriculture in the Japanese archipelago during the 1st millennium BCE. While we generated some new data (e.g. organic residue analyses of Jomon and Yayoi ceramics for WP2), most analyses were carried out on legacy data that were collated, digitised, and curated to facilitate core computational and statistical analyses.
WP1 gathered and examined more than 35,000 radiocarbon dates and developed novel statistical methods to infer population changes from such data. The methodology we developed was made available to the larger academic community as open-source software packages and enabled us to identify regional differences in the demographic response to the arrival of farming (fig.2) revealing major differences in the consequences of the new subsistence economy that can only be in part explained by the differences in the suitability of farming modelled in WP4.
WP2 investigated changes in the culinary practices within the Japanese islands during the adoption and diffusion of rice and millet agriculture by carrying out biomolecular analyses of food crust remains recovered from ceramics (fig.3). New collaborations offered the opportunity to examine a larger sample of previously collected data, enabling the WP to identify continuity in culinary practices within Japan and notable differences to what we observe in the Korean peninsula. These findings suggest that the transmission of the new subsistence economy did not entail a faithful transmission of culinary practises, which instead retained many of its pre-existing elements.
WP3 reconstructed spatial and temporal variation in the material culture (fig.4) and developed a simulation model to understand better how different cultural elements are transmitted together or separately. The analyses of the material culture identified distinct cultural clines for both functional traits and cultural traits, providing insights into how farming dispersal led to the emergence of new regional patterns of cultural interaction. The simulation model provided a theoretical framework for determining the circumstances under which selectively ‘neutral’ were transmitted along with beneficial innovation through a ‘cultural hitchhiking’ process.
WP4 modelled the ecological niche of rice (fig.5) to determine how variations observed in material culture, culinary traditions, demographic growth, and dispersal rate can be explained by differences in the suitability of farming. The analyses entailed a combination of paleoclimate and statistical modelling, field experiment data, and a range of archaeological proxies linked to rice cultivations (paddy field sites, macrofossil remains, and dedicated tools for harvesting) to examine both where and when rice could have been cultivated and where it was grown.
WP5 examined in detail the archaeobotanical evidence, tracking the dispersal and the diffusion rate of rice agriculture (fig.6) the relative contribution of the new crops in relation to pre-existing wild plant resources, and morphological variations in the rice grain during its diffusion in the Japanese islands. Some of the analyses required the development of new statistical methods to identify more accurately and precisely where and when we can identify episodes of slowdowns and accelerations in the diffusion of farming.
The picture emerging from these different lines of enquiries provides a new insight into the tempo, mode, and consequences of the introduction of rice and millet farming in the Japanese archipelago. These results have been presented in 25 conference papers, 11 journal articles, and a major international symposium, advancing our understanding of this pivotal moment in Japanese prehistory, generating new hypotheses, and offering a suite of new methods for pursuing similar research in other regions.
WP1 gathered and examined more than 35,000 radiocarbon dates and developed novel statistical methods to infer population changes from such data. The methodology we developed was made available to the larger academic community as open-source software packages and enabled us to identify regional differences in the demographic response to the arrival of farming (fig.2) revealing major differences in the consequences of the new subsistence economy that can only be in part explained by the differences in the suitability of farming modelled in WP4.
WP2 investigated changes in the culinary practices within the Japanese islands during the adoption and diffusion of rice and millet agriculture by carrying out biomolecular analyses of food crust remains recovered from ceramics (fig.3). New collaborations offered the opportunity to examine a larger sample of previously collected data, enabling the WP to identify continuity in culinary practices within Japan and notable differences to what we observe in the Korean peninsula. These findings suggest that the transmission of the new subsistence economy did not entail a faithful transmission of culinary practises, which instead retained many of its pre-existing elements.
WP3 reconstructed spatial and temporal variation in the material culture (fig.4) and developed a simulation model to understand better how different cultural elements are transmitted together or separately. The analyses of the material culture identified distinct cultural clines for both functional traits and cultural traits, providing insights into how farming dispersal led to the emergence of new regional patterns of cultural interaction. The simulation model provided a theoretical framework for determining the circumstances under which selectively ‘neutral’ were transmitted along with beneficial innovation through a ‘cultural hitchhiking’ process.
WP4 modelled the ecological niche of rice (fig.5) to determine how variations observed in material culture, culinary traditions, demographic growth, and dispersal rate can be explained by differences in the suitability of farming. The analyses entailed a combination of paleoclimate and statistical modelling, field experiment data, and a range of archaeological proxies linked to rice cultivations (paddy field sites, macrofossil remains, and dedicated tools for harvesting) to examine both where and when rice could have been cultivated and where it was grown.
WP5 examined in detail the archaeobotanical evidence, tracking the dispersal and the diffusion rate of rice agriculture (fig.6) the relative contribution of the new crops in relation to pre-existing wild plant resources, and morphological variations in the rice grain during its diffusion in the Japanese islands. Some of the analyses required the development of new statistical methods to identify more accurately and precisely where and when we can identify episodes of slowdowns and accelerations in the diffusion of farming.
The picture emerging from these different lines of enquiries provides a new insight into the tempo, mode, and consequences of the introduction of rice and millet farming in the Japanese archipelago. These results have been presented in 25 conference papers, 11 journal articles, and a major international symposium, advancing our understanding of this pivotal moment in Japanese prehistory, generating new hypotheses, and offering a suite of new methods for pursuing similar research in other regions.
The primary goal of the ENCOUNTER project is to investigate how incumbent populations responded to the introduction of new cultural elements brought in by migrant groups. Studies on hunter-gathering to farming transition have traditionally focused less on the dynamics of cultural adoption of incumbent populations and neglected how different pathways, such as resistance, hybridisation, and reversion after initial adoption, emerge. By examining these different dynamics within the confines of the Japanese archipelago, the project has provided new insights from one of the richest archaeological records available globally, contributing both to the understanding of a defining moment in Japanese history and, more generally, to the relationship between migration and cultural change. ENCOUNTER has introduced an array of significant methodological advances, including molecular techniques to identify specific food sources and statistical approaches to infer past population dynamics, model the tempo and the mode of dispersal dynamics, track the evolution of cultural boundaries, infer diffusion of innovation curves and reconstruct the productivity of different crops. The relevance of many of these advances is beyond the remits of the contextual goals of the project, and ENCOUNTER has facilitated the application of these new methods by making all research fully reproducible and, where possible, developing software packages to promote reuse.