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NIHON KÔKOGAKU 13 Abstracts
[A] : Article, [RN] : Research Note, [PR] : Preliminary Report of Excavation, [ER] : Event Report, [SL] : Special Lecture
The Jomon/Yayoi Transition in Northern Honshu as Seen from Volumetric Changes in Cooking Vessels
SATO YukioAbstract:
The volumes of vessels such as round pots or deep ceramic bowls used for cooking are largely regulated by the purpose or contents of the cooking itself. Accordingly, changes in the volumetric composition of cooking gear are directly related to changes in dietary habits.
This contribution examines the composition by volume of pottery for cooking in northern Honshu from the Obora C2 of the Final Jomon to the Yayoi III ceramic periods. A decrease in the percentage of large and very large vessels of 10 liters' capacity or more was verified for the interval from the obora A to the Obora A' phases. The Obora A' phase was a time when "quasi-Ongagawa-style pottery," which had received the influence of Ongagawa-style pottery, appeared over this region. As a low ratio of large and very large vessels is one characteristic of Ongagawa-style pottery, this change was determined to be the effect of "Ongagawa-style culture." Although the distribution of Ongagawa-style pottery during the Obora A' phase was limited, as no regional differences were discerned in compositional change in vessel capacity, it is inferred that the influence of "Ongagawa-style culture" spread over the entire region in question.
It was also determined that the proportion of small vessels of 2 liters' capacity or less showed no great change, being high for every period. The high ratio of small vessels in comparison with other regions of the same period within the archipelago was ascertained to be a prominent characteristic of this region.
Keywords:
Cooking vessels; round pots and deep ceramic bowls; vessel capacity; Ongagawa-style pottery; quasi-Ongagawa-style pottery; Final Jomon to Middle Yayoi periods; Tohoku region
The Method of Cooking Rice in the Yayoi Period as Seen from Carbon Deposits and Soot
KOBAYASHI Masashi and YANASE AkihikoAbstract:
Carbon deposits and soots from the Joto site in Kurashiki city, Okayama prefecture, were analyzed for the purpose of clarifying the method of cooking rice in the Yayoi period. The Joto site was chosen because the greater portion of cooking pots have carbonized grain impressions, and accordingly were clearly used for rice cooking. As a preliminary step to reconstructing the rice-cooking method, examinations were made of the approximate number of times of use and the method of placement for each vessel. The number of times used was provisionally inferred from the frequency of marks from boiling over, and from the presence or absence of soot on the upper half of the vessel. The provisional times of use can be said to reflect the cumulative amount of received heat, and vessels with the least amount of received heat were those judged to have been used only once. As the result of examining, in order to clarify the method of placement, the scorched rice and the position of burned soot over the lower half and on the base of the vessel,it was ascertained that a ring-shaped scorched-rice trace indicates direct placement of a vessel in the flames with heat being being received laterally, and a combination of a ring-shaped plus a round scorched-rice trace or a round scorched-rice alone indicates the combination of laterally received heat from direct placement in the flames plus heat on the vessel bottom from placement over a bed of coals. In this manner, all of the vessels in the Joto materials were seen to have been used on open fires.
In order to infer the method of cooking rice, models of the patterns of carbonized materials were devised for each of the various types of traditional rice cooking methods of rice-agricultural peoples. In these ethnographic models, the attributes of the amount of boiling over, the type and frequency of scorching, the level of the water line, and the process of heating, etc., were found important for inferring the method of cooking rice. With regard to the heating process for the Jotomaterials, from an examination of pots used for cooking rice only once, it became clear that boiling over was taken as the signal for changing from high to low heat. Further, characteristics such as (1) high incidences of boiling over and scorched adhesions just below the water line, and (2) the relatively high level of the water line itself, are in accord with those of the ethnographic models for the methods of boiling until all the moisture is absorbed, or of reducing the amount of water once the pot has boiled over. As it was indicated as well, from an analysis of the Nakazaike Minami materials, that the method of boiling until all the moisture has been absorbed had diffused to the Tohoku region in the first half of the Yayoi for everybody cooking, it is thought that this method was fairly widespread in the Yayoi period.
On the other hand, the hypothesis that "kayu (rice porridge) and zoni (rice boiled with vegetables into a gruel) were central to rice cooking in the Yayoi period" is generally accepted. While no concrete basis can be shown for this view, it is thought to come from the supposition that since per-unit rice yields were low in the Yayoi, as most farmers could therefore not eat much rice they boiled it soft to increase the volume. In contrast to this, as a result of this examination of Yayoi cooking pots, the conclusion that the practice of boiling until all the moisture is absorbed was widespread in the Yayoi period suggests not only that pots specifically for cooking rice were being manufactured, but also that the amount of rice in the Yayoi diet was greater than currently supposed in the mainstream hypothesis.
