Permalink : http://hdl.handle.net/2115/38237

The Epi-Jomon period of Hokkaido, northern part of the Japanese islands, ranges from 2,500 to 1,300 radiocarbon yr BP. Probably,it was parallel to the Yayoi and Kofun periods of Honshu,central part of the Japanese islands. Broadly speaking,the Yayoi and Kofun periods were characterized by the rapid spread and development of rice cultivation. On the contrary, the Epi-Jomon shows a unique socio-ecological adaptation of Hunter-Gatherers in Hokkaido. In order to examine the appearance and transformation of the Epi-Jomon society, it is important to discuss inter-regional interactions in and around Hokkaido, in relation to the introduction of iron tools from Honshu. Surely, studying the lithic assemblages of Epi-Jomon can contribute to reveal such issues. The purpose of this paper is to present the temporal variability of lithic assemblages of the Epi-Jomon in Eastern Hokkaido, and to discuss its significance. In this paper, I attempt to assess the composition of stone tools and lithic raw materials, and to examine the lithic reduction sequences. In general,the Epi-Jomon is divided into two chrono-cultural subdivisions: Early and Late. The stone tools of the Early Epi-Jomon in Eastern Hokkaido are usually composed of stone arrowheads, bifacial tools, points, tanged stone scrapers, side scrapers, end scrapers, drills, piece esquillee, polished axes, various pebble tools (stone hammers, whetstones, anvil stones, polishing stones and saddlequerns). On the other hand, some of these tools (stone arrowheads, bifacial tools, points, tanged stone scrapers, side scrapers, drills and polished axes) have drastically decreased or disappeared among the lithic assemblages of the Late Epi-Jomon. In addition, bifacial reduction sequences which characterized the lithic assemblages of the Early Epi-Jomon in Eastern Hokkaido have also disappeared among the Late Epi-Jomon. In the lithic assemblages of the Late Epi-Jomon, it is interesting to note that bipolar technique has played an important role of producing blanks of small flake tools, such as end scrapers. As a result, my assessment shows that many phenomena have coincidently changed between Early phase and Late phase of Epi-Jomon. It suggests that the typological and technological difference of lithic assemblages of the Epi-Jomon probably correlates with the chrono-cultural subdivisions.