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 ...

containing the ruins of an Incipient

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 ...

settlement located in the Oshikakubo neighborhood of the city of

Fujinomiya, Shizuoka is a city located in central Shizuoka Prefecture, Japan. , the city had an estimated population of 132,507 in 56,655 households, and a population density of 340 persons per km². The total area of the city is . History The city name comes from ...

in the

Tōkai region The is a subregion of the Chūbu region and Kansai region in Japan that runs along the Pacific Ocean. The name comes from the Tōkaidō, one of the Edo Five Routes. Because Tōkai is a sub-region and is not officially classified, there is s ...

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 2008.

Overview

The Ōshikubo site is located in the former town of

Shibakawa, Shizuoka was a town located in Fuji District, Shizuoka Prefecture, Japan. As of 2009, the town had an estimated population of 9,344 and a density of 126 persons per km². The total area was 74.18 km². On March 23, 2010, Shibakawa was merged into ...

on the gentle slope of the Habuna hill surrounded by lava flows from

Mount Fuji , or Fugaku, located on the island of Honshū, is the highest mountain in Japan, with a summit elevation of . It is the second-highest volcano located on an island in Asia (after Mount Kerinci on the island of Sumatra), and seventh-highest p ...

. The site was discovered in conjunction with field maintenance on the left bank of the Shiba River, which flows from north to south on the border of the site. The site is located just above the Shibakawa lava flow, which originates from Mount Fuji, and which covers part of the site. This enables a precise dating of the site, as part of the dwellings are built on top of a lava flow which occurred 17,000 years ago, and are covered by a second flow which occurred 13,000 years ago. The site was found to contain the remnants of 14

pit dwelling A pit-house (or ''pit house'', ''pithouse'') is a house built in the ground and used for shelter. Besides providing shelter from the most extreme of weather conditions, these structures may also be used to store food (just like a pantry, a larder ...

s, arranged around a horseshoe-shaped plaza. Each dwelling has a hearth pit at the center, some of which were found to contain carbonized grains. The excavated remains included some 26,000 artifacts, centering on shards of

Jōmon pottery The is a type of ancient earthenware pottery which was made during the Jōmon period in Japan. The term "Jōmon" () means "rope-patterned" in Japanese, describing the patterns that are pressed into the clay. Outline Oldest pottery in Jap ...

shards,

stone tool A stone tool is, in the most general sense, any tool made either partially or entirely out of stone. Although stone tool-dependent societies and cultures still exist today, most stone tools are associated with prehistoric (particularly Stone Ag ...

s for hunting and other and stone implements, such as millstones for grinding grain and nuts. Although earlier sites have been identified, the Ōshikubo ruins is the oldest Incipient

(12,000 to 15,000 years ago) settlement yet discovered with pit dwellings, as other contemporary ruins were typically cave dwellings. This period is at the end of the last

ice age An ice age is a long period of reduction in the temperature of Earth's surface and atmosphere, resulting in the presence or expansion of continental and polar ice sheets and alpine glaciers. Earth's climate alternates between ice ages and gree ...

when the ecosystem of animals and plants is changing rapidly and significantly due to warming temperatures. The Jōmon population had developed earthenware cooking pots and began to rely more on collecting plants and hunting fish and animals from fixed dwelling settlements. The foundations of some of the pit dwellings at this site overlap, indicating that the site was used over a long period of time. The site is located about 15 minutes by car from

Fujinomiya Station is a railway station on the Minobu Line of Central Japan Railway Company (JR Central) located in the city of Fujinomiya, Shizuoka Prefecture, Japan. It is approximately at the mid-way point of the Minobu Line within Shizuoka Prefecture. Lines F ...

on the

JR East The is a major passenger railway company in Japan and is the largest of the seven Japan Railways Group companies. The company name is officially abbreviated as JR-EAST or JR East in English, and as in Japanese. The company's headquarters are ...

Minobu Line The is a railway line in the Tōkai region of Japan operated by the Central Japan Railway Company (JR Central). It connects Fuji Station in Fuji, Shizuoka to Kōfu Station in Kōfu, Yamanashi, and the Tōkaidō Main Line with the Chūō Main ...

. The ruins are currently backfilled and buried about one to two meters below the surface, although the site has a stone marker, information placard and a reconstruction of a faux pit dwelling.

References

External links

Fujinomiya City official site
{{in lang, ja Jōmon-period ruins History of Shizuoka Prefecture Fujinomiya, Shizuoka Historic Sites of Japan

Overview

See also

References

External links