| Some constituent elements of ethnic whaling in the North
Pacific-Bering Sea region can be traced back to the ancient times before
the 13th century. Heizer(1943), comparing ethnic whalings in the region,
defined Japan from Honshu to Kyushu as an area of both netting and harpoon-line-float
methods, and Hokkaido, Kuril Islands, Kamchatka, Aleutian Islands and Kodiak
as a poisoned-lance area. After half a century we are now rewriting the
whaling history of the region by the accumulation of archaeological materials. The oldest toggle harpoon heads in Japan are from the Initial Jomon period sites, but the examples with a plenty of marine mammal remains are only from the Early Jomon period (c.4000-3000 B.C.) on. Toggle harpoon heads of the Jomon period are distributed from the coast of Hokkaido to the eastcoast of Honshu, and Tsushima facing the Korean Strait. Though the Mawaki site is located in the Hokuriku districts on the coast of the Japan Sea, an undistributed zone of harpoon heads, numerous dolphin bones and stone spear points were excavated from the Jomon stratums, mainly of the later Early to early Middle Jomon period, at the site. In this area, as the presence of many stone weights shows, netting developed very well instead of hooks or harpoon methods. I wish to explicate the variety of ancient whaling in connection with the subsistence system of hunting, fishing, gathering and others in each area. (IBI REPORTS, 4:49-56, 1993) |
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