PAPERS PRESENTED AT THE 51ST GENERAL MEETING OF THE SOCIETY
:
DIFFERENT
CULTURES AND TRADE, Part 2
From ‘obsidian from the sea' to ‘obsidian from the mountains'
: Obsidian trade revealed from
Mitakadanma site
IKEYA Nobuyuki
Abstract: This paper focuses on the Mitakadanma site, situated on
the cape protruding from the southeast coast of Izu
area, where Jomon people discharged obsidian taken from Kozu island, 60km off
the coast. Provenance analysis of obsidian and pottery, together with
settlement analysis, indicates that a mobile group visited Mitakadanma site
seasonally and was specially engaged in obsidian trade in the early Middle
Jomon period. In the latter half of the Middle Jomon, people settled at the
site and controlled the distribution of obsidian. The settlement site has
pottery which was brought in from the Kanto-wide area including Kanagawa and
Yamanashi prefecture, suggesting that it was exchanged for obsidian.
Mitakadanma site was abandoned at the end of Middle Jomon period when the
amount of obsidian distributed from Shinshu area to Kanto region increased.
Increased production at the sources of Hoshikuso Pass
and Hoshigato in Shinshu area led to full-scale mining activity in the middle
Late Jomon period.
Keywords: Oceanic adaptation; obsidian trade; X-ray fluorescence
analysis; cyclic emission model; oligopolic distribution model; Colin Renfrew.
The spread of Buddhism in ancient Japan
: With special attention to exchanging Buddhist images, sutras
and priests
HISHIDA Tetsuo
Abstract: Diffusion of the earliest Buddhist temples ranged from
Miyagi to Kumamoto
prefectures, mostly covering the domain of Japanese ancient state, at the end
of the seventh century AD. This paper aims to view the spread of Buddhism in Japan as a
process of contact with an external culture and its subsequent adoption, and
also to reconstruct the policy of the state government which underlay the
process. First, the author shows that exchange of thoughts and cultures by
Buddhist priests can be verified by both written documents and archaeological
data. Second, it is demonstrated that the set of thoughts which gave birth to
the first local temples had been configured with the foundation of Kudarataiji
(Great Paekche Temple) in the middle of the seventh century, and that the
government attempted to popularize nation-protecting Buddhism-based on the
belief in Shitenno (the sacred quartet of guardian gods) and Konkomyokyo (the
sacred text of the holy light). The layouts of temple complexes which were
closely related to the principles of Buddhism, are also thought to have spread
in accordance with Buddhist propagation in the government. The author concludes
that the ultimate purpose of the policy of providing temples was to extend the
idea of nation-protecting throughout the domain and to simultaneously force the
introduction of a nation-protecting chant service within the Buddhist religion.
Keywords: Spread of Buddhism; traffic of Buddhist priests; belief in
Shitenno (the sacred quartet of guardian gods); Konkomyokyo (the sacred text of
the holy light); layouts of temple buildings complex; domain of the state and
range of propagation.
ARTICLES
Analysis of the funeral practice on the square projection of mounded tombs
in
the Kofun period
FUCHINOKAMI Ryusuke
Abstract: This paper discusses the background of the variation in
funeral practices on tsukuridashi (square projections on the constricted part
of key-hole shaped mounded tombs), by examining the alignment and composition
of artifacts from the Kofun period (AD 4-6th century) discovered on and around
the facilities. Based on analysis of artifacts found on tsukuridashi, the
author recognizes two phases in the transformation of funeral practices on
tsukuridashi, the latter of which includes several types of ritual. Each type
is defined in relation to the outer facilities of the mound, and the
composition of the same type of ritual can vary according to the shape and the
size of the mounded tombs. Examination of the formation process of the rituals
on tsukuridashi indicates that earthen vessels were the most fundamental
component of the ritualistic items. He also considers that the invention of
human-shaped haniwa (earthenware) added new meanings to the ritual and its
selective adoption created more variations in styles of funeral practice in the
late Kofun period in Japan.
Keywords: Tsukuridashi (square projection); haniwa; funeral
practice; Kofun period of proto-historic Japan.
RESEARCH NOTE
A cognitive archaeological study of chronological change in pottery categorization
: Relationship between the Itazuke type and clay-band type in the
Yayoi period
KUROKI Rie
Abstract: This article presents a case study of cognitive
archaeology concerning the categorization of prehistoric material culture. The
author examines the emic categories of prehistoric agents by analyzing the pots
from the Early to the first half of the Middle Yayoi period northern Kyushu. The pots were classified into seven types and
their percentage in each phase was calculated. The result indicates that each
type should not be considered as a ‘lineage' as has been assumed
by many archaeologists, but should better be recognized as being constituted
from prototypic and marginal members according to the categorization theory in
cognitive psychology. Based on the cognitive model, the observed chronological
change can be explained as follows: the agents had clear mental categories of
two distinct types of pots at the beginning of the Early Yayoi period, which
eventually merged into one as the increase of intermediate members obscured the
cognitive distance between the prototypes of the original two categories. The
author concludes that categories of material culture should be considered as
having been produced by the dynamic cognitive process of the agents.
Keywords: Cognitive archaeology; category structure; prototype;
Yayoi pottery; Early Yayoi period.