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 recorded history, historic or contemporary), and which has been, or may be, investigated using the discipline ...

in the city of

Hirosaki is a Cities of Japan, city located in western Aomori Prefecture, Japan. , the city had an estimated population of 163,639 in 71,044 households, and a population density of . The total area of the city is . Hirosaki developed as a jōkamachi, ca ...

Aomori Prefecture is a Prefectures of Japan, prefecture of Japan in the Tōhoku region. The prefecture's capital, largest city, and namesake is the city of Aomori (city), Aomori. Aomori is the northernmost prefecture on Japan's main island, Honshu, and is border ...

, 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 (): Akita, Aomori, Fukushima, Iwate, Miyagi, and Yamagata. Tōhoku retains ...

of northern

Japan Japan is an island country in East Asia. Located in the Pacific Ocean off the northeast coast of the Asia, Asian mainland, it is bordered on the west by the Sea of Japan and extends from the Sea of Okhotsk in the north to the East China Sea ...

that contains the ruins of a late

Jōmon period In Japanese history, the is the time between , during which Japan was inhabited by the Jōmon people, a diverse hunter-gatherer and early agriculturalist population united by a common culture, which reached a considerable degree of sedentism an ...

settlement dating to approximately 2,0001,500 BC. The remains were designated a National Historic Site in 2012 by the Japanese government.

Site

The site is located at the tip of a , tongue-shaped hill on the northeastern side of the foot of

Mount Iwaki is a stratovolcano located in western Aomori Prefecture, Tohoku, Japan. It is also referred to as and less frequently, due to its similar shape to Mount Fuji. With a summit elevation of and a Topographic prominence, prominence of it is th ...

in western Aomori Prefecture and was discovered during construction work in 1959. A rescue survey conducted over a three-year period found the remains of a large

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, this type of earth shelter may also be used to store food (just like a pantry, a lar ...

, at the time the largest to have been discovered in Japan, followed by a

stone circle A stone circle is a ring of megalithic standing stones. Most are found in Northwestern Europe – especially Stone circles in the British Isles and Brittany – and typically date from the Late Neolithic and Early Bronze Age, with most being ...

. the site was acquired by the government for preservation in 1961, but was not properly excavated until 2006.

Stone circle

The stone circle is elliptical, with a length of and width of . It was constructed by leveling a hilltop, and then arranging 77 stones assemblies along the margin of an embankment. The stone assemblies consist of approximately 1200

pyroxene The pyroxenes (commonly abbreviated Px) are a group of important rock-forming inosilicate minerals found in many igneous and metamorphic rocks. Pyroxenes have the general formula , where X represents ions of calcium (Ca), sodium (Na), iron ( ...

andesite Andesite () is a volcanic rock of intermediate composition. In a general sense, it is the intermediate type between silica-poor basalt and silica-rich rhyolite. It is fine-grained (aphanitic) to porphyritic in texture, and is composed predomina ...

stones, which were collected from the river that runs to the north and south of site. This arrangement of small stones marks an advancement of the techniques used at the earlier Komakino Site to the north, and dates it to the first half of the Final Jōmon period (approx. 1,000 BC). The circle is designed such that it is aligned to the point where the sun sets over the summit of Mount Iwaki on the

winter solstice The winter solstice, or hibernal solstice, occurs when either of Earth's geographical pole, poles reaches its maximum axial tilt, tilt away from the Sun. This happens twice yearly, once in each hemisphere (Northern Hemisphere, Northern and So ...

Artifacts

Jōmon pottery The is a type of ancient earthenware pottery which was made during the Jōmon period in Japan. The term "Jōmon" () means "rope-patterned" in Japanese, describing the patterns that are pressed into the clay. Outline Oldest pottery in J ...

, clay objects, and stone tools and stone objects (arrowheads, spoons, etc.,) from the early phase of Final Jōmon Period unearthed at site bear designs similar to that found at Kamegaoka Stone Age Site. These included some 250 disk-like stone objects with a diameter of five to ten centimeters, made of the same pyroxene andesite as the stone circles, which presumably had some ritual significance in connection with the stone circle.

Pit dwelling

A large pit dwelling was located southwest of the stone circle. It had a diameter of with a hearth in the center. The site has been submitted for inscription on the

UNESCO The United Nations Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organization (UNESCO ) is a List of specialized agencies of the United Nations, specialized agency of the United Nations (UN) with the aim of promoting world peace and International secur ...

World Heritage List World Heritage Sites are landmarks and areas with legal protection under an international treaty administered by UNESCO for having cultural, historical, or scientific significance. The sites are judged to contain "cultural and natural heritag ...

as one of the Jōmon Archaeological Sites in Hokkaidō, Northern Tōhoku, and other regions

References

External links