[4] It is suggested that the bear cult, a practice shared by various Northern Eurasian peoples, the Ainu and the Nivkhs, was an important element of the Okhotsk culture but was uncommon in Jomon period Japan.

[10] The Nihon Shoki (AD 720) includes the following entry for the year 544: At Cape Minabe, on the northern side of the Island of Sado, there arrived men of Su-shen in a boat and stayed there.

The anachronistic use of ‘Sushen’ in Japanese records a thousand years after the name was first used in China was an attempt to give legitimacy to Japan's early state.

In the Japanese context, the term Sushen is probably best interpreted as a traditional label for a ‘northern people’ rather than a specific ethnic group from Manchuria.

[11] During the reign of the empress Saimei (r. 655–661), Abe no Omi, Warden of the province of Koshi (modern-day Hokuriku region), was sent on several military expeditions to the north by the Yamato state based in western Japan.

Given the concurrent combination of economic, social and environmental factors constraining habitation of this region, Okhotsk populations may simply have chosen to abandon their settlements in the Kuril Islands.

[14] Morphological studies of the skeletal remains of the Okhotsk people have suggested broad similarity to populations currently living around the Amur Basin and in northern Sakhalin, but also hinting to a more heterogenous makeup.

[16] A distinctive trait of the Okhotsk culture was its subsistence strategy, traditionally categorised as a specialised system of marine resource gathering.

[17] This is in accord with the geographic distribution of archeological sites in coastal regions and confirmed by studies of animal remains and tools, that pointed to intensive marine hunting, fishing, and gathering activities.

[18] Stable nitrogen isotope studies in human remains also point to a diet with rich protein intake derived from marine organisms.

There is also evidence of the use of cultivation of barley and foraging of wild plants, including Aralia, Polygonum, Actinidia, Vitis, Sambucus, crowberry, Rubus sp., Phellodendron amurense, and Juglans.

The available archaeological and documentary evidence, therefore, lends little support to suggestions that the Okhotsk people were heavily involved in trading sea mammal products to Manchuria or Japan.

Phosphate chemical analysis of the residue reveals a high content of phosphorus, which indicates an animal origin of organic matter rich in fat.

This phenomenon may be explained by social, ecological, and technological changes that occurred in the late stage of the Okhotsk culture, spanning the 10th to 13th centuries.

Considering the harsh climatic conditions of Sakhalin, which is problematic for pottery making, the gradual decline of this craft with the arrival of metal pots is likely.

Many Okhotsk Culture sites also contain abundant evidence for a much wider repertoire of elaborate and deeply respectful animal-related mythology, including animal burials, clusters of animal bones subjected to ritualised treatments, with some clusters found in association with elaborate carved objects, that together may have been utilised as part of specific rituals.

In and around these shell middens, animals, plants, tools, and other objects important to the Ainu are deposited – and sent back to the deities – through the celebration of sending rites.

This tradition aligns well with the material culture and settlement patterning witnessed at numerous Okhotsk sites, where shell middens accumulate around the habitats and other social spaces.

Plenty of material evidence suggests that rituals were performed around these areas, and for instance at the Hamanaka 2 site several human and dog burials were documented in shell midden contexts.