Morphological and biochemical approaches were performed on the five human remains (No. 1: middle adult male, No. 2: fetus or neonatal, No. 3: young or middle adult female, No. 4: middle adult female, and No. 5: infant) excavated from the Nonomae Shellmound, Ofunato City, Iwate Prefecture. Based on the results of direct radiocarbon dating, these human remains were dated to 3150–3000 cal BP. Both morphological and mtDNA analyses revealed that they had features resembling those of the typical Jomon skeletons. The mitochondrial DNA haplogroups of three human individuals were identified (No. 1: N9b1, No. 4: N9b*, and No. 5: M7a2); it was confirmed that these three individuals were not in a maternal kinship. One of the remarkable paleopathological findings was that all the adults had exostoses of the external auditory canals; these results indicate that the Nonomae Jomon peopel were engaged in marine fishing and/or shellfish gathering activities that involved diving. The results of the carbon and nitrogen isotope ratio analysis, which suggest that the Nonomae Jomon people’s diets were based on marine resources might be related to the high prevalence of exostosis of the external auditory canal. Furthermore, all of the adults exhibited severe osteoarthritis in their cervical vertebrae, leading to the supposition that their routine behavior caused overloading of the cervical spine.

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