著者

Tezuka Kaoru Fitzhugh Ben

出版者

北海道大学総合博物館

雑誌

北海道大学総合博物館研究報告 (ISSN:1348169X)

巻号頁・発行日

vol.2, pp.85-95, 2004-03

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This article presents the results of our 2000 IKIP fieldwork and focuses on applying Japanese archaeological knowledge to the consideration of Kuril prehistory. The characteristics of the distribution of both Epi-Jomon and Okhotsk cultures based on ceramics excavated on Matua Island, Kama River site on Urup Island, and the Peschanaya Bay Site on Chirpoi Island in terms of culture history are described (Table 1). It was noteworthy for us to find terminal Jomon and Epi-Jomon cord-marked ceramics in the stratigraphy that extend the geographic distribution of this culture farther northeast in the Kuril Islands than had previously been known. The expansion of Epi-Jomon pottery into the middle part of the Kuril islands can be linked archaeologically with the rapid spread of the expansion of contemporary human settlement northward into Sakhalin and eastward into the Kuril Islands. Specifically, this article discusses the significance of this expansion during the Epi-Jomon period. This article also deals with the Kuril Ainu's sea mammal ritual that has previously been little researched. New evidence of the intentional arrangement of fur seal skulls according to their creed system in the animal ritual of the Ainu is antithetical to currently and widely accepted models of "the Bear Festival Complex" which assume that the bear festival occupies the core of Ainu culture (Watanabe 1972).