Keywords:
Rice-cooking methods; carbonized materials; Joto site; Yayoi period; western Japan
Enclosure-shaped Haniwa and the House-Motif Mirror as Seen from Chiefly Residence Sites
OGASAWARA YoshihikoAbstract:
During the Kofun period, chiefs in every region built large residences from which to exercise their chiefly authority. The images of the house-motif mirror unearthed at the Samida Takarzuka tomb in Nara are regarded as closely related to the buildings that were erected at these residential sites. Four types of structures, a raised-floor residence, a ground surface-level residence, a pit-dwelling, and a raised-floor warehouse, are depicted on this mirror. Of these, the raised-floor dwelling is shown with a balcony, parasol, and a tree, and is thought to have been intended to have two birds depicted above its roof as was done for the other buildings, with the high possibility that the design was derived from tower-like buildings in pictures of the realm of the immortals on Wu Family Shrines of Han period China, and was depicted along with the other three structures as buildings associated with the departed chief in the immortals' realm.
On the other hand, there are representational haniwa of a type that may be called "enclosure-shaped" haniwa, thought to be related to facilities erected surrounding chiefly residences. Various theories have been offered for these items, that they were used to represent curtains, or pilings of rice plants around the house for defense, and so forth, and the view that they depict the enclosing wall and gate of an elite residence has also been advanced, but the situation has remained unclear. Recently, however, at Gyojazuka Kofun (Hyogo prefecture), Takarazuka No. 1 Kofun (Mie), Shionjiyama Kofun (Osaka), and elsewhere, these items have been found in haniwa placements on the mounds, and in some instances baked clay objects in the form of wooden tanks with troughs, pipe-shaped baked clay objects, and house-shaped haniwa have also been discovered in association with them. As the wooden tank and trough-shaped items are regarded as imitations of the wooden tank and trough features found at the Nango Ohigashi and Makimuku sites (Nara). the hattori site (Shiga), and elsewhere, it appears certain that enclsure-shaped haniwa were used to encircle house-shaped haniwa representing sheds standing atop water purification facilities. And as an example of a haniwa enclosure sourrounding a pipe-shaped baked clay object was unearthed at the Takarazuka No.1 tomb, it is inferred that, as in the inscription "drink the rivers and seas therof" found in Han period pictures of the realm of the immortals, it was designed to enclosure that the when the departed chief went to that realm, he would not lack of purified water to drink.
In the meantime, at least four enclosure-shaped haniwa were recovered along with a group of warehouse-style house-shaped haniwa from the eastern outer precinct at Ishiyama Kofun (Mie), and with the high probability that these are related to the inscriptions of "eat from great warehouses" in the immortals' realm pictures, it is thought that perhaps these enclosures were to guard the warehouse group placed so that the chief would not want for food in the other realm.
In this manner, it is inferred that a good number of grave goods or items which were placed on the mounds bore a close connection to chiefly residences, and were moreover related to the other world (yomi no kuni).
Keywords:
House-motif mirror; chiefly residences; raised-floor buildings; Wu Family Shrines; stone murals; pictures of the realm of the immortals; sacred trees; enclosure-shaped haniwa; wooden tank and trough-shaped baked clay objects; wooden tank and trough features; Kofun period; Japan; China
Dolmen Research: Support-Stone Burials
CHIBA MototsuguAbstract:
Research on dolmens of the Korean peninsula began with Torii Ryuzo. Later, Fujita Ryosaku also left his mark on dolmen research. It is difficult to decide whether the classification made by Torii and Fujita into table-shaped and go-board-shaped types is one derived simply from outward appearance or based on differences in structure. Nevertheless, many scholars have taken it to be a classification based on structure, and have continually repeated arguments about "which is older?" under the assumptions of a single origin and unilineal development.
On the other hand, Arimitsu Kyoichi, Seki Koshun, Komoto Masayuki, and others have recognized a third type called the Simchon dolmen, and assuming a single source with multiple lines of development have asked the question "which of these is oldest?", while arguing that table-shaped type began to be produced due to branching off at some point from other forms. Posing such questions as "which is oldest?" and "what were the techniques of manufacture and the ways these items were made?" is proper in terms archaeological methodology. But Seki did not take up the dolmens from the southern part of the Korean peninsula in his analysis, and the argument for linking Komoto's Simchon type with southern style dolmens is not convincing given the data as presently known.
