Hostname: page-component-669899f699-g7b4s Total loading time: 0 Render date: 2025-04-25T23:34:56.391Z Has data issue: false hasContentIssue false
  • English
  • Français

Reconstruction of Prehistoric and Medieval Dietary Patterns in the Russian Far East: A Review of Current Data

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  23 February 2016

Yaroslav V Kuzmin
Yaroslav V Kuzmin*
Affiliation:
Institute of Geology & Mineralogy, Siberian Branch of the Russian Academy of Sciences, Novosibirsk 630090, Russia; also Tomsk State University, Tomsk 634050, Russia. Email: kuzmin@fulbrightmail.org
Get access Rights & Permissions [Opens in a new window]

Abstract

An overview of current knowledge on the human paleodiet of the southern Russian Far East is presented. The earliest data are available for the Neolithic complexes of Primorye Province, dated to ~7000–5800 BP. For 10 humans from the coastal site of Boisman 2, a heavy reliance on marine fish and mammals (~70–80% of the total diet) has been established; this is similar to the Jomon and Chulmun complexes of Hokkaido Island and Korea. For two individuals from the inland site of Chertovy Vorota, a mixture of terrestrial and riverine (including anadromous species such as salmon, ~25% of the total diet) food resources is evident. In the Amur River basin, the diet of the Paleometal (i.e. Bronze/Early Iron Ages) population (dated to ~2500–1800 BP) was probably based on a mixture of C4 plants (millet, ~50–60% of the total diet), C3 plants, and terrestrial animals, while in the Middle Ages (~1500–300 BP) the contribution of C4 food was lower at ~20–25%. On Sakhalin Island, the maritime-oriented economy existed for a long time, at least since the Late Neolithic/Paleometal Age (dated to ~2500–1800 BP) and until the ethnographic time period (from the 17th–18th centuries AD onwards). Up to ~80–90% of the diet consisted of marine mammals and fish, and this is in accord with dietary patterns of the Epi-Jomon and Okhotsk cultural complexes on Hokkaido Island. Information on the paleodiet of the coastal populations of the Japan and Okhotsk Seas should be taken into account when calibration of 14C dates run on human bones from these regions is undertaken, because the predominant consumption of marine food caused a distortion of the true 14C age.

Type
Articles
Information
Radiocarbon , Volume 57 , Issue 4 , 2015 , pp. 571 - 580
Copyright
Copyright © 2015 by the Arizona Board of Regents on behalf of the University of Arizona 

Access options

Get access to the full version of this content by using one of the access options below. (Log in options will check for institutional or personal access. Content may require purchase if you do not have access.)

