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 ...

cemetery containing numerous

dolmen A dolmen, () or portal tomb, is a type of single-chamber Megalith#Tombs, megalithic tomb, usually consisting of two or more upright megaliths supporting a large flat horizontal capstone or "table". Most date from the Late Neolithic period (4000 ...

s, located in the city of Itoshima,

Fukuoka Prefecture is a Prefectures of Japan, prefecture of Japan located on the island of Kyūshū. Fukuoka Prefecture has a population of 5,109,323 (1 June 2019) and has a geographic area of 4,986 Square kilometre, km2 (1,925 sq mi). Fukuoka Prefecture borders ...

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 2000.

Overview

The Shinmachi Dolmen Cluster is located on the southwest side of the Itoshima Peninsula facing the

Genkai Sea The is a body of water that comprises the southwestern tip of the Sea of Japan and borders the northern coasts of Fukuoka and Saga Sagas are prose stories and histories, composed in Iceland and to a lesser extent elsewhere in Scandinavia. T ...

, on a sand dune facing Hikizu Bay. This site has been known since the early twentieth century, but a full-scale

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 ...

was carried out until 1986. The site is a complex one, including

shell midden A midden is an old landfill, dump for domestic waste. It may consist of animal bone, bones, feces, human excrement, botanical material, mollusc shells, potsherds, Lithic flake, lithics (especially debitage), and other Artifact (archaeology), ...

s from the late

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 ...

, the Mitoko Matsubara settlement ruins from the Yayoi Period where coins have been found, and box-style sarcophagus graves from the early

Kofun period The is an era in the history of Japan from about 300 to 538 AD (the date of the introduction of Buddhism), following the Yayoi period. The Kofun and the subsequent Asuka periods are sometimes collectively called the Yamato period. This period is ...

. The National Historic Site designation covers a cluster of

s and wooden coffin graves in a cemetery from the early Yayoi Period. As a result of several range confirmation surveys, the known extent of the grave area has expanded, and at the foot of the sand dunes on the south side, it extends for about 80 meters north–south and about 140 meters east–west. A total of 57 dolmens and grave sites were identified, including seven dolmens with the upper stone in its original position and ten dolmens without the upper stone. Approximately one-third of the 57 graves were dolmens. Similar dolmens have been found in the

Korean Peninsula Korea is a peninsular region in East Asia consisting of the Korean Peninsula, Jeju Island, and smaller islands. Since the end of World War II in 1945, it has been politically divided at or near the 38th parallel between North Korea (Dem ...

. About half of the graves were excavated, and half of these contained small pots. In addition, a total of 14 sets of human bones were excavated, and it appears that infants were buried in jar coffins and adults in wooden coffins. The human bones showed characteristics typical of the

Jōmon people The Jōmon (縄文) were a prehistoric hunter-gatherer culture that inhabited the Japanese archipelago approximately between 14,000 BC and 300 BC. Both genetically and culturally, the Jōmon are among the earliest known ancestors of the modern ...

, such as a short face and short stature, and Jōmon-style

tooth extraction A dental extraction (also referred to as tooth extraction, exodontia, exodontics, or informally, tooth pulling) is the removal of teeth from the dental alveolus (socket) in the alveolar bone. Extractions are performed for a wide variety of reas ...

was commonly observed. Two tombs, No. 9 and No. 11, which have almost the same structure and size, have been completely excavated. Tomb No. 9 has a

granite Granite ( ) is a coarse-grained (phanerite, phaneritic) intrusive rock, intrusive igneous rock composed mostly of quartz, alkali feldspar, and plagioclase. It forms from magma with a high content of silica and alkali metal oxides that slowly coo ...

upper stone weighing approximately one ton supported by four dolmens, and the grave shaft is rectangular with a length of 180-cm, a width of 65-cm, and a depth of 60-cm. A human skeleton was discovered with knees in a slightly bent position. Judging from this burial posture and the presence of stones on all sides of the bottom of the earthen pit, which are believed to be coffin stands, it is thought that a wooden coffin was used to bury the remains. In Tomb No. 24, the human remains of a middle-aged man were discovered with a Korean willow leaf-shaped polished stone arrowhead stuck in his left

femur The femur (; : femurs or femora ), or thigh bone is the only long bone, bone in the thigh — the region of the lower limb between the hip and the knee. In many quadrupeds, four-legged animals the femur is the upper bone of the hindleg. The Femo ...

, sandwiched between four stones that appeared to be the backfill of a wooden coffin. It is speculated that he died in a battle during the early Yayoi period, and the find was widely described in popular media as the "first casualty of war in the Japanese archipelago". Directly below these remains was a small earthen pit in which the head of another person (only the teeth were found) was buried. It is further speculated that this was the head of the person killed by the man in battle. Currently, a roof has been placed over this tomb, and the adjacent Shinmachi Ruins Exhibition Hall (新町遺跡展示館) displays some of the opened graves in situ as well as artifacts found at the site.

References

External links

Cultural Properties in Fukuoka PrefectureFukuoka Tourism Web
{in lang, ja Historic Sites of Japan History of Fukuoka Prefecture Yayoi period Itoshima, Fukuoka

Overview

See also

References

External links