TRENDS IN ARCHAEOLOGY IN JAPAN

Yayoi Period
SAITO Mizuho1
Fiscal 2015 Yayoi period study was introduced under seven categories: a. chronology andcalendar dates, b. environment, c. subsistence, d. production and distribution, e. socialstructure, f. mentality of Yayoi people, and g. how the Yayoi period was.

Chronology and calendar dates
SATO Yukio ed. Yayoi Doki (Yayoi Pottery) was published. It also handled pottery types ofepi-Jomon and late Kaizuka (shell-midden) cultures adjacent to Yayoi culture. KISHIMOTONaofumi gave over a hundred years of range to Shonai type pottery from the second quarterof the second century AD to the ﬁrst third of the third century AD, and tried to verify itwith chronology of Han mirrors and dendrochronology of wood materials. KUSUMI Takeo
criticized that there is a problem in the relationship between pottery and wood.

Environment
An outstanding thesis by NAKATSUKA Takeshi reconstructed the environment in theYayoi period year by year. Per Nakatsuka, the second century AD that was described as“the rebellion of Wa” in Chinese history had the most rainfall in the past 2000 years, andﬂooding often took place. An Sohyun investigated forest environments and utilizationof woods around settlements. 92 percent of excavated construction materials and half ofwooden vessels at Aoya-Kamijichi site in Tottori Prefecture were cedar. Results of pollen
analysis seem to reﬂect the situation, and although cedar wood was reduced after theformation period of the settlement, it was maintained until later years.

Subsistence

Plant utilization study saw progress by replication methods, hauled by NAKAZAWA
Michihiko and OBATA Hiroaki. Obata regarded the shift to agriculture in Japan as
consisting of ﬁve phases, and indicated the signiﬁcance of the role of plant cultivation in
1 c/o Institute of Humanities, Social Sciences and Education, Niigata University, 8050 Ikarashi 2-no-cho, Nishi Ward, Niigata 950–2181, Japan(msaito@human.niigata-u.ac.jp)

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JAPANESE JOURNAL OF ARCHAEOLOGY 5 (2017): 61–62

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the preceding Jomon period. Discussion is awaited as to whether the current deﬁnition iseffective, or should be renewed.

Production and distribution
A thesis by KODERA Chizuko is signiﬁcant in glass product study. She pointed out thatcylindrical beads excavated from No. 3 Nishidani tomb in Shimane Prefecture contained
alumina-soda-lime glass produced around the Mediterranean Sea, and she revealed that
regional chiefs shared funeral customs. As for bronze tools, TSUNEMATSU Mikio
unraveled crafting of socketed bronze spearheads, focusing on their knobs. For irontools, theses by TAKAO Koji and Lee Changhee are interesting. Takao ventured into thepersonalities of chiefs who distributed iron tools, and Lee exposed the reality of the socalled Neukdo trades through iron.

Social structure
Fiscal 2015 saw many theses on square ditched tombs. FUJII Hitoshi followed up on theproposal of square ditched tomb equates to family tomb theory and discussed problems
today. NOJIMA Hisashi discussed the changes in construction methods of mounded
tombs in early Late Yayoi, and interpreted this as the emergence of privileged people forwhom time is extended from biological death to social death.

Mentality of Yayoi people
SUGIYAMA Kohei grasped the conscious difference between eastern and western Japan
regarding red color, and MATSUGI Takehiko pursued what past societies have regarded
as beautiful. For example, he insisted that as Jomon pottery thorough Yayoi potterytransformed to Haji and Sue wares, in most regions of the world, pottery goes throughthree stages from simple to complex to delicate.

How was the Yayoi period?
FUJIO Shin’ichiro published a history of the Yayoi period from the standpoint of longterm AMS chronology. He especially stressed the realm of Yayoi culture, and he deﬁned
Yayoi culture as “a culture which placed rice paddy farming as the center of general life”
and settlement extended to the west of Niigata-Chiba. KAWANISHI Hiroyuki focused on
the decline of settlement formation. He regarded the decline of settlement as emergence ofnomadic people or outsiders, and gave thoughts on their role compared to sea people and so on.
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