Article purchase

Temporarily unavailable

References

REFERENCES

Andreeva, ZV, editor. 2005. Rossiisky Dalny Vostok v Drevnosti i Srednevekovye: Otkrytiya, Problemy, Gipotezy [The Russian Far East in Prehistory and the Medieval Times: Discoveries, Problems, and Hypotheses]. Vladivostok: Dalnauka Publishers. 696 p.Google Scholar
Atahan, P, Dodson, J, Li, X, Zhou, X, Chen, L, Barry, L, Bertuch, F. 2014. Temporal trends in millet consumption in northern China. Journal of Archaeological Science 50:171–7.Google Scholar
Barton, L, Newsome, SD, Chen, F-H, Wang, H, Guilderson, TP, Bettinger, RL. 2009. Agricultural origins and the isotopic identity of domestication in northern China. Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences of the USA 106(14):5523–8.Google Scholar
Choy, K, Richards, MP. 2010. Isotopic evidence for diet in the Middle Chulmun period: a case study from the Tongsamdong shell midden, Korea. Archaeological and Anthropological Sciences 2(1):1–10.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Choy, K, An, D, Richards, MP. 2012. Stable isotopic analysis of human and faunal remains from the Incipient Chulmun (Neolithic) shell midden site of Ando Island, Korea. Journal of Archaeological Science 39(7):2091–7.Google Scholar
Crawford, GW, Takamiya, H. 1990. The origins and implications of late prehistoric plant husbandry in northern Japan. Antiquity 64(245):889–911.Google Scholar
D'Andrea, AC, Crawford, GW, Yoshizaki, M, Kudo, T. 1995. Late Jomon cultigens in northeastern Japan. Antiquity 69(262):146–52.Google Scholar
DeNiro, M. 1985. Postmortem preservation and alteration of in vivo bone collagen isotope ratios in relation to palaeodietary reconstruction. Nature 317(6040):806–9.Google Scholar
Fitzhugh, WW, Dubreuil, CO, editors. 1999. Ainu: Spirit of a Northern People. Washington, DC: Smithsonian Institution Press. 415 p.Google Scholar
Hou, L, Hu, Y, Zhao, X, Li, S, Wie, D, Hou, Y, Hu, B, Lv, P, Li, T, Song, G, Wang, C. 2013. Human subsistence strategy at Liuzhuang site, Henan, China during the proto-Shang culture (~2000-1600 BC) by stable isotopic analysis. Journal of Archaeological Science 40(5):2344–51.Google Scholar
Kong, GS, Lee, CW. 2005. Marine reservoir corrections (ΔR) for southern coastal waters of Korea. The Sea, Journal of Korean Society for Oceanography 10(2):124–8. In Korean with English abstract.Google Scholar
Kusaka, S, Yodo, F, Yumoto, T, Nakatsukasa, M. 2010. Carbon and nitrogen stable isotope analysis on the diet of Jomon populations from two coastal regions of Japan. Journal of Archaeological Science 37(8):1968–77.Google Scholar
Kuzmin, YV. 1997. Vertebrate animal remains from prehistoric and Medieval settlements in Primorye (Russian Far East). International Journal of Osteoarchaeology 7(2):172–80.Google Scholar
Kuzmin, YV. 2006. Palaeoeconomy of the Russian Far East (Stone Age complexes). In: Nelson, SM, Derevianko, AP, Kuzmin, YV, Bland, RL, editors. Archaeology of the Russian Far East: Essays in Stone Age Prehistory. Oxford: Archaeopress. p 167–73.Google Scholar
Kuzmin, YV. 2009. Prehistoric maritime adaptation on the Pacific coast of Russia: results and problems of geoarchaeological research. North Pacific Prehistory 3:115–39.Google Scholar
Kuzmin, YV. 2012. Radiocarbon chronology for prehistoric complexes of the Russian Far East: 15 years later. Radiocarbon 54(3):727–36.Google Scholar
Kuzmin, YV. 2013. The beginnings of prehistoric agriculture in the Russian Far East: current evidence and concepts. Documenta Praehistorica 40:1–12.Google Scholar
Kuzmin, YV, Rakov, VA. 2011. Environment and prehistoric humans on the Russian Far East and neighbouring East Asia: main patterns of interaction. Quaternary International 237(1–2):103–8.Google Scholar
Kuzmin, YV, Burr, GS, Jull, AJT. 2001. Radiocarbon reservoir correction ages in the Peter the Great Gulf, Sea of Japan, and eastern coast of the Kunashir, southern Kuriles (northwestern Pacific). Radiocarbon 43(2A):477–81.Google Scholar
