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 the ruins of a late 4th century AD

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 ...

settlement located in what is now the city of

Kurihara Kurihara City Hall is a city located in Miyagi Prefecture, Japan. , the city had an estimated population of 66,565, and a population density of 83 persons per km2 in 24,994 households. The total area of the city is . Parts of the city are with ...

Miyagi Prefecture is a prefecture of Japan located in the Tōhoku region of Honshu. Miyagi Prefecture has a population of 2,305,596 (1 June 2019) and has a geographic area of . Miyagi Prefecture borders Iwate Prefecture to the north, Akita Prefecture to the nort ...

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 received protection by the central government as a National Historic Site in 2017.

Overview

The Irinosawa site is located at an altitude of 49 meters on the southernmost side of a hill sandwiched by the Sakogawa and Nisakogawa rivers, and extends 430 meters north to south and 450 meters east to west. It contains the ruins of many

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 in an extremely dense configuration not found in any other known Kofun period settlement, and was surrounded by a moat. One of the pit dwellings was found to contain two bronze mirrors, 28 iron items and over 200 beads (including several jade ''

magatama are curved, comma-shaped beads that appeared in prehistoric Japan from the Final Jōmon period through the Kofun period, approximately 1000 BCE to the 6th century CE. The beads, also described as "jewels", were made of primitive stone and eart ...

''), In addition, many relics have been excavated from other pit building ruins, and two more mirrors. The density of artifacts is highly unusual, but the presence of mirrors is a major mystery, as at the time bronze mirrors were considered sacred ritual items which were in the possession of only the highest rulers and to have several in one ordinary dwelling, let alone in multiple coexisting buildings is unprecedented. Much of the pottery shards found are of a type common in the

Kansai region The or the , lies in the southern-central region of Japan's main island Honshū. The region includes the prefectures of Nara, Wakayama, Kyoto, Osaka, Hyōgo and Shiga, often also Mie, sometimes Fukui, Tokushima and Tottori. The metropolita ...

or Japan, and many of the glass beads originated from outside the

Japanese archipelago The Japanese archipelago (Japanese: 日本列島, ''Nihon rettō'') is a archipelago, group of 6,852 islands that form the country of Japan, as well as the Russian island of Sakhalin. It extends over from the Sea of Okhotsk in the northeast to t ...

. As the pit dwellings contained no hearth or evidence of habitation, it has been speculated by archaeologists that the buildings are warehouses, possibly a trade center, or possibly an outpost of the

Yamato state The was a tribal alliance centered on the Yamato region (Nara Prefecture) from the 4th century to the 7th century, and ruled over the alliance of noble families in the central and western parts of the Japanese archipelago. The age is from the ...

, which was expanding its influence into the region even during the 4th century AD. The defensive nature of the building arrangement and the fact that many of the buildings appear to have been intentionally destroyed by fire led some weight to this theory, as Yamato influence was spreading over the opposition of the local

Emishi The (also called Ebisu and Ezo), written with Chinese characters that literally mean "shrimp barbarians," constituted an ancient ethnic group of people who lived in parts of Honshū, especially in the Tōhoku region, referred to as in contemp ...

tribes. It was excavated in 2017 in conjunction with construction work on a bypass for

Japan National Route 4 is a major national highway in eastern Honshū, Japan. Measuring it is the longest highway in the country. When oversea routes are included, it is the second longest highway in Japan, with National Route 58 then measuring because of its ma ...

References

External links

Miyagi Prefecture official site

Kurihara City official site
{{in lang, ja Kurihara, Miyagi Kofun period Archaeological sites in Japan History of Miyagi Prefecture Historic Sites of Japan

Overview

See also

References

External links