Hamanaka 2 is a multicomponent archaeological site on Rebun Island, Hokkaido province, Japan. The site is located on a sand dune at the mouth of the Osawa River at Funadomori Bay. It has occupations dated between 1430 BC-AD 1000.
Cultural evidence at Hamanaka 2 indicate that it has both Okhotsk culture and Jomon tradition occupations. The Okhotsk (500-1000 AD) occupation includes a housepit and eight human burials. The house pit contained abundant artifacts and faunal remains, including domestic dog.
Jomon at Hamanaka 2
The main Jomon occupation belongs to the Late Jomon period, dated by AMS radiocarbon to between 1430-1300 BC. The Late Jomon site includes 35 hearths, and abundant bird and pinniped bones. Pinnipeds in evidence include Japanese sea lion, Steller's sea lion, and Northern fur seal.
Many pottery vessels were in evidence as sherds; and stone tools and many pieces of debitage were recovered. Excavators have interpreted the Late Jomon occupation to be a pinniped butchering site, of animals hunted from a nearby sea lion rookery.
Sources
This glossary entry is a part of the About.com Guide to the Jomon, and part of the Dictionary of Archaeology.
Hamanaka 2 was excavated in the 1990s by the National Museum of Japanese History.
Sakaguchi, Takashi. 2007. Refuse patterning and behavioral analysis in a pinniped hunting camp in the Late Jomon Period: A case study in layer V at the Hamanaka 2 site, Rebun Island, Hokkaido, Japan. Journal of Anthropological Archaeology 26(1):28-46.
