考古学研究会

Abstract: Keyhole-shaped burial mounds are the most typical tombs in Kofun period Japan. There is agreement among many researchers that these mounds were constructed according to standardized plans. However, once detailed construction designs are discussed, serious differences of opinions become apparent. In 2005 we started a survey of the Tsukuriyama tomb in Okayama prefecture, the fourth largest mound in Japan. A new method of survey was introduced, using total stations to grasp the shape of the mound, with XYZ coordinates recorded for more than 120,000 data points. Based on this completely new type of data, we can now discuss construction designs in detail.
The mound of the Tsukuriyama tomb is 360 m in length, with a three-tiered construction. The ratio of the heights of the tiers for the round part of the mound, starting from the bottom, is 1:1:3, typical for burial mounds of this period. The unit of height in this ratio is 6.25 m. Amakasu Ken has estimated the units of measurement for this period as a shaku of 0.231 m, and a bu (six times as long) of 1.386 m. According to Amakasu’s figures, the length of 6.25 m is about 4.5 times as long as 1 bu. The radius of the plan of the round part of Tsukuriyama is 100 m, 16 times as long as the unit length of 6.25 m. The Kondayama tomb in Osaka prefecture adopted a unit length 5 times as long as 1 bu, and other burial mounds show similar units.
The construction of keyhole-shaped burial mounds was not based on direct or proportional copying of existing designs, but rather on sophisticated three-dimensional schemes made with full awareness of the structural strength of the mound. The size of each part of the mound was fixed not as a direct multiple of shaku, but as a value intermediated with a unit length. The techniques of construction for huge burial mounds in this period were constantly developed in response to demands for the enlargement of mounds, and especially for the square portions.

Keywords: Keyhole-shaped burial mounds; construction design; standard scales; Tsukuriyama Kofun

Abstract: This article discusses the results of an analysis of 541 chipped stone artifacts collected in South-eastern and Central-western Peten, Guatemala, in order to provide some insights into environment use, lithic production, and the role of warfare in the decline of Classic Mayan civilization. Chert is a microcrystal rock that forms in sedimentary deposits such as limestone. The limestone regions in the Mayan lowlands contain chert in various qualities and sizes. Chipped chert artifacts were mainly used in daily maintenance activities or warfare. From the Late Preclassic to the Late Classic, utilitarian tools were produced, such as oval bifaces, bifacial picks, and bifacial points for thrusting spears. The most distinctive palette from Ixtonton, which is similar to royal and elite scribal tools at Aguateca, were manufactured from very large flakes of chert and were probably used for the preparation of pigments. Their dorsal surfaces were finely shaped by the removal of multiple thinning flakes, and their ventral surfaces were deliberately polished. Chipped stone artifacts were also used in the symbolic world, i.e., chert eccentrics were made in anthropomorphic, zoomorphic, or symbolic forms. They served as portable glyphic symbols placed in votive offerings and tombs. Although spears were more important than the bow and arrow in Classic Mayan warfare, obsidian prismatic blade points were present in South-eastern and Central-western Peten during the Late Classic period. Indicating that the bow and arrow was present in the Mayan lowlands earlier than has previously been suggested. In the Terminal Classic, atlatl spears featuring stemmed bifacial points became a major weapon type . An unusually high percentage of bifacial points amongst the chipped stone artifacts at the Terminal Classic cities, such as Ixtonton, Calzada Mopan, El Chal and Machaquila, might indicate that an escalation of warfare may have been one of several causes that led to the downfall of Classic Mayan civilization in South-eastern and Central-western Peten.

Keywords: Chert and obsidian chipped stone artifacts, environment use, warfare, ancient Maya, Southeastern and Central-Western Peten

Abstract: The Higashi-Kurotsuchida site is one of the most important archeological sites of the Incipient Jomon sub-period and is located in Kagoshima, in southern Kyushu, Japan. Wide-belted type (Ryutai-mon) pottery of the Incipient Jomon sub-period and a storage pit have been excavated from under the Sakurajima Satsuma volcanic ash layer (Sz-S: ca. 12,800 cal BP) at this site. Moreover, a total of 155g of charred nut remains (cotyledons of Quercus sp.) were found in the storage pit. These plant remains are quite important for examining the subsistence strategy of hunter-gatherers in the Pleistocene/Holocene transitional period in the Japanese islands. Therefore, the author conducted AMS radiocarbon dating on two charred nut remains to determine the absolute age of the storage pit. The results show that these charred nuts were placed within the pit approximately 13,400 cal BP, which makes it the oldest recorded of the storage pit in the Jomon period. These dates coincided well with that of the Wide-belted type (Ryutai-mon) pottery in southern Kyushu. Compiled radiocarbon dates from the pottery adhesion of the Wide-belted type (Ryutai-mon) pottery in southern Kyushu indicated that this pottery phase took placed during the warmer climate phase of the Late Glacial.
Chronological studies on important plant remains through the use of radiocarbon dating is strongly recommended to clarify both its place in the archeological chronology and the overall picture of the plant food utilization history in the Jomon period.

Keywords: 14C dating, Linear-relief pottery, Higashi-Kurotsuchida site, plant utilization, Incipient Jomon

Abstract: This contribution examines the possibility that the perceived distribution of Jomon period sites for the southeast coast of Lake Kasumigaura has been distorted by geomorphic development. Considering together the changes in site location with marine transformations of Kasumigaura and the formation of lowlands, it is pointed out that perceived site distribution up through the first third of the Early Jomon cannot be said to reflect necessarily the original distribution of sites, because geomorphic development of the lowlands suggest deep burial or erosion of lowland sites. Although from the Late Jomon on sites atop tablelands decrease while those on lowlands grow in number, this change in locational trend is not an illusion accompanying geomorphic development, but is thought rather to reflect actual changes in land use. That lowland sites of the Late and Final periods, beginning with “salt-making” sites, are preserved in good condition atop lacustrine terraces which had emerged as dry land in the middle part of the Early period, is a characteristic of this region.

Keywords: Jomon period; Lake Kasumigaura; site location; site distribution; geomorphic development.

Abstract: The Gojono Maruyama burial mound is a large-scale keyhole-shaped burial mound over three hundred meters in length, with a horizontal stone chamber approximately thirty meters in length. This mound is thought to be Hinokumazaka Goryo; the tomb of Emperor Kimmei, who died in AD 571. There has been, however, controversy over the chronology of its stone chamber, and some scholars have argued that the mound is older than previously believed. The disagreement over the chronology of the horizontal stone chamber is closely related to the historical understanding of the transition from the end of Kofun period to the beginning of Asuka period. In cases where the time of interment of the buried person needs to be estimated with high probability, it is important to consider the chronology of horizontal stone chambers, since there is little other archaeological material which can provide an absolute date.
In this paper I presented a tentative chronology of horizontal stone chambers based upon the assumption that burial mounds were constructed prior to the death of the interred person.

Keywords: Horizontal stone chamber; the Gojono Maruyama burial mound; the Ishibutai burial mound; the Makino burial mound; antemortem tomb