Japan (Other Keyword)
1-16 (16 Records)
Hunter-gatherers of late-Pleistocene Japan were among the first in the world to adopt ceramic technology. Archaeologists have suggested that in southern Kyushu, these people of Incipient Jomon (13500/14000-12000 cal yr BP) also used large grinding stones, stored food, occupied pit houses, and made boats for navigation; they had signatures of reduced residential mobility. Nevertheless, there have not been systematic tests to assess the hypothesized decreased residential mobility. Identification...
Before The War: A Japanese Family in Downtown San Luis Obispo, California (2018)
In 2016 ESA excavated a ceramic- and bottle-filled privy associated with the Kurokawa family. During the first half of the 20th century, the Kurokawas lived in Dowtown San Luis Obispo where they also operated a vegetable store. During this time they retained strong ties with their homeland. In 1942 the family was forced to give up their home and livelyhood and move to a Japanese internment camp. Artifacts from this deposit give a glimpse into their daily life prior to their internment.
Chibariyo! Navigating Cultural Resources Compliance on U.S. Military Installations in Japan (2016)
Following World War II, the U.S. established military bases throughout Japan. Multiple cultural resources investigations have since been conducted at many of these facilities in compliance with applicable U.S. federal laws and regulations, the Government of Japan’s laws, and guidelines outlined by U.S. Forces Japan. Success in these projects required meetings with various stakeholders, including the Prefectural and local municipal Boards of Education in Honshu and Okinawa, Japan. These...
Exploring Potential Connections between Pleistocene Bifacial Projectile Designs in Japan and North America: A First View (2024)
This is an abstract from the "The Global “Impact” of Projectile Technologies: Updating Methods and Regional Overviews of the Invention and Transmission of the Spear-Thrower and the Bow and Arrow" session, at the 89th annual meeting of the Society for American Archaeology. While paleogenetic studies indicate that the majority of the genomic heredity of indigenous peoples of the Americas can be traced to late Pleistocene human populations in far eastern Asia, we do not yet understand whether a...
Heritage in post-modern settings: the case of Japan (2016)
The 'post-modern' condition can be characterized by reflexivity, by which is meant that every social fact is scrutinized as socio-historically constructed. The spread of this 'attitude' fundamentally destabilize the sense of the authenticity of heritage. However, as long as we have to accept this constitutive element of social reality, we have to consider how to come to terms with this and how to better utilize this for the betterment of our relationship with heritage and of our life-world. This...
Hokkado, Japan as an Island System in East Asian Pre-Colonial History (2017)
Hokkaido, Japan is an island separate from the East Asian mainland and Honshu yet closely linked culturally to the rest of the Japanese archipelago. Hokkaido was never isolated entirely from the East Asian mainland either. This paper reviews several key events that relate to Hokkaido as an island with a distinct cultural history. As the contemporary home of an indigenous population, the Ainu, Hokkaido has played, and can continue to play, an important role in our understanding of cultural...
Honshu’s Pre-Agricultural Landscapes: Perspectives from Mt. Fuji and Toyama Bay (2017)
Pre-agricultural Japan experienced significant changes in its cultural and natural landscapes over some 30 millennia of human habitation and modification (ca. 34,000 to 2,300 calendar years BP). As an extensive period witnessing fundamental environmental and cultural changes, the pre-agricultural era was dynamic, with sub-periods of relative stability punctuated by episodes of rapid change in lifestyle, material culture, and environmental and cultural setting. This research compares and...
Introduction of a Practice of Horse-Riding in Fifth-Century Japan and its Political Significance (2015)
A practice of horse-riding was introduced to Japan from the late fourth century and after. Since horses were not native to Japan, Korean specialists of raising and producing hoses were invited. Recently, fifth century evidence for raising horses has been excavated at various places in Japan. In the central Osaka Prefecture near where the central polity was located, horses were carefully buried at the foot of small fifth- and sixth-century circular burial mounds, and Korean ceramics were...
