著者

TAKUMI TSUTAYA MINORU YONEDA MIKIKO ABE TOMOHITO NAGAOKA

出版者

日本人類学会

雑誌

Anthropological Science (ISSN:09187960)

巻号頁・発行日

pp.190403, (Released:2019-06-21)

被引用文献数

3

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The reconstruction of everyday diets in villages is important for understanding the diversity of diets and commerce networks of food items in premodern Japan. However, premodern diets in villages have not been well studied compared with those in cities. In this study, stable isotope analyses were performed on 23 adult human skeletons excavated from Sendaiji, a mountainous woodland village of underground Christians in Osaka in premodern Japan. No significant isotopic differences was found between individuals identified as Buddhists and those identified as Christians or between females and males. The total mean carbon, nitrogen, and sulfur isotope ratios were –21.1 ± 0.4‰, 11.6 ± 1.0‰, and 8.9 ± 1.3‰, respectively. The carbon isotope ratios in Sendaiji were the lowest among the studied premodern populations probably because these individuals consumed woodland foods that are affected by the canopy effect. No significant correlation between sulfur and nitrogen isotope ratios was apparent, suggesting that there was little contribution from marine foods or marine fertilizers to the diet of individuals in premodern Sendaiji. The relatively high nitrogen isotope ratios in Sendaiji were possibly because of the denitrification in paddy rice fields, ammonium uptake by paddy rice, use of animal fertilizers, and/or consumption of freshwater fish. To our knowledge, this is the first detailed bioarchaeological study of the premodern diet in a mountainous village in western Japan.

著者

Takumi Tsutaya Naomi Doi Chiaki Katagiri Rikai Sawafuji Minoru Yoneda

出版者

The Anthropological Society of Nippon

雑誌

Anthropological Science (ISSN:09187960)

巻号頁・発行日

pp.230718, (Released:2023-12-15)

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The development of the modern industrialized food production system has resulted in a homogeneous human diet worldwide. However, it is not clear whether a developed food production system led to a homogenized human diet also in ancient societies. Due to the lack of large archaeological datasets, we know little about the chronological trends and ancient circumstances of dietary homogenization. Here we compiled carbon and nitrogen stable isotope ratios, indicators of palaeodiet, of adult human skeletons from premodern mainland Japan (AD 1603–1868, n = 318) to investigate chronological changes in diet. Comparison with datasets from Japan in modern, premodern (Edo), and foraging (Jomon) periods showed that the human diet was rapidly homogenized isotopically in modern times. Premodern people in Japan typically obtained dietary proteins from C3 crops and fish, and the establishment of agriculture created a new isotope dietary niche compared with the foraging period. Dominant protein contributions from agricultural C3 crops cultivated with organic fertilizers and/or rice that are grown in paddy fields with denitrification increased premodern human nitrogen isotope ratios without increasing their carbon isotope ratios. Diet differed according to the social status of individuals or the availability of foods, and a unique diet can be seen in people in higher social classes such as the Shogun family. Meta-analysis of stable isotope ratios of archaeological human skeletons enables a comprehensive understanding of human dietary change through time and regional variations.