is the name of a large and complex Yayoi

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 ...

in Yoshinogari and Kanzaki in

Saga Prefecture is a prefecture of Japan located on the island of Kyushu. Saga Prefecture has a population of 809,248 (1 August 2020) and has a geographic area of 2,440 km2 (942 sq mi). Saga Prefecture borders Fukuoka Prefecture to the northeast and Nagas ...

Kyūshū is the third-largest island of Japan's five main islands and the most southerly of the four largest islands ( i.e. excluding Okinawa). In the past, it has been known as , and . The historical regional name referred to Kyushu and its surround ...

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 n ...

. According to the Yayoi chronology established by pottery seriations in the 20th century, Yoshinogari dates to between the 3rd century BC and the 3rd century AD. However, recent attempts to use absolute dating methods such as AMS

radiocarbon dating Radiocarbon dating (also referred to as carbon dating or carbon-14 dating) is a method for determining the age of an object containing organic material by using the properties of radiocarbon, a radioactive isotope of carbon. The method was de ...

have shown that the earliest Yayoi component of Yoshinogari dates to before 400 BC. This archaeological site is of great importance in Japanese and world

prehistory Prehistory, also known as pre-literary history, is the period of human history between the use of the first stone tools by hominins 3.3 million years ago and the beginning of recorded history with the invention of writing systems. The us ...

because of the massive size and important nature of the settlement and the artifacts found there. Yoshinogari consists of a settlement, a cemetery, and multiple ditch-and-

palisade A palisade, sometimes called a stakewall or a paling, is typically a fence or defensive wall made from iron or wooden stakes, or tree trunks, and used as a defensive structure or enclosure. Palisades can form a stockade. Etymology ''Palisade ...

enclosed precincts. Bronze mirrors from China, Japanese-style bronze mirrors, bronze daggers, coins, bells, and halberds, iron tools, wooden tools, prehistoric human hair, and many other precious artifacts have been unearthed from Yoshinogari features. The total area of this site is approximately 40 hectares. This site has been continuously excavated by a number of different agencies and institutions since 1986. Due to the superior features, artifacts, and significance in Japanese prehistory and protohistory, the site was designated as a "Special National Historic Site" in 1991, and a National Park was created there in 1992. Ancient structures are being reconstructed on the site and the park is a major tourist attraction. Yoshinogari is located 12 km from the

Ariake Sea The is a body of salt water surrounded by Fukuoka, Saga, Nagasaki, and Kumamoto Prefectures, all of which lie on the island of Kyūshū in Japan. It is the largest bay in Kyūshū. Its deepest point is only about 50 meters (165 ft) deep, and ext ...

on a low hill that extends out of the Sefuri Mountains and is surrounded on three sides by land that is suitable for wet-rice (paddy) cultivation.

Early Yayoi

The earliest component of the Yoshinogari settlement formed at the southern end of the low hill extending out from the Sefuri Mountains. The earliest settlement was about 3 hectares in area and contained a ditch-enclosure. A small number of pit-houses, pit-features, and burial jars dating to this sub-period have been excavated (SPBE 2000).

Middle Yayoi

Mortuary features are prominent in this sub-period. For example, a 30 x 40 m mounded burial was constructed on the northern end of the low hill. Five of six jar burials in the centre of the mounded burial contained cylindrical

jade Jade is a mineral used as jewellery or for ornaments. It is typically green, although may be yellow or white. Jade can refer to either of two different silicate minerals: nephrite (a silicate of calcium and magnesium in the amphibole group ...

-like glass ornaments from China and

bronze Bronze is an alloy consisting primarily of copper, commonly with about 12–12.5% tin and often with the addition of other metals (including aluminium, manganese, nickel, or zinc) and sometimes non-metals, such as phosphorus, or metalloids suc ...

daggers from the

Korean peninsula Korea ( ko, 한국, or , ) is a peninsular region in East Asia. Since 1945, it has been divided at or near the 38th parallel, with North Korea (Democratic People's Republic of Korea) comprising its northern half and South Korea (Republic ...

