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

Yayoi period The Yayoi period (弥生時代, ''Yayoi jidai'') (c. 300 BC – 300 AD) is one of the major historical periods of the Japanese archipelago. It is generally defined as the era between the beginning of food production in Japan and the emergence o ...

settlement, located in the Hatchowate neighborhood of the city of Takatsuki in the

Kinai region is a Japanese term denoting an ancient division of the country. ''Kinai'' is a name for the ancient provinces around the capital Nara and Heian-kyō. Nussbaum, Louis-Frédéric. (2005). "''Kinai''" in . The five provinces were called ''go-kina ...

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 in 1993.

Overview

The Aoyakamiji site is located at the eastern end of the Mishima Plain, on an

alluvial fan An alluvial fan is an accumulation of sediments that fans outwards from a concentrated source of sediments, such as a narrow canyon emerging from an escarpment. They are characteristic of mountainous terrain in arid to Semi-arid climate, semiar ...

formed by the Hino River, which flows through the eastern part of Takatsuki City. The site was discovered in 1928, during the construction of a farm attached to the

Kyoto University , or , is a National university, national research university in Kyoto, Japan. Founded in 1897, it is one of the former Imperial Universities and the second oldest university in Japan. The university has ten undergraduate faculties, eighteen gra ...

Graduate School of Agriculture. The site drew academic attention as the earliest known location of Yayoi culture and rice cultivation in the Kinai region. Furthermore, from around 1966, when housing development began,

archaeological excavation In archaeology, excavation is the exposure, processing and recording of archaeological remains. An excavation site or "dig" is the area being studied. These locations range from one to several areas at a time during a project and can be condu ...

s were conducted on the north side of the farm, and it was found that the traces of settlements spread over a wide area. Since 1966, more than 50 excavations have been conducted. The settlement was eventually found to extend 1.5 kilometers from east-to-west and 600 meters from north-to-south, and consist of well defined land usage, with distinct areas devoted to groups of dwellings, a production area consisting of paddy fields and irrigation canals, and a cemetery area centered on rectangular circumferential graves. A large amount of

Yayoi pottery Yayoi pottery (弥生土器 Yayoi doki) is earthenware pottery produced during the Yayoi period, an Iron Age era in the history of Japan traditionally dated 300 BC to AD 300. The pottery allowed for the identification of the Yayoi period and ...

stone tools Stone tools have been used throughout human history but are most closely associated with prehistoric cultures and in particular those of the Stone Age. Stone tools may be made of either ground stone or knapped stone, the latter fashioned by a c ...

, and wooden products have been excavated, covering a wide variety of items such as daily life tools, accessories, agricultural tools, looms, and ritual objects including many items which had been brought to this location from other regions. These artifacts indicate that the site had been occupied from the early to middle Yayoi period, and had evolved over three distinct phases. The earliest phase was a moated settlement located on a hill to the south of the central part of the ruins, measuring 150 by 140 meters. Paddy fields with irrigation canals were located to the south and the cemetery to the east. The area was in a wetland, and often subject to flooding and was periodically abandoned. In the middle period, land usage remained the same, but the settlement considerably grew in size, with a second residential zone 200 meters to the north, with its own paddy fields, and a new cemetery to the west. In the last period, the settlement shrunk in size with the northern residential area disappearing, and the original settlement shifting to the location of the eastern cemetery. With the relocation of the farm attached to Kyoto University, Takatsuki City developed the area as the "Aman Ruins Park," both for preserving the site as well as providing space for disaster prevention functions. C Part of the west side of the park opened in March 2019. In March 2021, the entire park was opened. The site is about 15 minutes on foot from Takatsuki Station on the

JR West , also referred to as , is one of the Japan Railways Group (JR Group) companies and operates in western Honshu. It has its headquarters in Kita-ku, Osaka. It is listed in the Tokyo Stock Exchange, is a constituent of the TOPIX Large70 index, ...

Tokaido Main Line.

References

External links

Takatsuki city Official home page

Takatsuki Tourism official site
{{in lang, ja Yayoi period History of Osaka Prefecture Takatsuki, Osaka Historic Sites of Japan

Overview

See also

References

External links