Abstract
Red elderberry (Sambucus racemosa) is considered as one of highly used plants in the Jomon period, judging from frequent findings of its stones at many Jomon sites. Use of red elderberry fruits in the Jomon period is still enigmatic since the fruits and stones contain cyanide-producing glycosides, rendering them toxic. Although red elderberry brewing has been argued, no experimental research has been conducted. Thus, we studied 1) the possibility of red elderberry brewing with other fruits, 2) the contexts and status of excavated red elderberries from the archaeobotanical database in Japan, 3) worldwide ethnological cases of elderberry use, and 4) nutritional values of fruits of S. racemosa subsp. kamtschatica. We found that 1) brewing of red elderberry produced less than 1% of alcohol, 2) 49.5% of charred stones were found from synanthropic contexts, 3) fruits of S. nigra and S. racemosa var. racemosa are used as food and medicine in the west, while in Japan, the branches are used for rituals, and 4) the fruits contain relatively high levels of vitamin C and E. These results indicated the necessity to verify the use of red elderberry in the Jomon period from two aspects, as a source of vitamins and for rituals.
