Reexamining Ceramic Standardization During Agricultural Transition: A Geometric Morphometric Investigation of Initial – Early Yayoi Earthenware, Japan

Abstract The quantifiable and reproducible representation of variability in material culture has continued to play a key role in the elucidation of shifting patterns of production organization in prehistoric archaeology. The study of standardization of ceramics has traditionally illuminated on how agents shift means of production to a common goal. However, while geometric morphometric (GMM) approaches to standardization quantification overcome issues of reproducibility faced in traditional literature, the lack of widespread radiocarbon dating in Japan requires adherence to traditional methods of temporal control. This study seeks to extrapolate ceramic standardization in a quantifiable means, while also maintaining temporal control utilizing traditional methods. In a pilot case study of the agricultural transition period of the Yayoi period of the Japanese peninsula (∼900/800 BC–300 BC), results of mortuary vessels show that while a previous model based on visually determined traditional methods assumed that ceramic manufacture was centralized in the Hakata Bay subregion of the northern Kyushu island region; utilizing GMM analysis to extrapolate variable standardization is able to identify a decline in morphological variation, despite increases in population density and potential variability between migrant and indigenous production patterns. These results further illuminate the strong correlation between production intensity and its effect on standardization practices in material culture production, as seen in modern ethnoarchaeological literature.