We thank J. Yuan for permission to examine pharyngeal remains from Jiahu, Z. Li and P. Lü for photographs of the pharyngeal teeth, Ō. Nishizawa and Matsukawa Village office for permission to measure carp from Matsukawa, and Y. Fujioka for advice concerning carp aquaculture. The research leading to these results has received funding from JSPS KAKENHI Grants (nos. 22401002 and 26300004), the NEOMAP project of the Research Institute for Humanity and Nature (no. H-04), the European Research Council under the European Union’s Horizon 2020 research and innovation programme (grant no. 646612), the Sainsbury Institute for the Study of Japanese Arts and Cultures (7th Handa Japanese Archaeology Fellowship under the International Jomon Culture Conference), National Basic Research Program of China (grant no. 2015CB53802) and National Natural Science Foundation of China (grant no. 41472148).