Cosmology and Lunar Calendar of a Prehistoric Rice Farming Society in Japan: An Experimental Simulation with arcAstroVR

Summary

This is an abstract from the "Ancient Landscapes and Cosmic Cities out of Eurasia: Transdisciplinary Studies with New Lidar Mapping" session, at the 89th annual meeting of the Society for American Archaeology.

In Japanese prehistory, the foraging of the Jomon economy was followed by the Yayoi period, which was based on rice cultivation and metal tools introduced from China. During the Yayoi period, social stratification developed, and small chiefdoms arose in western Japan. According to Chinese records of one such chiefdom, Yamataikoku, the solar year was divided into two seasons, spring and fall. The Yoshinogari site (300 BC–AD 200) in northern Kyushu Island is one of the most important sites as a settlement corresponding to this period. To evaluate speculations on cosmology and calendar, we developed arcAstro-VR, which uses Unity as a 3D engine with sky, terrain, and 3D object data by lidar survey and reproduces them in VR space. The simulation of celestial bodies uses the plug-in function of Stellarium. As a result, the relationship between the Northern Tombs and Mt. Unzen Fugen, over which Canopus and Southern Cross shone in winter, was confirmed. On the other hand, the axis of the Northern Inner Enclosure coincided with the direction of the appearance of the full moon near the winter solstice during the high moon period, which repeats every 18.6 years. This suggests that moon-reading was practiced as an agricultural calendar.

This Resource is Part of the Following Collections

• Ancient Landscapes and Cosmic Cities out of Eurasia: Transdisciplinary Studies with New Lidar Mapping   •
• Society for American Archaeology 89th Annual Meeting, New Orleans, LA (2024)

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Record Identifiers

Abstract Id(s): 39134.0