Southern style dolmens utilize natural stones of moderate size to receive the capstones, and under the label of "support-stone burials" in this contribution, these are classed into "multiple support-stones of indeterminate number" and "support-stones of fixed number" types based on the way of receiving the capstones, corresponding to the traditional "unsupported capstone" versus "supported capstone" dichotomy. As part of a reevaluation of dolmen research, continuing from previous work on table-shaped dolmens, from the perspective of this new classification the techniques of manufacture of these types and the questions of "which is oldest, which developed as the newest?" are herein addressed.
As to "which is oldest?", when graves derived from the cairn-marked burial tradition of the Liaotung region of China diffused into the Korean peninsula, it is thought that their rectangular burial cysts built near the ground surface were covered with large boulders or slabs of rock. This is because Liaotung-style bronze swords have been found in large numbers in the peninsula. The Chonjeon-ri A and B cairn-marked burials in the city of Chunchon, Kangwondo, are probably examples of such burials being transmitted into the peninsula. The oldest type of support-stone burial is thought to be that in which the capstones are received by an indeterminate number of multiple support stones.
It is believed that at the time there were several regional cultures, whose exact number is uncertain, within the Korean peninsula, and it is possible that differences in support-stone burials correspond with these cultures. The Simchon type dolmen was a support-stone burial built in the western region, and accordingly it may be advisable to look for developmental change within that region. Support-stone burials were already being built by the seventh century b.c. within the peninsula, and by the time that narrow-bladed bronze swords assumed a regular shape in the fifth century b.c., burials with shapes that were different while maintaining some similarities had developed, and it is thought that the Korean peninsula was moving toward a new age.
Keywords:
Dolmens; southern style dolmens; go-board-shaped dolmens; support-stone burials; Bronze age; Korean peninsula
Excavation of Wet-Rice Fields at the Sakamoto-A Site
KUWAHATA Mitsuhiro, HARADA Akiko and TOYAMA TakayukiAbstract:
The Sakamoto-A site is located in Minami Yokoichi, in the city of Miyakonojyo, Miyazaki prefecture, in southeastern Kyushu. The site lies on the right bank of the Yokoichi river, a tributary of the oyodogawa river, extending from the end of an alluvial terrace down to the lowland behind it, which is 146-147 m above sea level. The Board of Education of Miyakonojyoconducted an excavation prior to agricultural consolidation works in fiscal 2000. The area under excavation measures around 2,800 m2, and was divided into two parts, an eastern and a western sector.
Wet-rice fields from the Final Jomon, the Yayoi, and the Medieval periods were detected. In particular, the lowest layer of fields (Layer 9c) dates to the Final Jomon period, meaning that these are among the oldest wet-rice field remains in Japan, for which examples are still few. The extent of these fields is fairly limited, lying mainly in the western sector, and their divisions are crooked and small. No irrigation ditches or dams could be found within the excavated area. These fields appear to have been adapted to the local soils and topographical conditions, and are very different from the orderly divided wet-rice fields, complete with water management facilities, found in the northern part of Kyushu. This find has very important implications for research into the beginnings of rice agriculture in the Japanese archipelago. Wet-rice fields from the latter half of the Early Yayoi were wider in area than those of the Final Jomon, and in the Middle Yayoi they spread into swampy areas with a high water table. Many wooden stakes and wooden implements have been recovered from such areas. Among those, composite wooden tools judged to be agricultural tools, based on the shape of their blades and their discovery in wet-rice paddy, are very precious because examples of these items are few and their function is unclear at the present time. The wet-rice fields of the Late Yayoi period spread over most of the excavation area, and show an orderly division of land. The same pattern of division with dikes was maintained in spite of a build-up of sand deposits from minor floods. Two stages of wet-rice fields from the Medieval period were detected, one from the Kamakura and the other from the Muromachi period. The wet-rice fields seen above the Bunmei pumice layer, which fell from the Sakurajima volcano in the late fifteenth century, are clearly evident across the entire excavation area.
The Sakamoto-A site yielded vital information not only about changes in wet-rice fields, but also about the spread and development of wet-rice cultivation in this region.
Keywords:
Wet-rice fields; Final Jomon period; Yayoi period; Medieval period; southeastern Kyushu
Excavation of the Kitajima Site in the City of Kumagaya
YOSHIDA MinoruAbstract:
This preliminary report summarizes the results of an excavation of Middle Yayoi period remains at the Kitajima site in the city of Kumagaya, Saitama prefecture, in the Kanto region. The Kitajima site is a composite site dating from about 2,000 to 300 years before the present (from the Middle Yayoi to the mid-Edo periods). This site was a lowland settlement site.
