Section: Archaeology
Topic: Archaeology, Anthropology

Social Network Analysis of Ancient Japanese Obsidian Artifacts Reflecting Sampling Bias Reduction

Sakahira, Fumihiro1  ; Tsumura, Hiroomi2
1 Faculty of Information Science and Technology, Osaka Institute of Technology
2 Faculty of Culture and Information Science, Doshisha University

Corresponding author(s): Sakahira, Fumihiro (fumihiro.sakahira@oit.ac.jp)

10.24072/pcjournal.409 - Peer Community Journal, Volume 4 (2024), article no. e42.

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This study aims to investigate the dynamics of obsidian trade networks during the Jomon period (15,000–2,400 years cal BP), the hunting and gathering era in Japan. To improve regional representation and reduce the distortions caused by small sample sizes, we performed clustering based on a large-scale dataset and conducted social network analysis. The research results revealed that the trade networks during the Jomon period were not constant; they expanded throughout the southern Kanto region during the Middle Jomon period (5,500–4,500 years cal BP) and ceased to function during the Late Jomon period (4,500–3,200 years cal BP). Furthermore, to enhance the readability and interpretability of the dataset, we implemented clustering using the density-based spatial clustering of applications with noise (DBSCAN) method. The results showed that in every time division of the Jomon period, the mean intra-cluster cosine similarity of each cluster was higher than the similarity between sites outside the clusters, confirming the reasonableness of an analysis considering regional representation. In addition, to verify the robustness of the network in the social network analysis after clustering, we also performed a bootstrap simulation analysis. The results showed high network robustness and demonstrated that the sampling after clustering had minimal impact on this study’s findings.

Published online:
DOI: 10.24072/pcjournal.409
Type: Research article
Keywords: social network analysis, obsidian artifact, DBSCAN, clustering, ancient Japan, Jomon period

Sakahira, Fumihiro 1; Tsumura, Hiroomi 2

1 Faculty of Information Science and Technology, Osaka Institute of Technology
2 Faculty of Culture and Information Science, Doshisha University
License: CC-BY 4.0
Copyrights: The authors retain unrestricted copyrights and publishing rights 
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     title = {Social {Network} {Analysis} of {Ancient} {Japanese} {Obsidian} {Artifacts} {Reflecting} {Sampling} {Bias} {Reduction}},
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Sakahira, Fumihiro; Tsumura, Hiroomi. Social Network Analysis of Ancient Japanese Obsidian Artifacts Reflecting Sampling Bias Reduction. Peer Community Journal, Volume 4 (2024), article  no. e42. doi : 10.24072/pcjournal.409. https://peercommunityjournal.org/articles/10.24072/pcjournal.409/

PCI peer reviews and recommendation, and links to data, scripts, code and supplementary information: 10.24072/pci.archaeo.100335

Conflict of interest of the recommender and peer reviewers:
The recommender in charge of the evaluation of the article and the reviewers declared that they have no conflict of interest (as defined in the code of conduct of PCI) with the authors or with the content of the article.

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