Kuzmin, YV, Richards, MP, Yoneda, M. 2002. Palaeodietary patterning and radiocarbon dating of Neolithic populations in the Primorye Province, Russian Far East. Ancient Biomolecules 7(4):48–53.Google Scholar
Kuzmin, YV, Richards, M, Bolotin, DP. 2003. Dieta naseleniya Zeisko-Bureinskoi ravniny (Priamurye) v rannem zheleznom veke i srednevekovye (po dannym izotopnogo sostava ugleroda i azota v kollagene kostei) [Diet of the population of Zeya-Bureya Plain (Amur River basin) in the Early Iron Age and the Middle Ages (based on isotope composition of carbon and nitrogen in bone collagen)]. In: Matveeva, NP, editor. Ekologiya Drevnikh i Sovremennykh Obshchestv. Vypusk 2. Tuymen: Izdatelstvo IPOS SO RAN. p 132–3. In Russian.Google Scholar
Kuzmin, YV, Vasilevski, AA, Gorbunov, SV, Burr, GS, Jull, AJT, Orlova, LA, Shubina, OA. 2004. Chronology of prehistoric cultural complexes of Sakhalin Island (Russian Far East). Radiocarbon 46(1):353–62.Google Scholar
Kuzmin, YV, Burr, GS, Gorbunov, SV, Rakov, VA, Razjigaeva, NG. 2007a. A tale of two seas: reservoir age correction values (R, ΔR) for the Sakhalin Island (Sea of Japan and Okhotsk Sea). Nuclear Instruments and Methods in Physics Research B 259(1):460–2.Google Scholar
Kuzmin, YV, Gorbunov, SV, Richards, MP, Vasilevski, AA. 2007b. Diet of prehistoric and ethnographic coastal human populations of the Sakhalin Island (Russian Far East). In: Kharinsky, AV, editor. The Ethnohistory and Archaeology of Northern Eurasia: Theory, Methods and Practice. Irkutsk: Irkutsk State Technical University Press. p 332–6.Google Scholar
Kuzmin, YV, Keally, CT, Jull, AJT, Burr, GS, Klyuev, NA. 2012. The earliest surviving textiles in East Asia from Chertovy Vorota Cave, Primorye Province, Russian Far East. Antiquity 86(332):325–37.Google Scholar
Lanehart, RE, Tykot, RH, Underhill, AP, Luan, F, Yu, H, Fang, H, Fengshu, C, Feinman, G, Nicholas, L. 2011. Dietary adaptation during the Longshan period in China: stable isotope analyses at Liangchengzhen (southeastern Shandong). Journal of Archaeological Science 38(9):2171–81.Google Scholar
Liu, X, Jones, MK, Zhao, Z, Liu, G, O'Connell, TC. 2012. The earliest evidence of millet as a staple food: new light on Neolithic foodways in North China. American Journal of Physical Anthropology 149(2):283–90.Google Scholar
Ma, MM, Dong, GH, Lightfoot, E, Wang, H, Liu, XY, Jia, X, Zhang, KR, Chen, FH. 2014. Stable isotope analysis of human and faunal remains in the Western Loess Plateau, approximately 2000 cal BC. Archaeometry 56(Supplement):237–55.Google Scholar
Mikishin, YA, Popov, AN, Petrenko, TI, Rakov, VA, Orlova, LA, Jull, AJT. 2001. Development of coastal environments on Boisman Bay (Peter the Great Bay, southern Primorye) during the Holocene. In: Kasyanov, VL, editor. Reports of the International Workshop on the Global Change Studies in the Far East. Vladivostok: Dalnauka Publishers. p 58–71.Google Scholar
Minagawa, M, Akazawa, T. 1992. Dietary patterns of Japanese Jomon hunters-gatherers: stable carbon and nitrogen isotope analyses of human bones. In: Aikens, CM, Rhee, SN, editors. Pacific Northeast Asia in Prehistory: Hunters–Fishers–Gatherers, Farmers, and Sociopolitical Elites. Pullman: Washington State University Press. p 59–67.Google Scholar
Naito, YI, Honch, NV, Chikaraishi, Y, Ohkouchi, N, Yoneda, M. 2010. Quantitative evaluation of marine protein contribution in ancient diets based on nitrogen isotope ratios of individual amino acids in bone collagen: an investigation at the Kitakogane Jomon site. American Journal of Physical Anthropology 143(1):31–40.Google Scholar
Nakamura, T, Nishida, I, Takada, H, Okuno, M, Minami, M, Oda, H. 2007. Marine reservoir effect deduced from 14C dates on marine shells and terrestrial remains at archeological sites in Japan. Nuclear Instruments and Methods in Physics Research B 259(1):453–9.Google Scholar
