The is an
archaeological site consisting of a
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 ...
cave dwelling in what is now part of the town of
Aga
Aga or AGA may refer to:
Business
* Architectural Glass and Aluminum (AGA), a glazing contractor, established in 1970
* AGA (automobile), ''Autogen Gasaccumulator AG'', 1920s German car company
*AGA AB, ''Aktiebolaget Svenska Gasaccumulator'', a ...
,
Niigata Prefecture in the
Hokuriku region
The was located in the northwestern part of Honshu, the main island of Japan. It lay along the Sea of Japan within the Chūbu region, which it is currently a part of. It is almost equivalent to Koshi Province and Hokurikudō area in pre-modern ...
of
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 cave was designated a
National Historic Site of Japan in 1982.
Overview
The cave is located in the upstream part of the Muroya River, a branch of the Jinna River, and was formed by erosion of a
rhyolite
Rhyolite ( ) is the most silica-rich of volcanic rocks. It is generally glassy or fine-grained (aphanitic) in texture, but may be porphyritic, containing larger mineral crystals (phenocrysts) in an otherwise fine-grained groundmass. The mineral ...
outcrop on the river's left bank at an elevation of 200 meters. The cave is approximately 1.5 meters in width and extends for seven meters into the mountain. The interior was excavated from 1958 to 1959, during which time numerous examples of
Jōmon pottery from the earliest stage of the Jōmon Period and the
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 and hunting implements such as projectile points were discovered. The design of some of these artifacts indicated a similarity to projectile points found in the
Primorsky Krai region of eastern
Siberia.
The artifacts included many
lithic flake
In archaeology, a lithic flake is a "portion of rock removed from an objective piece by percussion or pressure,"Andrefsky, W. (2005) ''Lithics: Macroscopic Approaches to Analysis''. 2d Ed. Cambridge, Cambridge University Press and may also be refe ...
s (stone waste generated during stone tool production), indicating that this site was a production base for such tools. These items are important materials for clarifying the origins of Jōmon culture and 1350 items were collectively designated an
National Important Cultural Property in 2000.
The artifacts discovered are displayed at the Nagaoka City Science Museum and at the Age Regional History Museum in former
Kamikawa village.
The cave is located about 20 minutes by car from
Tsugawa Station 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 ...
Ban'etsu West Line.
There are no facilities at site.
See also
*
List of Historic Sites of Japan (Niigata)
References
External links
Aga town home pageNiigata Tourism home page
{{Prehistoric caves
Aga, Niigata
Historic Sites of Japan
History of Niigata Prefecture
Important Cultural Properties of Japan
Caves of Japan
Jōmon period sites
Cave dwellings