会誌『考古学研究』

Abstract: This paper discusses the methodologies of Japanese archaeology in comparison to American archaeology. Japanese archaeology heavily depends on a deductive approach, and Japanese archaeologists start archaeological discussions with the results of excavations and the detailed observation of artifacts. Indeed, excavation and artifact observation are the foundation of Japanese archaeology. For this reason, Japanese archaeologists spend an enormous amount of time and effort on these two aspects of archaeology. This may seem to be a detour from an American standpoint; nevertheless, these sophisticated excavation techniques allow Japanese archaeologists to uncover various archaeological features, and detailed observation of artifacts allows archaeologists to extract a significant amount of anthropological and historical information on their backgrounds. This eventually leads Japanese archaeologists to the formation of rich theories for the interpretation of the past.

Keywords: Deductive approach; inductive approach; theoretical archaeology; methodology; American archaeology.

Abstract: This article presents a method for judging whether or not the space around an interred body was filled with soil after burial based on the position of artefacts which had been attached to the body at the time of burial. Previously, determining that whether a body had been left exposed in an open interment or was covered within a filled interment was based on the position of the bones.
　Firstly, I examined the position of artefacts in cases where the type of burial could be judged from the position of the bones. This enabled me to establish a method to determine the type of burial from the placement of the accompanying artefacts alone, even if the bones did not remain.
　Secondly, I applied this method to single and double burials from the Late Jomon period to test the reliability of the method.
　Thirdly, I applied the method to burials of more than three bodies to reconstruct the interment process. The result revealed that at the Karinba site, where up to seven people had been buried together in a pit, bodies were placed one by one as the person died. This is contrary to the previous interpretations that all of the deceased had died and been buried at the same time, or that the bodies had been collected from other places and reburied together.

Keywords: Late Jomon; Karinba site; multiple burials; filled or open interment; excavated context of artefacts.

Abstract: Stone artifacts of the Yayoi period, recovered from a pit (SK3165) at the Kamei site in Osaka prefecture, are regarded as weights used with a balance scale, showing that accurate measurement of weight was conducted in Yayoi society. Among the 14 stone objects recovered as a closely assembled group from the pit, with the exception of 2 that are clearly distinguishable as whetstones and 1 as a pestle, the remaining 11 items were judged to be weights. Apart from a single example thought to be unfinished, they comprise 2 nearly complete sets. Taking the lightest item as the value of 1, they follow a perfect series based on powers of 2 and with no breaks in the sequence, as 1, 2, 4, 8, 16, and 32, and with only a slight degree of error. These materials, dating back to before the start of the Common Era, are highly significant for considering the history of a system of weights and measures.

Keywords: weights; weights and measures; basic sets; Yayoi period; Kamei site.

Abstract: This paper examines the derivation and system of production, plus the period and locus of manufacture, for two types of bronze mirror, shaen shinjukyo (slant-rimmed deity-and-beast mirrors) and shaen shijukyo (slant-rimmed four-beast mirrors). Two schools, the Wu-zuo and Qing-gai, are identified in the production system of shaen shijukyo. Both are linked in derivation with the Liu-shi school first identified by Ueno Yoshifumi for gazokyo (mirrors decorated with mythical images in flat relief), and it is pointed out that Qing-gai shaen shijukyo in particular can be seen as influenced by banryukyo (curved-dragon mirrors). It is also shown that some design elements on shaen shinjukyo derived from those of gamontai dokoshiki shinjukyo (mirrors bearing an outer image band, and centrally decorated with deities and beasts having the same orientation), implying that shaen shinjukyo appeared later than this gamontai style. An investigation of the use of taboo words in mirror inscriptions revealed that both shaen shinjukyo and shaen shijukyo appeared no later than the first half of the third century, and do not belong among Late Han mirrors, and furthermore, there is a high possibility that shaen shinjukyo in Phase I of the author's chronology, plus all shaen shijukyo, belong to the period preceding the Western Jin dynasty. As for the locus of manufacture, from the form of the knob hole these mirrors belong neither to the Wei nor Wu mirror groups, and their geographical distribution suggests an area from the Shandong peninsula to Liaodong and Lelang. In conclusion, it is thought that shaen shinjukyo and shaen shijukyo were produced in and around the region under the political influence of the Gongsun clan.

Keywords: shaen sinjukyo(slant-rimmed deity-and-beast mirrors); shaen shijukyo(skant-rimmed four beast mirrors); production system; Three Kingdoms  period; Gongsun clan.