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The Noguni Shell Mound is an archaeological site located on the central-west coast of Okinawa, Kadena, Nakagami District, Japan. The site was excavated in 1981, and it is one of a cluster of three sites comprising the Noguni Shell Mound Group. Locality A, largely destroyed by dredging, dates to the Late Shell Mound Period and yielded Kaigen Tsūhō coins, while Locality C has yielded sherds of the Ōyama and Iha Types of the Late Shellmound Period. Noguni B is situated in a low-lying dune at an elevation above sea level of 0 to 2 m. The excavators did not find features such as houses. The site is significant for its very early cultural layers, which offer insight into the life of early inhabitants of the Ryukyu Islands.

Pottery and Tools

The cultural layer at Noguni Shell Mound is about 2 meters thick and was composed of seven layers. Below Layer I was the undisturbed primary cultural deposit, and four periods are represented by different groups of pottery. Layer Ib was a mixed deposit of artifacts from various periods and pottery of the end of the Early Shell Mound Period. In Layers II and III, Incised pottery (Jōkonmon) and Murokawa Lower Layer Types were chiefly found, which belong to the Early Shellmound Period II (Early Jōmon). The upper part of this layer had been damaged by construction. The layer is relatively thick, but artifacts are few. Some adzes and chert fragments were recovered. Most of the pottery was incised (Jōkonmon) Murokawa Lower Layer, and even though the site is within a few kilometers of the Toguchi Agaribaru Site, which produced a substantial amount of Sobata Type pottery, this site produced none. Layers IV and V produced about 5,700 sherds of Nail-Impressed Type pottery. The mouth is straight or outward flaring, with a gently pointed bottom and slight waist. Four subvariants were noted. Other tools included edge-polished adzes and hammerstones and whetstones for sharpening adzes. Many flakes showed the use of the hand hammer technique. Some adzes had bilateral polish. Stone tools were generally similar to those from Toguchi Agaribaru. A polished shell arrowhead was also recovered from the Yabuchi Cave Site, and a polished stone arrowhead was recovered from Noguni B. "Kubomi ishi", stones with circular depressions, appear to have been used for processing nuts.

Faunal Remains

Suids

Remains of some four hundred individuals of wild boars or pigs were found in a concentrated area in Layers IV and V. Metric analysis showed that the suid bones were 10% smaller than those of modern Ryukyu wild boars. It is not clear whether or not they were domesticated. A study of the diet of the suids, using analysis of stable carbon and nitrogen isotopes from collagen suggested that some of the animals had been fed on plants such as grasses and grains such as rice, millet, barley, and wheat. The wide vertical range of the isotope 15N values suggests that plants from both groups were consumed. A separate small group of Sus found in the Ryukyu sites had similar 13C/15N values to wild animals in the Japanese main islands. To explain all of this variability, researchers concluded that some of the pigs must have been domesticated and traded to the Ryukyus, and those with lower values of the isotope 15N must have been allowed to become feral. At the time of the Noguni B site, the only human groups with domesticated C4 plants and pigs in the vicinity lived in coastal China.

A very large quantity of wild boar bones (some 611 individuals, 19% of which were juveniles) were found. It is suggested that these suids were introduced into the Ryukyus and were not local wild boar. Not only is there evidence that pigs in the Japanese main islands are not related to wild boar in the Japanese main islands, but there is evidence that at least some ancient domesticated pig in the Ryukyus are not descended from local wild boar but were introduced from the Asian continent, such as the Early Shellmound Period suids from Noguni mentioned previously. These were domesticated pigs introduced to the Ryukyus from Japan or perhaps Korea. Analysis of mtDNA from a sample of 161 bone specimens from twelve archaeological sites in the Okinawa Islands ranging in date from Early Jōmon and Late Jōmon to Early Yayoi–Heian (AD 1 to 500) and recent (post–AD 1600) shows several groups of haplotypes, each with implications for relations between suids and humans. The haplotype sequences from the Early Jōmon from Kogachibaru, Noguni B, and Chiarabaru were too short to include in the total phylogenetic analysis, but some nucleotide sequences were more similar to nucleotide sequences of East Asian domestic pigs than Ryukyu and Japanese wild boar. The third finding challenges notions of gradual human migration down the Ryukyu chain. It has been proposed that from the Early Shellmound Period “wild boar” bones found in archaeological sites are actually domesticated pigs that were carried from the Asian continent. At this time period, domesticated pigs are only known from Chinese sites.

It is proposed that pigs were introduced in the Earliest Shellmound Period and that some of them lived near human sites before being killed. The suid remains from the Noguni B Shellmound now dated to around 6000 BC have relatively high 15N content, which implies that they probably ate fish and other marine resources as well as human leftovers and excrement, supporting the conclusion that some animals were kept and fed. It should be emphasized, however, that while the Noguni suids provide evidence of unusual dietary patterning, their genetic affiliation could not be determined since the specimens did not yield adequate samples of mtDNA. Based on the length and breadth of their lower third molars, the Sus specimens from the Noguni Shell Mound were distinctly smaller than modern Ryukyu wild boar. Reduction in tooth size is considered to be an indicator of domestication.

Mollusks

Research conducted at the site suggests that during the Initial Shellmound Period, shellfish utilization focused on large shellfish, such as Tectus maximus and Lunatica marmorata. While these shellfish were considered risky and costly to harvest due to their habitat, shellfish from rocky outcrops may have been the most available. The absence of reef species in Initial Shellmound Period sites is probably related to the undeveloped nature of the coral reefs at this time. Magakigai (Conomurex liukiuanus), a small gastropod that lives in lagoons, predominated in Noguni B. It is believed that, although the areas were small, lagoons had formed by this period.