. The mounded burial is located in an area away from the majority of burials, confirming the thoughts some archaeologists that those interred in the burial mound were the leaders of Yoshinogari (Barnes 1993:220-221; Imamura 1996:182; SPBE 2000). More than 2000 burial jars dating to this period have come to light, both inside and outside of ditched areas. Many of these burials were laid out in a long row, some hundreds of metres long, parallel with the length of the low hill in the middle of the site. Artifacts excavated from the Middle Yayoi burials indicate the presence of some status distinctions. Large wooden raised-floor

granaries A granary is a storehouse or room in a barn for threshed grain or animal feed. Ancient or primitive granaries are most often made of pottery. Granaries are often built above the ground to keep the stored food away from mice and other animals ...

appeared at the end of this sub-period in the middle and southern ends of the site (SPBE 2000). An area of the Middle Yayoi settlement seems to have been dedicated to the casting of bronze implements due to the number of moulds which were found. In the same area, pottery that was common in the Chinese continent and Korean peninsula during the same period was excavated there as well. This has led some Japanese archaeologists to propose that Middle Yayoi interaction with the

China China, officially the People's Republic of China (PRC), is a country in East Asia. It is the world's List of countries and dependencies by population, most populous country, with a Population of China, population exceeding 1.4 billion, slig ...

was related to bronze-casting.

Late Yayoi

A large outer ditch was built around the edges of the low hill, completely surrounding the settlement and cemetery areas. Inside of the outer ditch, smaller ditch-enclosed precincts were built that surrounded groups of pit-houses and raised-floor buildings. The ditches of the inner precincts of the Late Yayoi were undoubtedly meant for defence based on the evidence of post-moulds indicating palisades on the inside of the ditches. Indeed, the so-called "Northern Inner Enclosure" was surrounded by double ditches (SPBE 2000). Some of the raised-floor buildings of this sub-period were quite tall and large. For example, the largest raised floor building was square in shape (12.5 X 12.5 m) with post-moulds that were 40–50 cm in diameter (SPBE 2000). Raised-floor buildings are known from large

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 ...

sites in Japan such as

Sannai-Maruyama Site The is an archaeological site and museum located in the Maruyama and Yasuta neighborhoods to the southwest of central Aomori in Aomori Prefecture in northern Japan, containing the ruins of a very large Jōmon period settlement. The ruins of a ...

Historical perspective

The discovery and subsequent excavation of Yoshinogari caused a sustained sensation in the Japanese media in the late 1980s and early 1990s. The attention given to this site soon centred upon intense speculation that Yoshinogari could have been the capital of

Yamatai Yamatai or Yamatai-koku is the Sino-Japanese name of an ancient country in Wa (Japan) during the late Yayoi period The Chinese text '' Records of the Three Kingdoms'' first recorded the name as () or (; using reconstructed Middle Chinese ...

, a polity mentioned in Chinese historical texts such as '' Weizhi'' and ''

Houhanshu The ''Book of the Later Han'', also known as the ''History of the Later Han'' and by its Chinese name ''Hou Hanshu'' (), is one of the Twenty-Four Histories and covers the history of the Han dynasty from 6 to 189 CE, a period known as the Later ...

''. Yamatai is assumed to have had implications for the formation of state-level society in the

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 ...

. This issue remains somewhat controversial. However, most archaeologists state that there is no direct link between Yoshinogari and Yamatai (Barnes 1993; Yoshinogari 2001).

References

*Barnes, Gina L. :1993. ''China, Korea, and Japan: The Rise of Civilization in East Asia''. Thames and Hudson, London, pp. 220-221. *GARI (Gyeongnam Archaeological Research Institute) :2003. ''Sacheon Igeum-dong Yujeok'' he Igeum-dong Site, Sacheon GARI, Jinju. *Imamura, Keiji :1996. ''Prehistoric Japan: New Perspectives on Insular East Asia''. University of Hawaii Press, Honolulu, pp. 173, 182-184. *SPBE (Saga Prefecture Board of Education) :2000. ''The Yoshinogari Site''. SPBE, Saga City. *2001. Yoshinogari article.''The Penguin Archaeology Guide'', edited by Paul Bahn. Penguin, London, pp. 482.

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