Spread of Digging Tools and the Social Change in Kofun Period Japan

Summary

This paper discusses an aspect of the social change that took place in Kofun Period western Japan as a result of evolution of digging tools. The iron blades of such digging tools changes from rectangular plates with bent edges to U-shaped edges in the fifth century A.D. This change was not merely morphological but technological as well. Background to this change was the introduction of highly advanced smith technique from the Korean peninsula. This technological innovation diffused to all over western Japan in the following sixth century, which facilitated large-scale construction works, including irrigation system, and consequently resulted in the increase in productivity of wet rice agriculture. Behind this rapid spread of new technology was, I argue, the strategy of the central Yamato polity wanting to gain more direct control over local regions.

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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