The is an

archaeological site An archaeological site is a place (or group of physical sites) in which evidence of past activity is preserved (either prehistoric or recorded history, historic or contemporary), and which has been, or may be, investigated using the discipline ...

with a cave dwelling in use in the early

Jōmon period In Japanese history, the is the time between , during which Japan was inhabited by the Jōmon people, a diverse hunter-gatherer and early agriculturalist population united by a common culture, which reached a considerable degree of sedentism an ...

(8000 to 2500 BC), located in what is now part of the town of Takahata, Yamagata in the

Tōhoku region The , Northeast region, , or consists of the northeastern portion of Honshu, the largest island of Japan. This traditional region consists of six prefectures (): Akita, Aomori, Fukushima, Iwate, Miyagi, and Yamagata. Tōhoku retains ...

of northern

Japan Japan is an island country in East Asia. Located in the Pacific Ocean off the northeast coast of the Asia, Asian mainland, it is bordered on the west by the Sea of Japan and extends from the Sea of Okhotsk in the north to the East China Sea ...

. The site was designated a National Historic Site of Japan in 1980.

Overview

The Ōdachi Cave is located in the hills of the northeast corner of the Yonezawa Basin in the foothills of the

Ōu Mountains The are a mountain range in the Tōhoku region of Honshū, Japan. It is the longest range in Japan and stretches south from the Natsudomari Peninsula of Aomori Prefecture to the Nasu volcanoes at the northern boundary of the Kantō region. T ...

, three kilometers north of modern Takahata. The cave was formed by weathering a

Tertiary Tertiary (from Latin, meaning 'third' or 'of the third degree/order..') may refer to: * Tertiary period, an obsolete geologic period spanning from 66 to 2.6 million years ago * Tertiary (chemistry), a term describing bonding patterns in organic ch ...

tuff Tuff is a type of rock made of volcanic ash ejected from a vent during a volcanic eruption. Following ejection and deposition, the ash is lithified into a solid rock. Rock that contains greater than 75% ash is considered tuff, while rock co ...

cliffside with an opening facing to the south. It has a frontage of 13 meters and extends 7 meters into the hillside. Archaeological excavations were conducted from 1974 to 1978 by the Yamagata Prefectural Museum and the Yamagata Prefectural Board of Education, and an inclusion layer with artifacts from the early Jōmon period was found. These objects included over 1000 shards of Jōmon earthenware with decoration made by fingernails, and pointed stone tools. The connection between the groups which lived in these caves, and those of nearby Hinata Caves and the Ichinosawa Cave is not certain, but it is believed that residents moved between these settlements due to similarity in earthenware decorative designs. In addition, as a result of analyzing the sedimentary soil from the earthenware excavation layer, it was confirmed that it contained pollen of the genus Larix (

Larch Larches are deciduous conifers in the genus ''Larix'', of the family Pinaceae (subfamily Laricoideae). Growing from tall, they are native to the cooler regions of the northern hemisphere, where they are found in lowland forests in the high la ...

), indicating that the climate during this period was slightly cooler than at present. The site is one of several similar cave dwelling sites which have been found in the vicinity. The site is located approximately 20 minutes by car from Takahata Station on the

Yamagata Shinkansen The is a Mini-shinkansen route in Japan, operated by East Japan Railway Company (JR East). It provides service between Tokyo and Shinjō in Yamagata Prefecture over the tracks of the Tohoku Shinkansen and the Ōu Main Line. The term Yamagata ...

References

External links

Yamagata tourism home pageCultural Assets of Yamagata Prefecture
{{Prehistoric caves History of Yamagata Prefecture Takahata, Yamagata Historic Sites of Japan Jōmon period sites Cave dwellings

Overview

See also

References

External links