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 ...
in what is now the city of
Tsugaru,
Aomori Prefecture
is a Prefectures of Japan, prefecture of Japan in the Tōhoku region. The prefecture's capital, largest city, and namesake is the city of Aomori (city), Aomori. Aomori is the northernmost prefecture on Japan's main island, Honshu, and is border ...
, 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 ...
with an 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 ...
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), ...
. The site was designated a
National Historic Site in 1944 by the Japanese government.
It is a rare example of a shell midden to be found near the coast of the
Sea of Japan
The Sea of Japan is the marginal sea between the Japanese archipelago, Sakhalin, the Korean Peninsula, and the mainland of the Russian Far East. The Japanese archipelago separates the sea from the Pacific Ocean. Like the Mediterranean Sea, it ...
.
Overview
During the early to middle Jōmon period (approximately 4000 to 2500 BC), sea levels were five to six meters higher than at present, and the ambient temperature was also 2 deg C higher. During this period, the Tōhoku region was inhabited by 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 ...
, many of whom lived in coastal settlements. The
midden
A midden is an old dump for domestic waste. It may consist of animal bones, human excrement, botanical material, mollusc shells, potsherds, lithics (especially debitage), and other artifacts and ecofacts associated with past human oc ...
s associated with such settlements contain
bone
A bone is a rigid organ that constitutes part of the skeleton in most vertebrate animals. Bones protect the various other organs of the body, produce red and white blood cells, store minerals, provide structure and support for the body, ...
,
botanical
Botany, also called plant science, is the branch of natural science and biology studying plants, especially Plant anatomy, their anatomy, Plant taxonomy, taxonomy, and Plant ecology, ecology. A botanist or plant scientist is a scientist who s ...
material,
mollusc shell
The mollusc (or mollusk) shell is typically a calcareous exoskeleton which encloses, supports and protects the soft parts of an animal in the phylum Mollusca, which includes snails, clams, tusk shells, and several other classes. Not all shelled ...
s,
sherd
This page is a glossary of archaeology, the study of the human past from material remains.
A
B
C
D
E
F
...
s,
lithics
Lithic may refer to:
*Relating to stone tools
** Lithic analysis, the analysis of stone tools and other chipped stone artifacts
** Lithic core, the part of a stone which has had flakes removed from it
** Lithic flake, the portion of a rock removed ...
, and other
artifacts and
ecofact
In archaeology, a biofact (or ecofact) is any organic material including flora or fauna material found at an archaeological site that has not been technologically altered by humans yet still has cultural relevance. Biofacts can include but are n ...
s associated with the now-vanished inhabitants, and these
features
Feature may refer to:
Computing
* Feature recognition, could be a hole, pocket, or notch
* Feature (computer vision), could be an edge, corner or blob
* Feature (machine learning), in statistics: individual measurable properties of the phenome ...
, provide a useful source into the
diet
Diet may refer to:
Food
* Diet (nutrition), the sum of the food consumed by an organism or group
* Dieting, the deliberate selection of food to control body weight or nutrient intake
** Diet food, foods that aid in creating a diet for weight loss ...
s and habits of Jōmon society. Most of these middens are found along the
Pacific coast
Pacific coast may be used to reference any coastline that borders the Pacific Ocean.
Geography Americas North America
Countries on the western side of North America have a Pacific coast as their western or south-western border. One of th ...
of Japan; however, this side is located on a
fluvial terrace
Fluvial terraces are elongated Terrace (geology), terraces that flank the sides of floodplains and fluvial valleys all over the world. They consist of a relatively level strip of land, called a "tread", separated from either an adjacent floodplai ...
on the left bank of the
Iwaki River
The is a river that crosses western Aomori Prefecture, Japan. It is in length and has a drainage area of . Under the Rivers Act of 1964 the Iwaki is designated as a Class 1 River and is managed by the Japanese Ministry of Land, Infrastructure, ...
, on the southeastern tip of the tongue-shaped plateau with an elevation of 10 to 15 meters jutting out to the Tsugaru Plain, facing the Sea of Japan.
Cylindrical pottery found at the site dates it to 4,500-6,000 years ago which corresponds to early to middle Jōmon period. Around this time, the surrounding area was submerged by the expanding brackish water of ancient
Lake Jūsan
, also known locally as is a brackish-water lagoon-type estuary located in the city of Goshogawara in Aomori Prefecture, Japan. It is the third-largest lake in Aomori Prefecture, after Lake Towada and Lake Ogawara, with a shoreline of and a m ...
due to a rise in sea levels. The midden is almost exclusively made of Corbicula japonica, ''Yamato-shijimi'' clams which were harvested from the brackish water; however, other shells, as well as the bones of fish including carp and Japanese sea bass and the bones of birds such as geese, ducks and short-tailed albatrosses have been unearthed. In addition, bone implements made of the bones of large mammals such as whales and dolphins as well as human bones have also been unearthed at the site.
During excavation conducted by the Aomori Prefectural Museum from 1990 to 1991, the remains of pit dwellings, and more than 50 unfinished bracelets made of ''Benkeigai'' (Giycymeris albolineatus) clamshells were discovered, demonstrating that bracelets were made in the settlement. Such bracelets dating from the same period have also been found in Hokkaidō, and obsidian from Hokkaidō has been discovered at this site, indicating that production activities and trading across the Tsugaru Strait occurred during the Jōmon period.
The site has been submitted for inscription on the UNESCO World Heritage List as one of the Jōmon Archaeological Sites in Hokkaidō, Northern Tōhoku, and other regions
There are no public facilities at the site, which has been backfilled and is now located under rice paddies. There is only a billboard with some explanatory text and photographs.
See also
*List of Historic Sites of Japan (Aomori)
External links
Historic Site Futatsumori Shell MiddenTsugaru City site
References
{{reflist
Jōmon period
Tsugaru, Aomori
Shell middens in Japan
History of Aomori Prefecture
Historic Sites of Japan