会誌『考古学研究』

CONTENTS

Vol.69　No.2（274）, September 2022

SOCIETY NEWS

LECTURE AND PAPERS PRESENTED AT THE 68th ANNUAL MEETING OF THE SOCIETY: THE MEANING OF THE INHERITING AND TRANSITIONING OF THINGS

LECTURE

• Generational inheritance of mirrors and social groups
• MORISHITA Shōji
  Abstract: Many of the mirrors unearthed from Kofun-period tombs contain examples that were held for long periods before burial and transmitted as heirlooms. It may be surmised that mirrors belonged to both the group and the individual and that they were passed down at places of group ritual and storage. Herein I review this phenomenon of generational transmission with regards to the methodology of and issues surrounding archaeological interpretation, such as the various forms of possession and the nature of groups. From the point of view of group possession, adding new perspectives to the examination of mirror possession in the context of center/periphery relations in the Kofun period, and from an analysis of mirrors recovered from the Late Yayoi and Kofun periods, I consider the different types of long-term possession and transmission and the places where these activities were likely carried out. As a result, it can be reconfirmed that the phenomenon of extended possession and generational transmission was a longstanding characteristic of mirrors that persisted from the Late Yayoi period. As modes of utilizing objects as prestige goods, I discern the two aspects of “objects that are handed down” and “objects that are renewed”, and I discuss the functions served by both for group continuity and for the strengthening of relations with the political center in the Kofun period.

  Keywords: generational transmission; mirrors; group possession; characteristics of objects

PAPERS

• Long-term possession as seen from beads in the Yayoi and Kofun period
• TANIZAWA Ari
  Abstract: This paper considers how material items were retained within social groups over a long period and what kinds of social functions they performed, focusing on the beads of the Yayoi and Kofun periods. In the case of the glass cylindrical beads and comma-shaped beads buried during the Early Kofun period, it is highly possible that they had been retained by local groups since the Late Yayoi period. However, the archaeological context suggests that they were not strictly controlled during the period of their possession. In contrast, in the case of the old-type jade comma-shaped beads (magatama) buried during the Middle Kofun period, they had been made and stockpiled during the Early Kofun period and distributed within a prestige goods system during the Middle Kofun period. In such cases, old items and traditional elements were used as signifiers of the legitimacy of authority.

  Keywords: Yayoi period; Kofun period; long-term possession; prestige goods system
• The inheritance of status and property in the Kofun period as seen through corridor-style burial facilities
• ŌTA Hiroaki
  Abstract: In this contribution the author focuses on corridor-style burial facilities, analyzing the layouts of multiple burials and the transmission of structural aspects of burial facilities from one generation to the next within clusters of chiefly tombs. Based on this analysis, the author examines families in the Late Kofun period and social relations between generations to clarify the background for the inheritance of social status and personal property. As a result, it is suggested that social groups based on kinship lacked continuity and stability, and as such did not function well as vehicles for the smooth inheritance of status and property in the Late Kofun period.

  Keywords: corridor-style burial facilities; inheritance of status and property; social groups; family type

ARTICLES

• The formative process of the Upper Palaeolithic culture in the Japanese archipelago in terms of the origin of the blade industry
• KUNITAKE Sadakatsu, KUNIKITA Dai, and SATO Hiroyuki
  Abstract: The Kōsakayama industry excavated in 2020 consisted of large blades, bladelets, and points, and as such, resembles the Eurasian IUP industry. In this paper, a comparison between these two industries reveals the origin of the Upper Palaeolithic culture in the Japanese archipelago. Within the large blade production of the Kōsakayama industry, three distinctive technologies are recognized: the Middle Palaeolithic flat reduction, the Upper Palaeolithic volumic reduction, and faced reduction. Additionally, in the bladelet production of the Kōsakayama industry, burin-core and truncated-facetted pieces are recognized. These two types of cores are considered index tools within the Eurasian IUP industry. Within the point production of the Kōsakayama industry, the diagonal axed flakes were produced from radium cores, and this resembles the point production technology of the Middle Palaeolithic industry in the Japanese archipelago. Therefore, the Kōsakayama industry is assumed to have originated with the Eurasian IUP industry. The radiocarbon date of the Kōsakayama site is 36.8 ka cal BP, making it the oldest blade assemblage in the Japanese archipelago. Furthermore, it integrated with the earlier trapezoid industry that had appeared by 37.5 ka cal BP in order to form the double structure system defining the Initial Upper Palaeolithic assemblage of the Japanese archipelago by 35.2 ka cal BP.

