ARCHAEOLOGIA JAPONICA

Yayoi Period
SHIROISHI Tetsuya1
The novel coronavirus infectious disease (COVID-19) conﬁrmed originally in Wuhan,
Hubei Province, China in November 2019 spread rapidly and continues to have a big
impact on the entire world. The pandemic has also had a great impact on the ﬁeld ofarchaeology, and since February 2020, academic societies, lectures and symposiums that
had been planned in various places were canceled. Research, nevertheless, has steadily
progressed.
Looking back on research on the Yayoi period in 2019, various studies centered on foodculture emerged. In addition, there was publication of a book summarizing the results ofthe symposiums and research conducted so far.
An ancient inkstone was ﬁrst conﬁrmed in 2001 at the Tawayama Site in Shimane
Prefecture, and a similar one also excavated at the Mikumo-Iwara Site in Itoshima,
Fukuoka Prefecture in 2016. As a result, the use of orthography in the Yayoi period hasreceived a great deal of attention. YANAGIDA Yasuo and KUSUMI Takeo carried out
research, and in 2019, other examples of inkstones were found at the Shimohara Site inFukuoka Prefecture and the Harunotsuji Site in Nagasaki Prefecture.
The time division of the Yayoi Period proposed by TERAMAE Naoto in “Yayoi
Period: Neolithic Yayoi Period and Early Metal Ware Yayoi Period” (Kikan Kōkogaku[Archaeology Quarterly] 150), places the early Yayoi period in the Neolithic period, callingit the Neolithic Yayoi. Teramae proposes that the middle Yayoi period and later be called
the early metal ware Yayoi period.
Scholarly exchange on the Yayoi period focused on discussion about the relationshipbetween the Japanese archipelago, the Korean peninsula, and the Chinese continent. At
the symposium held at the Osaka Museum of History, Japanese and Korean archaeologists
discussed various themes over two days (Study Group on “New Archaeology ofJapan-Korea Relations—Yayoi Period”).
Grain cultivation and food culture in the Yayoi Period have been central to discussion
in the last few years, as they are closely linked to debates about the beginning of the Yayoi
Period. As background, in addition to traditional relic research as a method of analysis forlearning about grain cultivation and food, rapid progress and expansion has been seen in1 Yamagata

University Academic Research Institute, 1–4–12 Kojirakawa-machi, Yamagata 990–0021,Japan(tetsuya.shiro@gmail.com)
JAPANESE JOURNAL OF ARCHAEOLOGY 9 (2021): 92–93© Japanese Archaeological Association

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JAPANESE JOURNAL OF ARCHAEOLOGY 9 (2021): 92–93

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トルのみ。長体可）●●●IN JAPANother methods such as the replica method, carbon and nitrogen stable isotope analysis, andlipid analysis of pottery. In fact, many studies have been published again this year.
The outcome of the symposium held in November 2017 was compiled as a special
feature of Kikan Kokogaku, centering on the Izumizakashita site in Ibaraki Prefecture,
which is a reburial grave site famous for a jar with a human face.
Discussions on archaeological environments were made at Session I (“Social Changefrom the Viewpoint of Environmental Change and Livelihood”) of the 2019 convention ofthe Japan Archaeological Association, as well as at the symposium on “Komatsugata Lakeand Sand Dunes,” sponsored by Komatsu City.
(written by the author)© Japanese Archaeological Association93