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 historic or contemporary), and which has been, or may be, investigated using the discipline of archaeology an ...

with a cave dwelling in use in the early

Jōmon period The is the time in Japanese history, traditionally dated between 6,000–300 BCE, during which Japan was inhabited by a diverse hunter-gatherer and early agriculturalist population united through a common Jōmon culture, which reached a c ...

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

Takahata, Yamagata 270px, Yamagata Takahata Winery is a town located in Yamagata Prefecture, Japan. , the town had an estimated population of 23,367, in 7629 households, and a population density of 130 persons per km². The total area of the town is . Geography ...

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 (''ken''): Akita, Aomori, Fukushima, Iwate, Miyagi, and Yamagata. Tōhoku retains a ...

of northern

Japan Japan ( ja, 日本, or , and formally , ''Nihonkoku'') is an island country in East Asia. It is situated in the northwest Pacific Ocean, and is bordered on the west by the Sea of Japan, while extending from the Sea of Okhotsk in the north ...

. 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. The range 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 re ...

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

Tertiary Tertiary ( ) is a widely used but obsolete term for the geologic period from 66 million to 2.6 million years ago. The period began with the demise of the non-avian dinosaurs in the Cretaceous–Paleogene extinction event, at the start ...

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 cont ...

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 much of the cooler temperate northern hemisphere, on lowlands in the north and high on mountains furt ...

), 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 Yamaga ...

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