  Keywords: Kōsakayama site; Khudjy site; Obi-Rakhmat grotto; Kara-Bom site; Shuidonggou site
• The emergence of stone point assemblages and hunter-gatherers’ patterns of mobility
• YAMAJI Yūdai
  Abstract: In the Upper Paleolithic period of the Japanese archipelago, stone point assemblages expanded over the latter half to the end of the period.
  　The current research focuses on the composition of stone materials and the process of consumption for each type of material, and endeavors to examine the relationship between the emergence of stone point assemblages and changes in patterns of mobility. As a result it was confirmed that, linked with transitions in stone tool assemblages, the nature of stone material supply and the movements of hunting and gathering peoples also changed.
  　In the stage when backed blades were the mainstay (Phase 1), stone tools were made centering on backed blades by repeatedly obtaining a supply of stone material while moving over a wide area that included the highland Chūbu region. Subsequently, in Phase 2 when stone points and backed blades coexisted, obsidian from the Chūbu highlands was extensively utilized across the area of the southwestern portion of the Kantō plain. Under those conditions of stone material supply, as backed blades were made and the stone cores became progressively exhausted, technology came to be flexibly applied by making stone points and so forth in response to the conditions of stone material supply and consumption. In Phase 3 when stone points became the mainstay, as ranges of movement became more limited, supplies of particular stone materials were taken in concentrated fashion and stone points were made intensively, and behavioral patterns changed greatly to the habitual carry and use of such items.
  　Based on the above, the emergence of stone point assemblages cannot be taken simply as a matter of advances in the tools themselves or by emphasizing differences between human groups. Rather, it is necessary to assess positively the possibility that hunting and gathering people came to manufacture backed blades or stone points as the result of choosing multiple technologies in the midst of their nomadic way of life.

  Keywords: Upper Paleolithic period; stone point assemblages; stone tool-making technology; patterns of mobility

REPORTS, NEWS AND APPEALS

• On the protection of cultural property in Ukraine: With a focus on archaeological material during the Russian invasion
• YUKISHIMA Kōichi
• “Crisis” and archaeology: Perspectives from WAC-9 in Prague
• OKAMURA Katsuyuki
• Modern society and archaeology (Part 2)
  

Epidemics and archaeology
JINNO Megumi

BOOK REVIEWS

• IKEYA Kazunobu (ed.). Ainu beads: Twenty thousand years of beauty and prayer
• KAWAMURA Yoshimitsu

NEW BOOKS

• SHINODA Ken-Ichi. The dawn of humans: The great journey of Homo sapiens as seen through ancient DNA
• OKAZAKI Kenji
• MIYAGI Hiroki. The archaeology of Ryūkyū: From the Palaeolithic to the Battle of Okinawa
• SETO Tetsuya
• YAMAMOTO Takafumi, AOKI Takashi, JOKURA Masayoshi, TERAMAE Naoto, and HAMADA Shinsuke. An introduction to archaeology: Basic theory for beginners
• MORI Takanori

ARCHEO-FOCUS

• Yapese stone money from Yap, Micronesia
• ISHIMURA Tomo
• Excavation of the Wakamiya-no-higashi site, Nangoku city, Kōchi prefecture
• NANGOKU City Board of Education

LETTERS

• Heian Pottery Exhibit at the Aichi Prefectural Ceramic Museum
• ŌNISHI Ryō

REPORT OF THE 68th BUSINESS AND ANNUAL MEETINGS OF THE SOCIETY