The is an archaeological site in the Satsukigaoka neighborhood of Hanamigawa ward of the city of

Chiba Chiba may refer to: Places China * (), town in Jianli County, Jingzhou, Hubei Japan * Chiba (city), capital of Chiba Prefecture ** Chiba Station, a train station * Chiba Prefecture, a sub-national jurisdiction in the Greater Tokyo Area on ...

, Chiba Prefecture, in the

Kantō region The is a geographical area of Honshu, the largest island of Japan. In a common definition, the region includes the Greater Tokyo Area and encompasses seven prefectures: Gunma, Tochigi, Ibaraki, Saitama, Tokyo, Chiba and Kanagawa. Slight ...

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 ...

containing 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 ...

shell midden. It was designated a National Historic Site of Japan in 1981.

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 Kantō region was inhabited by the

Jōmon people is the generic name of several peoples who lived in the Japanese archipelago during the Jōmon period (). The Jōmon people may have consisted of multiple groups, which arrived and merged at different times in the Japanese archipelago, using multi ...

, many of whom lived in coastal settlements. The

midden A midden (also kitchen midden or shell heap) is an old dump for domestic waste which may consist of animal bone, human excrement, botanical material, mollusc shells, potsherds, lithics (especially debitage), and other artifacts and ecofact ...

s associated with such settlements contain bone, botanical material, mollusc shells,

sherd In archaeology, a sherd, or more precisely, potsherd, is commonly a historic or prehistoric fragment of pottery, although the term is occasionally used to refer to fragments of stone and glass vessels, as well. Occasionally, a piece of broken p ...

s, lithics, and other

artifact Artifact, or artefact, may refer to: Science and technology * Artifact (error), misleading or confusing alteration in data or observation, commonly in experimental science, resulting from flaws in technique or equipment ** Compression artifact, a ...

s and ecofacts associated with the now-vanished inhabitants, and these

features Feature may refer to: Computing * Feature (CAD), could be a hole, pocket, or notch * Feature (computer vision), could be an edge, corner or blob * Feature (software design) is an intentional distinguishing characteristic of a software item ...

, provide a useful source into the diets 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 Countries on the western side of the Americas have a Pacific coast as their western or southwestern border, except for Panama, where the Pac ...

of Japan. Of the approximately 2400 shell middens throughout Japan, about 120 are concentrated in Chiba city. The Kotehashi midden is located at the base of a plateau with an elevation of 26 meters above the present sea level, on the upper reaches of the Hanami River. It has a horseshoe shape opening to the northeast, forming a partial shell ring with dimensions of 200 meters from east-to-west by 150 meters from north-to-south, and was constructed during the transition from the late to the final Jōmon period. Full-scale

archaeological excavation In archaeology, excavation is the exposure, processing and recording of archaeological remains. An excavation site or "dig" is the area being studied. These locations range from one to several areas at a time during a project and can be condu ...

s were conducted three times by

Meiji University , abbreviated as Meiji (明治) or Meidai (明大'')'', is a private research university located in Chiyoda City, the heart of Tokyo, Japan. Established in 1881 as Meiji Law School (明治法律学校, ''Meiji Hōritsu Gakkō'') by three Meiji-er ...

, Tokyo Gakugei University and Chiba University in 1951, 1956, and 1964. The shells that make up the shell mound are shellfish that live in the sand and mud in the inner bay, such as ''hamaguri'', ''asari'', ''kesago'', and the midden also contained very large numbers of ''ibusago''. Animal bones included those of deer, monkeys and ''tanuki''. Although a number of

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, bone fish hooks, etc. have been found, no trace of a settlement has yet been found. The site is currently maintained and preserved as a historical park. It is located five minutes on foot from the "Satsukigaoka Daiichi" stop on the Keisei bus from

Shin-Kemigawa Station is a passenger railway station located in Hanamigawa-ku, Chiba, Japan, operated by East Japan Railway Company (JR East). Lines Shin-Kemigawa Station is served by the Chūō-Sōbu Line (local service) and is located 6.0 kilometers from Chiba ...

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 ...

Sobu Main Line.

References

External links

Chiba City home page

{{in lang, ja Jōmon-period shell middens Chiba (city) History of Chiba Prefecture Historic Sites of Japan

Overview

See also

References

External links