Abstract
Thirty four wooden artifacts and fifty three natural woods of the Early Jomon Period recovered from the Ireibaru C Site at Chatan Village of Okinawa Island were identified. They included twenty seven taxa. Among artifacts flat grain boards of Machilus and Melia azedarach were conspicuous. Natural woods included no typical taxa of mangrove. Common stemwood taxa were Castanopsis sieboldii, Ficus cf. erecta, Euonymus, Hibiscus tiliaceus, Fraxinus griffithii, and Ehretia cf. ovalifolia. They were accompanied by rootwoods or stemrootwoods of Machilus, Ilex, Heritiera littoralis, Barringtonia racemosa, and Fraxinus griffithii. These taxa probably formed a seaside or back mangal forest and a lower upland forest around this area. Besides these taxa indigenous to present Okinawa Island, artifacts included three coniferous taxa not growing in the present Ryukyu Islands: Cunninghamia, Chamaecyparis obtusa, and Calocedrus macrolepis. These three taxa grow together only in Taiwan at present, and two species of Cunninghamia and Calocedrus macrolepis also grow in China and Chamaecyparis obtusa in mainland Japan. Transport of these wooden artifacts to Okinawa Island from Taiwan or China during the Early Jomon Period is discussed in relation to ocean and human transport.