There are many ancient sites lying on the tip of Kumagaya alluvial fan, formed by the Arakawa river flowing west to east in the northern Saitama area. The Yayoi period was no exception, and many Middle Yayoi period sites dot this area, such as the Ikegami-Ikemori site in the city of Gyoda that was excavated by the Sakitama Museum of Archaeology, plus the sites of Koshikida, Kumagaya Yokomakuri, Maenakanishi, Hirato, and so forth. The Kitajima site is another example, where features from the late part of the Early Yayoi to the Late Yayoi period were uncovered in excavations conducted on more than ten occasions.
The current contribution reports the excavation of Middle Yayoi remains on a scale larger than before at the Kitajima site, with various features revealing living conditions being found over a wide area.
The remains of more than seventy houses, together with pits and a single embedded-pillar building, were detected atop a natural levee formed between two eastward-flowing streams. A dam was also made for drawing water from the stream on the northern side, from which point a channel was cut toward the south through the settlement. The channel was found to extend in a manner that would connect with the wet-rice field remains discovered in the excavation sector to the south. And while pottery found lying on a major dike of the fields appears a bit new, as the direction of the dike is in basic accord with that of the settlement, the possibility that the fields were in use at the time the village was occupied is thought to be high.
In addition, a ditch thought to divide the northern stream and the water channel was detected, along with a facility in the southern stream thought to be a water reservoir.
As for burials, both burial pits and burials made in earthenware jars were found, but the discoveries of jar burials from within the remains of houses are worthy of note. Similar examples, such as at the Kubo site in the city of Saku, Nagano prefecture, and the Higashiura site in Urawa, Saitama, are few in number, pointing out the special nature of the current site.
This is the first case in Saitama prefecture of an investigation in which it was possible to detect residential and rice production districts forming a set. The possibility that the Kitajima site might be a base settlement of the Middle Yayoi of the Kanto region, in a manner similar to the recently investigated sites of Nakasato in Odawara, Kanagawa prefecture, and Tokoshiro in Kimitsu, Chiba prefecture, is a topic for future research.
Keywords:
Lowland settlement sites; Yayoi period; Kanto region
Re-excavation of the Toro Site
OKAMURA WataruAbstract:
Toro is a rice-agricultural site representative of the Yayoi period, located near the center of the Shizuoka plain, in the city of Shizuoka, Shizuoka prefecture. Discovered in the midst of the Pacific War, in the immediate postwar period an interdisciplinary archaeological investigation was conducted over a four-year period, involving researchers in architecture, geography, and the natural sciences in addition to archaeologists. This organized excavation was the starting point for modern Japanese archaeology, and served as the occasion for the establishment of the Japanese Archaeological Association.
As a result of that investigation, the remains of a Late Yayoi village were discovered, composed of twelve houses and two storehouses, plus wet-rice fields of the same period extending to the south having irrigation channels and dikes with banks reinforced by wooden stakes, and in 1952 Toro was designated a Special Historic Monument for its importance in providing a concrete image of village life in the Yayoi period. In conjunction with the designation, it was converted into a historic park under the name of "Toro Park."
But over fifty years have passed since the excavation began in 1947, and many questions concerning the various features discovered at Toro and about the image of the Yayoi period provided by the site need to be addressed. To resolve these problems, an archaeological investigation including re-excavation has become necessary.
Accordingly, the Board of Education of the city of Shizuoka is conducting an excavation under a five-year plan spanning 1999 and 2003, with the intention of renovating the park based on the results. At present, the re-excavation is focused on the five house sites investigated between 1947 and 1950, with these remains being examined from the perspective of current archaeological understandings, and the make-up of the village being re-evaluated. The results thus far show that the site is in a good state of preservation, with its condition prior to flooding readily detected when the sand brought by the floods is removed. The areas of residence and production (the rice fields) were clearly divided by a water channel (partition ditch no. 1) and its banks. In the residential area, from the stratigraphic evidence and relations of overlay between features, it has been determined that the archaeological features divide broadly into those of the lower strata (first half) and the upper strata (latter half), and each of these further divides into two phases (for a total of four phases) or more of change. The site was then buried with flood-borne sand and thus came once to an end, after which pillared buildings and ditch-like feartures were subsequently made before being buried a second time by a separate flood; it has thus become clear that the site underwent complex changes.