Pechenkina, EA, Ambrose, SH, Ma, X, Benfler, RA Jr. 2005. Reconstructing northern Chinese Neolithic subsistence practices by isotopic analysis. Journal of Archaeological Science 32(8):1176–89.Google Scholar
Popov, AN, Yesner, DR. 2006. Early maritime adaptation on the southern coast of the Far East of Russia in ancient times. In: Peterson, DL, Popova, LM, Smith, AT, editors. Beyond the Steppe and the Sown. Leiden: Brill. p 469–76.Google Scholar
Popov, AN, Tabarev, AV, Mikishin, YA. 2014. Neolithization and ancient landscapes in southern Primorye, Russian Far East. Journal of World Prehistory 27(3–4):247–61.Google Scholar
Richards, MP, Hedges, REM. 1999. Stable isotope evidence for similarities in the types of marine foods used by late Mesolithic humans at sites along the Atlantic coast of Europe. Journal of Archaeological Science 26(6):717–22.Google Scholar
Roksandic, Z, Minagawa, M, Akazawa, T. 1988. Comparative analysis of dietary habits between Jomon and Ainu hunter-gatherers from stable carbon isotopes of human bone. Journal of Anthropological Society of Nippon 96(4):391–404.Google Scholar
Tabarev, AV. 2014. The later prehistory of the Russian Far East. In: Renfrew, C, Bahn, P, editors. The Cambridge World Prehistory. Volume 2: East Asia and the Americas. New York: Cambridge University Press. p 852–69.Google Scholar
Tsutaya, T, Sawada, J, Dodo, Y, Mukai, H, Yoneda, M. 2013. Isotopic evidence of dietary variability in subadults at the Usu-moshiri site of the Epi-Jomon culture, Japan. Journal of Archaeological Science 40(11):3914–25.Google Scholar
Tsutaya, T, Naito, YI, Ishida, H, Yoneda, M. 2014. Carbon and nitrogen isotope analyses of human and dog diet in the Okhotsk culture: perspectives from the Moyoro site, Japan. Anthropological Science 122(2):89–99.Google Scholar
Vasilevsky, AA, Shubina, OA. 2006. Neolithic of the Sakhalin and southern Kurile Islands. In: Nelson, SM, Derevianko, AP, Kuzmin, YV, Bland, RL, editors. Archaeology of the Russian Far East: Essays in Stone Age Prehistory. Oxford: Archaeopress. p 151–66.Google Scholar
Yoneda, M, Kitagawa, H, van der Plicht, J, Uchida, M, Tanaka, A, Uehiro, T, Shibata, Y, Morita, M, Ohno, T. 2000. Pre-bomb reservoir ages in the western North Pacific: preliminary result on Kyoto University collection. Nuclear Instruments and Methods in Physics Research B 172(1–4):377–81.Google Scholar
Yoneda, M, Tanaka, A, Shibata, Y, Morita, M. 2002. Radiocarbon marine reservoir effect in human remains from the Kitakogane site, Hokkaido, Japan. Journal of Archaeological Science 29(5):529–36.Google Scholar
Yoneda, M, Suzuki, R, Shibata, Y, Morita, M, Sukegawa, T, Shigehara, N, Akazawa, T. 2004. Isotopic evidence of inland-water fishing by a Jomon population excavated from the Boji site, Nagano, Japan. Journal of Archaeological Science 31(1):97–107.Google Scholar
Yoneda, M, Uno, H, Shibata, Y, Suzuki, R, Kumamoto, Y, Yoshida, K, Sasaki, T, Suzuki, A, Kawahata, H. 2007. Radiocarbon marine reservoir ages in the western Pacific estimated by pre-bomb molluskan shells. Nuclear Instruments and Methods in Physics Research B 259(1):432–7.Google Scholar
Yoshida, K, Hara, T, Kunikita, D, Miyazaki, Y, Sasaki, T, Yoneda, M, Matsuzaki, H. 2010. Pre-bomb marine reservoir ages in the western Pacific. Radiocarbon 52(3):1197–206.Google Scholar
Zhang, Q, Feng, E, Zhu, H. 2009. Paleodiet studies using stable carbon and nitrogen isotopes from human bone: an example from the Troitskiy cemetery of Mohe, far-eastern Russia. Acta Anthropologica Sinica 28(3):300–5. In Chinese with English abstract.Google Scholar
Zhushchikhovskaya, IS. 2006. Neolithic of the Primorye. In: Nelson, SM, Derevianko, AP, Kuzmin, YV, Bland, RL, editors. Archaeology of the Russian Far East: Essays in Stone Age Prehistory. Oxford: Archaeopress. p 101–22.Google Scholar