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 a late-

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 Ikojinoura neighborhood of the city of

Komoro, Nagano is a city located in Nagano Prefecture, Japan. , the city had an estimated population of 42,489 in 18776 households, and a population density of 430 persons per km². Its total area is . Geography Komoro is located in eastern Nagano Prefectur ...

in the

Chūbu region The , Central region, or is a region in the middle of Honshu, Honshū, Japan, Japan's main island. In a wide, classical definition, it encompasses nine prefectures (''ken''): Aichi Prefecture, Aichi, Fukui Prefecture, Fukui, Gifu Prefecture ...

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 ruins were designated a National Historic Site of Japan in 1933. The site was the starting point for Jōmon period studies in the southern area of

Mount Asama is an active complex volcano in central Honshū, the main island of Japan. The volcano is the most active on Honshū. The Japan Meteorological Agency classifies Mount Asama as rank A. It stands above sea level on the border of Gunma and Nagano ...

Overview

The Teranoura site is located on the hilly southern slopes of Sanpogamine, a mountain in the outskirts of Komoro at an elevation of approximately 770 meters, and some 500 meters from the Oshimizawa River. It was first excavated in the 1930s, during which time the traces of

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, some with cobblestone floors, and a forge for smelting iron, along with numerous pottery shards,

stone axe A hand axe (or handaxe or Acheulean hand axe) is a prehistoric stone tool with two faces that is the longest-used tool in human history, yet there is no academic consensus on what they were used for. It is made from stone, usually flint or che ...

s, whetstones and

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 were discovered. A number of

Japanese wolf The Japanese wolf ( ja, ニホンオオカミ（日本狼）, ja, script=Latn, label=Hepburn romanization, Hepburn, Nihon ōkami, or , ee #Nomenclature: "ōkami" and "yamainu", below ''Canis lupus hodophilax''), also known as the Honshū wo ...

fangs were also recovered. It is highly probable that house sites overlapped from different periods of time, as a number of hearth sites were discovered within the 12 meter east-to-west by 12.8 meter north-to-south ruin. A reconstructed

pit house 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 ...

was later erected at the site, but there are no other public facilities. The site is approximately 16 minutes by car from

Shigeno Station is a railway station on the Shinano Railway Line in the city of Tōmi, Nagano, Japan, operated by the third-sector railway operating company Shinano Railway. Lines Shigeno Station is served by the 65.1 km Shinano Railway Line and is 27.9 ...

on the

Shinano Railway The is a Japanese third-sector railway operating company established in 1996 to operate passenger railway services on the section of the JR East Shinetsu Main Line within Nagano Prefecture when it is separated from the JR East network in Octobe ...

References

External links

Komoro city official site
{{in lang, ja History of Nagano Prefecture Komoro, Nagano Historic Sites of Japan Jōmon-period ruins

Overview

See also

References

External links