ARCHAEOLOGICAL INVESTIGATIONS OF ANADROMOUS SALMONID FISHING IN JAPAN

This paper examines the archaeology of salmon fishing in Japan, mostly during the Jomon period. The starting point is Sugao Yamanouchi's 'sa lmon/trout theory', which suggested that the greater density of Jomon sites in northeastern Japan could be linked to greater availability of dog salmon (Oncorynchus keta) and trout (O. masou) in this area. Many archaeologists disputed this theory on the grounds that bones of salm on were very rarely recovered during archaeological excavations. Fine sieving of deposits does, however, enable salmon bones to be recovered , as the author has demonstrated on many archaeological sites. The var ying frequencies of salmon bones on different sites enables those site s to be classified into four types: A, producing complete vertebrae on ly; B, producing vertebral fragments; C, producing vertebral fragments , and cranial elements; and D, producing complete vertebrae and crania l elements. Differential preservation is argued not to be responsible; it is argued that different patterns of capture, processing, storage, transport and consumption have caused the pattern.