During this period, people made their living mainly with hunting, fishing, and gathering, but the excavation and research in some places, such as the Sannai-Maruyama Archaeological Site (in Aomori Prefecture), revealed that people had already begun cultivating and had enjoyed plentiful diets, so our perspective on this period is changing.
この時代、人々はおもに狩猟、漁労、採集によって生活していたが、三内丸山遺跡（青森県）などの発掘調査結果によると、この時代すでに栽培が行われ、人々は豊かな食生活をしていたことが明らかになり、時代観も変わりつつある。