Postglacial anthropogenic fires related to cultural changes in central Japan, inferred from sedimentary charcoal records spanning glacial–interglacial cycles

Abstract

We examined long‐term charcoal records spanning the glacial–interglacial cycles that are evident in two cores collected from Lake Biwa in central Japan. We found that the records of the two cores have a similar long‐term variation pattern of charcoal concentrations and abundant large charcoal fragments in postglacial sediments, which indicates that frequent fires occurred near the shores of Lake Biwa during the postglacial period. Analogous natural conditions in the early postglacial period and the early part of the last interglacial period strongly suggest that the frequent fires that occurred only during the postglacial period were anthropogenic. A comparison between the charcoal records of Lake Biwa sediments and the cultural changes and human populations in this district suggests that anthropogenic fires in this district were influenced by the lifestyle and culture of each era rather than by the populations. Humans tended to use more fire at the start of the settlement during the early Neolithic era in this region, in spite of the small population size.

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