Background to Drastic Increase in Yayoi Period Sites in Japan

Summary

This paper intends to explain how a small number of small-scale Jomon societies in western Japan evolved to large-scale agricultural societies that characterized the Yayoi Period. Traditionally, Japanese archaeologists have approached this issue from the standpoint of settlement archaeology. This paper contributes to understanding this phenomenon based on lithics and their contexts of discoveries. By analyzing the assemblages of chipped stone tools and debitage, it becomes possible to approach the procurement of raw material rocks, their transportation, their use at settlements, and ultimately relationships among human groups. The results of author’s analyses of data in the central Osaka Prefecture suggest that ties among settlements became clear in the late phase of the Final Jomon Period (ca. tenth to sixth centuries B.C.), and these ties were maintained in the Early Yayoi Period (ca. fourth to third centuries B.C.). In the Middle Yayoi Period (second and first centuries B.C.), ties formed among settlements close to one another. It is possible to interpret that a cluster of several units of settlements tied one another seemed to be a large-scale agricultural society. In other words, the large-scale Yayoi settlements were a "descendant" of evolving Jomon society.

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This Resource is Part of the Following Collections

• Society for American Archaeology 80th Annual Meeting, San Francisco, CA (2015)   •
• Tribes, Chiefdoms and early states in late prehistoric Japan

Keywords

Spatial Coverage