Iron Grinding Technology in the Kofun Period: New Evidence and Research Techniques (2015)
Due to both a lack of direct evidence and lack of well-defined investigative methods, iron polishing and grinding technologies in the prehistoric Japanese archipelago remain poorly understood. Following the recent foundational research by Lyons, Kawano, and Suzuki, this project seeks to clarify the tools and gestures used to finish iron objects during the Kofun period. Photogrammetric techniques and 3D laser scanning were used to record and analyze striations left by original grinding on iron...
Japanese archaeology, the market economy: resistances through community archaeology? (2015)
In Japan, the relationship between archaeology and the presently dominant neoliberal political economy is now giving rise to ethical issues faced primarily by archaeologists. In this presentation, I illustrate the difficulties which may have arisen from these relations, and explore other avenues of reflection within the implementation of a ‘community archaeology’. The results of my investigation are based on interviews of a sample of Japanese archaeologists and community members involved in...
Late Wurm adaptive systems in Tohoku Japan: viewed from lithic use-wear analysis (2016)
The paper investigates lithic use-wear data from the viewpoint of human mobility patterns and functional inter-site variability. Microwear analysis based on controlled experiments was initiated in 1970s in Japan, and the method combined both high power and low power (that is, high magnification and low magnification) approach. Since then accumulated case studies focused on the Upper Paleolithic period of Northeastern Honshu Island of Japan (Tohoku District). Chronological sequences and...
Medieval Japanese Ports: Exploring the Seto Inland Sea’s Maritime Cultural Landscape (2020)
This is a paper/report submission presented at the 2020 annual meeting of the Society for Historical Archaeology. During the late medieval period (14th – 16th c), Japan’s Seto Inland Sea became the locus of a robust maritime trade network. Smaller island ports were integral to this maritime trade, but have often been overlooked in larger studies of this area. This paper will look at the intersection of environment, transport, and commodity production to consider the impact on port...
The Prehistoric Jomon and Ideological Conflict in Contemporary Japan (2016)
This paper aims to suggest an alternative perspective to understand the "Jomon" in contemporary Japan within the context of public archaeology, paying attention to the contact zone between archaeology and the public. Contemporary Japanese society includes an ideological conflict with regard to an international cooperation with East Asian countries, a nuclear plant politics, and a modern history education under the situation of the post-cold war equilibrium and globalization. The conflict is not...
The 'Ritualization' of Comma-Shaped Magatama Beads from the Jōmon to Yayoi Periods in Japan (2016)
Comma-shaped magatama beads in their 'archaic' forms and materials first appeared in the Early Jōmon period (ca. 5000 BC) in Japan, and in their 'standardized' form and material became a major component of grave goods for the elite burials that began to be constructed from the Yayoi period (ca. 400 BC) onward. The contexts in which magatama beads recently excavated at Early/Middle Jōmon sites have been found indicate that they were most likely ordinary body ornaments for everyday use. Their...
Starch and Stone: Preliminary Evidence from Jomon Period Ground Stone in Southwestern Hokkaido (2015)
Lithic assemblages from Jomon Period sites contain a wide variety of artifacts that were chipped or ground from a number of raw materials. Typological frameworks exist to aid interpretations about function and use, but many details are still unknown when it comes to how Jomon people incorporated this array of stone objects into their lives. The place of ground stone implements within Jomon lithic technology and society is particularly intriguing, as questions about the quantities and variations...
Ustinovka-VI Site: Recent Investigations of the Microblade Industries in the Maritime Region, Russian Far East (1995)
In 1993 and 1994, archaeologists from the Institute of History , Archaeology and Ethnography of the People of the Far East (Vladivostok, Russia), Far Eastern State University (Vladivostok, Russia), and the Institute of Archaeology and Ethnography (Novosibirsk, Russia) investigated a new pre-ceramic (12-11,000 years B.P.) site, Ustinovka-VI, in the Maritime Region (Primorie), of the Russian Far East. Even the preliminary results of the excavations permit an interpretation of the assemblage of the...