ABSTRACT
The discovery of pit-traps has provided Jomon research -with primary evidence of hunting activities in open fields outside settlements. Hunting, one of the most important subsistence activities of the Jomon economy, did not remain static in terms of either the methods employed or its importance in the subsistence economy of the Jomon period. Paradoxically, the comparative importance of hunting as a subsistence activity declined precisely during those prosperous periods that are characterized by an increasing number of settlements, and an enlargement in their scale.
