Atsuko Yamazaki
Principal Investigator
Lecturer, Graduate School of Environmental Studies, Nagoya University
Project Overview
Hokkaido is important for understanding the dynamics of northern human settlement, migration, and dispersal. During the Holocene, prehistoric human populations' migration and their cultures' formation were influenced by group migrations north and south across the Japanese archipelago. Changes in migration and cultural transitions have been elucidated through excavating artifacts from ruins and the dating of artifacts.
In particular, Rebun Island in Hokkaido, Japan, represents the transition of prehistoric culture in Hokkaido and can be observed as a series of archaeological sites. This study aims to reconstruct the climatic and marine environment from 3,500 years ago using paleoclimate archives in bivalve remains and to clarify why culture has changed. Specifically, we estimate the strength of the winter monsoon and the Tsushima Current, which strongly influence the climate of Hokkaido, and nutrient concentrations, which allow us to estimate coastal fishery resources, and the timing of shellfish harvesting, in order to directly contrast coastal environmental changes with the lifestyle and culture of people at the turning points of prehistoric cultures with the high temporal (seasonal) resolution paleoenvironment reconstructed from bivalves. We will discuss the impact of environmental change on culture and contribute to the development of a model for the correlation between human activities and environmental change.
