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

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-sca...

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Main Authors: Sakahira, Fumihiro, Tsumura, Hiroomi
Format: Article
Language:English
Published: Peer Community In 2024-04-01
Series:Peer Community Journal
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Online Access:https://peercommunityjournal.org/articles/10.24072/pcjournal.409/
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author Sakahira, Fumihiro
Tsumura, Hiroomi
author_facet Sakahira, Fumihiro
Tsumura, Hiroomi
author_sort Sakahira, Fumihiro
collection DOAJ
description 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.
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institution Kabale University
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spelling doaj-art-4a725543e4dc4e1287a78a4d639603d82025-02-07T10:17:18ZengPeer Community InPeer Community Journal2804-38712024-04-01410.24072/pcjournal.40910.24072/pcjournal.409Social Network Analysis of Ancient Japanese Obsidian Artifacts Reflecting Sampling Bias Reduction Sakahira, Fumihiro0https://orcid.org/0000-0002-1228-4069Tsumura, Hiroomi1Faculty of Information Science and Technology, Osaka Institute of TechnologyFaculty of Culture and Information Science, Doshisha UniversityThis 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.https://peercommunityjournal.org/articles/10.24072/pcjournal.409/social network analysis, obsidian artifact, DBSCAN, clustering, ancient Japan, Jomon period
spellingShingle Sakahira, Fumihiro
Tsumura, Hiroomi
Social Network Analysis of Ancient Japanese Obsidian Artifacts Reflecting Sampling Bias Reduction
Peer Community Journal
social network analysis, obsidian artifact, DBSCAN, clustering, ancient Japan, Jomon period
title Social Network Analysis of Ancient Japanese Obsidian Artifacts Reflecting Sampling Bias Reduction
title_full Social Network Analysis of Ancient Japanese Obsidian Artifacts Reflecting Sampling Bias Reduction
title_fullStr Social Network Analysis of Ancient Japanese Obsidian Artifacts Reflecting Sampling Bias Reduction
title_full_unstemmed Social Network Analysis of Ancient Japanese Obsidian Artifacts Reflecting Sampling Bias Reduction
title_short Social Network Analysis of Ancient Japanese Obsidian Artifacts Reflecting Sampling Bias Reduction
title_sort social network analysis of ancient japanese obsidian artifacts reflecting sampling bias reduction
topic social network analysis, obsidian artifact, DBSCAN, clustering, ancient Japan, Jomon period
url https://peercommunityjournal.org/articles/10.24072/pcjournal.409/
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