CONTENTS
Vol.65 No.4（260）, March 2019
ABSTRACT OF LECTURE TO BE DELIVERED AT THE 65th GENERAL MEETING OF THE SOCIETY
- Pottery production and the generation of authority during the Jomon period: An ethnographic approach to the establishment and spread of pottery types
- TAKAHASHI Ryūzaburō
ABSTRACT OF PAPERS TO BE PRESENTED AT THE 65th ANNUAL MEETING OF THE SOCIETY
- Theme: What is power?: As seen through production and circulation
- TAKATA Ken-ichi and TOMII Makoto
- Social complexity and subsistence activities during the Jomon period: research on the history of resource use in the eastern Kanto region
- ABE Yoshirō
- Power during the Yayoi period as seen from the production and circulation of bronze objects
- TAJIRI Yoshinori
- Copper production and circulation in ancient Japan: a consideration of the wooden tablets uncovered from the Naganobori-dōzan site
- TAKEUCHI Ryō
- The generation of power during the Kofun period as seen through the production and circulation of haniwa
- HIROSE Satoru
- An understanding based on the production activities of and trial excavations conducted at the Yōkaichi-jikata site
- TSURUGI Kōsuke and SHIMOHAMA Takako
ARTICLE
- Do the exposed cavities represent all of the cavities in pottery? Results of examining unexposed cavities from Jōmon sites excavated for construction of the Kasegawa Dam, Saga Prefecture
- OBATA Hiroki
Abstract:
Impression analysis, which has been employed for Jōmon period pottery since 2005, has not only brought remarkable results such as the discoveries of soybeans and adzuki beans in the Jōmon era, as well as maize weevils that fed on stored nuts in Jōmon houses, but has also contributed to studies on the timing of the diffusion of rice and millet cultivation from the Korean peninsula to Japan, and on regional diversity in crop composition in the Yayoi period. Examination of the entire inventory of cavities in the potsherds from a site can add new insights on previous hypotheses about plant utilization and cultivation, while avoiding doubts about contamination or bias characteristic of samples obtained by flotation or chance discovery. However, a new issue now confronts us, namely, the question of “unexposed cavities” ―the fossils of seeds, fruits, and insects that were mixed into the paste of pottery before firing, but remain invisible from the outer surface of the resulting vessels or potsherds. Unexposed cavities are one part of the total inventory of cavities created by such organic matter contained in the pottery originally, and the relevant question is therefore whether the exposed cavities are representative of the unexposed items, and thus indicative of the inventory as a whole. This paper considers whether exposed cavities can indeed represent the background assemblage of plant or insect traces both quantitatively and qualitatively, through examinations of unexposed cavities using X-ray equipment and statistical analysis of materials from four Jōmon sites excavated for the construction of the Kasegawa Dam in Saga Prefecture.
Keywords: unexposed cavities; X-ray; cultivated plants; Jōmon pottery.
RESEARCH NOTES
- Changes in the number of Cave-sites during the Jomon period
- YAMADA Yūki
Abstract:
This paper deals with analysing the transition in the number of Jomon period cave-sites from mainly mountainous areas, and compares it with the transition in the number of pit dwellings or open-sites in each region. The results indicate that the number of cave-sites per 1,000 years was low during the Incipient and Initial Jomon periods and increased after the Early Jomon period. In particular, from the Chubu highland to Western Japan, the peak number of cave-sites and the peak number of residential-sites are consistent with each other. To explain this, we forward the possibility that the changes in the cave-utilization pattern started in the Early Jomon period.
Keywords: Jomon period; cave; rockshelter; number of cave-sites; utilization pattern.
- Preliminary study of mat-impressed sherds in the Mariana Islands
- SHIMASAKI Tatsuya
Abstract:
In the Late Pre-Latte period (ca. 2,500-1,500 years ago), the pottery assemblage in the Mariana Islands changed greatly with the emergence of large, flat-bottomed pans/open shallow bowls, some with mat-impressions. The mat-impressions are often regarded as temporally significant in the Mariana pottery sequence. However, the question of where impressed patterns occur on different vessel forms has been poorly studied and the archaeological contexts have not been analyzed on an archipelago-wide scale. This paper reviews the previous archaeological reports to gather basic information regarding the occurrence and distribution of pottery with mat-impressions. As a result, it is verified that mat-impressed sherds have been reported from the four major islands of the Mariana archipelago. An examination of the pottery indicates that woven mat-impressions occur on the bottom parts of thick pans, and in some cases on other, thinner-walled vessels. Hence, it is likely that the plaited mat-impressions were not applied to a particular vessel form only but to various forms.
Keywords: Mariana Islands; Guam; Late Pre-Latte period; Pre-Latte; mat-impressions.
REPORTS, NEWS AND APPEALS
- Special feature: Archaeology in schools, Part 3
- Further utilization of archaeology/artifacts and lifelong learning: ‘touching’ the real thing
- SUZUKI Kōji
- Challenges and prospects in the protection of cultural properties
- SUZUKI Kazunao
- Community memory seen through the lense of art and archaeology: at Fukushima
- AKI Sahoko
- Absolute dates of the beginning of the Jomon period and the environment of the lncipient Jomon: the origins of pottery and the nature of the beginning of the Jomon period
- TAKEHIRO Fumiaki
- Report of attendance at the preliminary excavation prior to maintenance work conducted at the inner bank of the mausoleum of Emperor Nintoku (Daisen-ryō) by the Imperial Household Agency Archives and Mausolea Department
- ICHINOSE Kazuo
BOOK REVIEWS
- TSUJITA Jun’ichiro. Duplicate mirrors and the age of the five kings of Wa
- HŌJŌ Yoshitaka
- YOSHIDA Eiji. Ancient East Asia as seen through writing utensils
- MIYOSHI Miho
NEW BOOKS
- ARAI Satoru, ed. Secrets of ancient mirrors: the hidden world of mirrors
- MABUCHI Kazuki
- ŌMI Toshihide. An introduction to historical archaeology
- TAKAHASHI Teruhiko
ARCHEO-FOCUS
- Excavation of the skeletal accumulation at Hobi shellmound site B, Aichi prefecture
- YAMADA Yasuhiro
- The Kadirirayacheruvu site, India
- UESUGI Akinori
MESSAGE FROM THE COMMITTEE