Vegetation changes and human activities around the eastern part of the Musashino Upland during the last 6000 years were reconstructed from plant fossil assemblages and pollen influx at the Tameike Site, and seven vegetation stages were established accordingly. At ca. 6000 yr B.P., dissected valleys formed drowned valleys around the Tameike Site, and deciduous broad-leaved forests dominated by Quercus subgen. Lepidobalanus flourished. Since ca. 4000 yr B.P., Castanea forests expanded on the upland with swamp forests in the dissected valleys. At ca. 3200 yr B.P., the vegetation on the upland changed into evergreen broad-leaved forests dominated by Quercus subgen. Cyclobalanopsis. The pollen influx suggested a decrease of forests by human activities since ca. 2600 yr B.P. After the Yayoi Period, forests declined gradually and changed into sparse copse at about 1000 yr B.P. Since ca. 1000 yr B.P., forests on the upland recovered, but changed into sparse forests again after the 14th century, and Pinus forests expanded after that. At the beginning of the 18th century, the shore of the Tameike pond was buried rapidly with domestic garbage, such as edible plants and garden trees.

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To clarify consumption of timber resources around the Edo Castle, the species composition of wooden artefacts at five arechaeological sites, Tameike, Shiodome, Yokokawa Icchome, Koutou-bashi Nichome, and Kinshicho- eki Kita-guchi II Sites, are compared. Though these sites differed in proprietor and geographical situation, their artefacts were characterized with frequent usage of Chamaecypris obtusa, weak selection for construction timber, and common selection for ‘geta’ sandals. The large consumption of cupressaceous timber for wooden artefacts disagreed with the scarcity of timber resources in the Japanese archipelago pointed out from the literature of forestry history. Preference for specificic coniferous taxa and their large consumption are not just the characteristics of the early modern Edo area, but are common characteristics of large cities, such as Kamakura of the Middle Age or the Heijo Palace of the Ancinet Age. Timber species with large additional value, such as Chmaecyparis obtusa, must have been selectively trasported to early modern Edo, balancing the efficiency and high cost of trasportation, and consumers must have selected timber according to their budget and timber price. The species compositon of the five sites reflected the early modern consumer economy developed at Edo based on the nationwide timber supply and transportation.

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Habitat of a Late Glacial coniferous forest was reconstructed based on plant macrofossil assemblages including autochthonous moss fossils buried just below the As-YP pumice (13,320 ± 130 – 13,710 ± 130 yr B.P.) at Minami-Karuizawa, central Japan. A coniferous forest consisting of Picea sect. Picea and Pinus pumila was reconstructed with forest floor vegetation of Sphagnum girgensohnii, Pleurozium schreberi, and other forest mosses. Along microtopographic gradients on the forest floor, Pleurozium schreberi dominant on the forest floor of the present subalpine coniferous forest in Japan was distributed only on convexity and slope. On the other hand, Sphagnum girgensohnii now limited in wet concavity dominated both on concavity and whole flat areas. Forest floor vegetation dominated by Sphagnum girgensohnii is now distributed in Picea glehnii–Pinus pumila forests in the Numanohara Bog, Hokkaido. Thus the Late Glacial coniferous forest at Minami-Karuizawa probably grew on a wet habitat.

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