会誌『考古学研究』

CONTENTS

Vol.62　No.3（247）,December, 2015

LECTURE DELIVERED AT THE 61st GENERAL MEETING OF THE SOCIETY

• Environmental changes and archaeology
  
• KOMOTO Masayuki
  Abstract: Environment change relates to the quantity of energy supplied by solar activity. A decrease in solar activity causes climatic deterioration: sea levels drop, and a sand dune forms in coastal areas. When solar activity increases, sea levels rise, causing the supply of sand from the beach to cease, leading to the spread of vegetation over the former dunes. Decaying vegetation forms layers named kurosuna (so-called black band). An analysis of the archaeological material contained in these kurosuna layers can help determine the time of the environmental changes, and to examine how people responded to the changes, it is necessary to examine the various human activity systems using the evolution theory introduced by Huxley and Childe.

  Keywords: environmental change ; formation of sand dune ; Childe ; environmental adaptation ; social evolution.

PAPERS PRESENTED AT THE 61st ANNUAL MEETING OF THE SOCIETY:
ARCHAEOLOGICAL STUDIES IN INTER-DISCIPLINARY APPROACHES, Part 2

• Interdisciplinary approaches to the investigation of paddy remains
  
• EURA Hiroshi
  Abstract: Interdisciplinary research regarding paddy remains has its beginnings as far back as the Toro site.
  　The author has previously been involved in the excavation of paddy remains at the Ikeshima/Fukumanji site (in the cities of Yao and Higashi Osaka, in Osaka prefecture). In the course of that investigation and subsequent research, it was possible to discover new vantage points through contact with anthropologists and researchers in fields such as hydrobiology, rather than remain limited to narrow understandings learned through the study of archaeology alone. Interdisciplinary approaches regarding paddy remains can be wide ranging, but here the author would like to make a presentation centered on examples in which he has been involved, such as “footprints,” “traces of rice stubble,” and “paddy fishing,” and including aspects of the exploratory process.
  　In recent years, the excavation of paddy remains is being conducted throughout the country in an almost routine manner, and while excavated examples accumulate, there is little deepening with regard to sustained interdisciplinary research. Although shared understandings and unified scales for study and assessment are important, it all comes down to an awareness of relevant issues and perseverance on the part of the excavator in charge, who is on-site at the investigation.

  Keywords: footprints ; anthropology ; rice stubble traces ; paddy fishing ; interdisciplinary research.
• Verification of radiocarbon dates, and the historical image of the formation of the country of Wa
• KISHIMOTO Naofumi
  Abstract: Radiocarbon dating of carbonized materials adhering to pottery with the use of accelerator mass spectrometry (AMS) has shown the possibility that chronological assessments of the transition from the Yayoi to the Kofun periods, and particularly that of Shōnai style pottery, could be greatly older than previously regarded. In order to examine the suitability of such a chronological view, as well as the efficacy of radiocarbon dating itself, an attempt was made to refine the dating of pottery for each period using Chinese mirrors recovered from tombs and based on archaeological methodology. As a result, the lack of any inconsistency with assessments based on radiocarbon dating was affirmed. While the start of Shōnai style pottery still cannot be determined, it is thought to date back to the first half of the second century CE. Based on this, and bringing together archaeological phenomena of the Late Yayoi period and the time of Shōnai style pottery, the distribution of Chinese mirrors of that same era, and documentary historical materials, the transition in the relationship of power between northern Kyushu and the regions to its east is asserted to have occurred around 100 CE.

  Keywords: radiocarbon dates ; Shōnai style pottery ; Late Han mirrors ; the country of Wa ; King Suishō of Wa.

ARTICLES

• The process of development of clay-encased burial facilities (nendokaku) and its turning points: Centering on examples from Kawachi
• UEDA Naoya
  Abstract: Observations regarding funerary rites of the elite are indispensable for considerations of ancient social structure, because they are an area where we can seek out the ideological support for chiefly authority. For the Kofun period, when tremendous energy was invested in constructing tomb mounds, and especially with regard to the Early Kofun period when the sacral nature of the chief was salient, research on forms of funerary rites holds a vital position for exploring the relations among chiefs. Among the burial facilities which served as stage for such funerary rites, the purpose of this contribution is to place a focus on nendokaku, which showed a dramatic increase in the number of examples over a short time span, and to consider the significance held by the emergence of a new form of burial facility. Nendokaku are a widely seen type of facility in the Kofun period, and their basic structure is to encase a wooden coffin thickly in clay. In previous research it has been common to evaluate these as lower in rank vis a vis vertical stone chambers, the burial facility of the most powerful chiefs, and their role has been taken only as a means for ordering a system which expressed hierarchy within the chiefly class. But as the result of an examination made with attention to these facilities’ structure, as it was shown that the establishment of nendokaku is clearly related to the adoption particularly in the southern Kawachi region of composite wooden coffins, and that the distribution of major examples of these items is not seen in the traditional stronghold of the southeastern portion of the Nara basin, the author regards nendokaku as containing an innovative nature demarcated from traditional coffin forms. Further, whereas a variety of structures and scales developed in parallel for nendokaku of the Early period, as rapid standardization occurred in the Middle Kofun period, the author supposes this as the start of the strict regulation of burial facilities seen from the Middle period on.

  Keywords: Kofun period ; nendokaku ; composite wooden coffins ; southern Kawachi ; ritual landscape.
  
  

REPORTS, NEWS AND APPEALS

• Report of attendance at the symposium on Irinosawa site, Kurihara city: Considering the future of the notable site which shed a new light on the history of northeastern part of Japanese archipelago
• NISHIKAWA Shuichi
• Research and protection of the flood control structure from Edo period at the diversion of Hyakkengawa river in Okayama city
  
• INADA Takashi
• World heritage sites tossed around by politics
  
• NAKAMURA Shunsuke
• Excavation of a prehistoric wet site on Triquet Island in British Columbia, Canada
  
• SHINKAI Rika, KANNO Tomonori, YAMAMOTO Naoto, HABU Junko, MATSUI Akiro, Duncan McLaren
• and Dale R. Croes
• Prospects for the study of firestone
• KOBAYASHI Katsu
• Some thoughts on the internationalization of Japanese archaeology
  
• KAWAMURA Yoshimitsu
• Artistic Landscape of Archaeology 2: Fluctuation and reality in the reconstructed images
  
• AKI Sahoko

BOOK REVIEWS

• SATO Yukio ed. Yayoi Pottery: Handbook for Archaeological Research
• ISHIGURO Tatsuhito
• HIROSE Satoru. Formation of Ancient Kingship and the Production of Haniwa
  
• JOKURA Masayoshi

IN THE DAWN OF THE SOCIETY

• Interview with TSUDE Hiroshi: My resrarches and activities developed together with the Society
• Interviewer: OKAMURA Katsuyuki and FUKUNAGA Shin'ya

INTERVIEW WITH THE ARCHAEOLOGIST

• Cultural property administration and archaeology as seen from the works at the Agency for Cultural Affairs
  
• NEGUTA Yoshio (Interviewer: YU Shu, TAKABE Yuka and TERAMAE Naoto)

ARCHEO-FOCUS

• Excavation of Shinmei site, Sōja city, Okayama Prefecture
  
• Okayama Prefectural Ancient Kibi Cultural Properties Center 
• Senir Sırtı and Teknekaya Höyük, new tin mines and production sites in Central Anatolia, Turkey 
• YAMAGUCHI Yuji

REPORTS OF THE REGIONAL MEETINGS 

• Report of the Regional Meetings of the Society in Okayama

MESSAGE FROM THE COMMITTEE

MEMBERS' COMMUNICATIONS