Ancient Ryukyu: An Archaeological Study of Island Communities

10. Discussion and Conclusions

273 Chapter 10 Discussion and Conclusions The main subject of this book has been the archaeological exploration of human communities living on the island arc of the Ryukyus including their migrations, adaptations, interaction, and islandscapes. So far, human fossils are dated to roughly 30,000 to 14,000 BC, although we know virtually nothing about the cultural adaptations, population dynamics, or subsistence practices of the Pleistocene inhabitants of the islands. As island hunter-gatherers, Ryukyuans survived for thousands of years in small communities, dying out on more than one occasion. Repeated migration from surrounding areas was significant for their survival. It is possible that they experimented with growing root crops and pig raising before adopting cereal cultivation. Integration into regional trade networks led to the rise of a substantial trading kingdom with a distinctive civilization within East Asia that took advantage of a special geopolitical location. Island Communities More than ten distinctive human population inputs into the Ryukyu Islands from the north, south, and west during the total time period of human habitation can be traced archaeologically. These include Palaeolithic and Jōmon migrants , one or possibly two migrations from the south to the Sakishima Islands, and later groups of traders, officials, religious practitioners and refugees. Different stages of exploration, temporary settlement (sojourning), colonizing, and exchange have been postulated in the chapters above from distinctive configurations of archaeological data. The earliest inhabitants lived on an archipelago of fewer, larger islands than at present, until the end of the Pleistocene, when rising sea levels created the 274   Chapter 10 island chain in its present form. Holocene migrants survived as hunter-gatherers for more than eight thousand years on gathered nuts, seeds and roots, wild boar/ pigs, and diverse marine resources. Thus a variety of communities inhabited the Ryukyus from the Late Pleistocene (Table 10.1). Initial groups formed small, impermanent settlements, which later increased, and engaged in shifting patterns of interaction. Early migration from Kyushu is well documented, but there are still questions about the possibility of continental contacts raised by puzzling information on early suids. Areas with similar pottery styles contracted as population grew, and interaction among various communities was critical to survival and cultural development. Interaction in the Early Shellmound Period or Jōmon Period seems to have focused on the exchange of marriage partners or perhaps raw materials such as lithics; at any rate, it contrasts with exchange in the Late Shellmound Period, which focused on ornaments and bracelets as prestige goods. Final stages of the production of these prestige goods were completed in Kyushu; however, they were at least partially transformed before they left the Ryukyus. Substantial population inputs, along with the adoption of cultivation, which was brought into the islands by immigrants from the Japanese main islands around AD 800, led to rapid increases in social complexity and the emergence of an island kingdom. Although it might be expected that modern Ryukyuans would show physical resemblances to ancient Japanese populations such as the Ainu and Jōmon remaining in isolated areas such as these remote islands, in fact they resemble modern Japanese, as a result of a major influx in the early mediaeval period (Asato Susumu and Doi 1999). In the Gusuku and Early Ryukyu Kingdom Period interaction diversified and intensified. As an island state the Ryukyu Kingdom was linked to surrounding areas and depended on its ability to transship goods from external areas to achieve prosperity. This situation contrasts with continental territorial states, in which agrarian production, landownership, and raw materials such as metals were the basis of cultural development and political power. Archaeological research has documented the establishment of a Ryukyuan variant of East Asian high culture. Distinctive Archaeological Patterns in the Ryukyus The extremely rich archaeological record of the Ryukyus, built up in the last fifty years, has a number of aspects of interest to archaeologists in other parts of the world. 1. The substantial collection of Pleistocene Homo sapiens from Okinawa and the southern Ryukyus is unique in Japan and very unusual in all of East Table 10.1 Communities of the Ryukyus Islands Discovered through Archaeological Research Community Time Period Archaeological Evidence Central, Southern Ryukyus: Palaeolithic ca. 32,000 to 18,000 BP Homo sapiens skeletal remains. hunter-gatherers. (Chapter 3) Central Ryukyus: Explorers. (Chapter 4) 5000 to 6000 cal BC Scattered surface finds of artifacts. Kakoinohara-type adzes. Central Ryukyus: Sojourners. Short-term 4000 to 6000 cal BC...