With regard to house sites, three more have been newly discovered, and in terms of their structure, ditches encircling the low earthen walls forming the house perimeters have been found, and the former interpretation that the circles of stakes, now seen as lying within the earthen walls, marked the outer extents of the dwellings has been revised.
For the wet-rice fields, small subdivisions within the larger fields have been found, made with simple dikes not reinforced with stakes.
In terms of other finds, in addition to artifacts such as Yayoi pottery, stone tools (including axes and net sinkers), wooden implements (vessels, architectural members, etc.), and metal objects (bronze bracelets, small bronze rings), there are also ecofacts such as carbonized rice, various seeds, shells, and so forth. For the pottery, correspondences with the sequence of changes exhibited by the features are beginning to be obtained. Also, a superbly crafted koto with a sounding box was recovered, and the image of Toro is gradually undergoing a major transformation.
Keywords:
Village and residence sites; re-excavation; Yayoi period; Shizuoka plain; Tokai region
The Burried Mirror Feature at the Tabata Fudozaka Site in Kita Ward, Tokyo
ARAI SatoruAbstract:
This subject of this contribution is a summary of the investigation of a pit from the latter part of the Early Kofun period, detected at the Tabata Fudozaka site in Kita Ward, Tokyo, and a consideration of its nature.
While discoveries of settlements of this period are rare in the southern Kantoregion, at the Tabata Fudozaka site a pit was discovered belonging to such a settlement, in which a bead-design mirror, beads, a whetstone, and sherds of smashed pottery, etc. were deposited. As a result of the investigation it is also supposed, with regard to the utilization of this feature, that for a certain period a rectangular space within the pit surrounded with boards was used, and that at some point this space was filled in, and the mirror, beads, whetstone, and potsherds, etc. were buried.
It was also inferred that the completion of the deposition coincided with the abandonment of the settlement. In the environs of Tabata Fudozaka, sites related to settlement die out in the latter half of the Early Kofun period, after which settlements reappear only in the latter part of the seventh century. It can be read from this that during the period in which settlement ceased, paraphernalia used in ritual up to that point were buried collectively, as a symbolic act.
As to the significance of this phenomenon, while considerations in light of previously published data are currently still underway, it is surmised that when small mirrors remain in settlement sites, large-scale changes have occurred involving the settlement as a whole.
Keywords:
Settlement; ritual; deposition; Kofun period; southern Kantoregion
Results of the Excavation of Hirano No. 2 Kofun: An Investigation of a Final Kofun Period Tomb in Yamato
SHIMOOSAKO MikihiroAbstract:
Hirano No. 2 kofun is a round mound 6.5 m high and with an estimated diameter of 26 m, located in the Hirano district of the city of Kashiba, Nara prefecture, in the western part of the Nara basin. The stone chamber has remained buried from the Edo period on, and until now the existence of the chamber and the details of its shape have been uncertain. The current contribution is a preliminary report of the excavation of the horizontal stone chamber, conducted from 11 July 2000 through 30 March 2001 by the Kashiba municipal Nijosan Museum.
Whereas no grave goods of note were recovered from the chamber interior, which had been robbed in the Medieval or Early Modern periods, from the method of piling the stones and the shape of the chamber, and from the artifacts that were found, the tomb is inferred to have been built in the mid-seventh century. The horizontal stone chamber of Hirano No. 2 kofun is characterized by a structure in which stones used for both the burial chamber and passageway are made from huge boulders of granite, and stood mostly with their long axes upright and nearly vertical. A base built with earth in the center of the burial chamber floor served as a podium for the coffin stand, and the entire floor area of the burial chamber was paved with hewn slabs of volcanic tuff obtained from Nijosan mountain, a burial chamber structure for which no previous examples are known for horizontal stone chamber tombs.
On top of the earthen podium in the burial chamber was a coffin stand made with low-fired bricks and an earthenware frame, into which it is thought a coffin of wood or some other organic materials was rested; thus a singular arrangement has come to be inferred with regard to the manner of burial as well.
The placement of a coffin stand within a burial chamber built with hewn slabs of volcanic tuff from Nijosan mountain was one of the burial chamber structures popular in the Final Kofun period of the Asuka region, in which burials in stone compartments with side entrances became the dominant form. The structure of the burial chamber of Hirano No. 2 kofun is thought to be a precursor which will be extremely important for considerations of Asuka period tombs in the future.
Keywords:
Volcanic tuff paving; bricks; coffin stand; Kofun period; Asuka period; Kinki region
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