The are 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 ...

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

Kitaakita 270px, Lake Shimiko is a city located in Akita Prefecture, Japan. , the city had an estimated population of 29,201, and a population density of 120 persons per km2. and a population density of 25 persons per km2. The total area of the city is ...

Akita Prefecture is a Prefectures of Japan, prefecture of Japan located in the Tōhoku region of Honshu.Nussbaum, Louis-Frédéric. (2005). "Provinces and prefectures" in ; "Tōhoku" in . Its population is estimated 915,691 as of 1 August 2023 and its geographi ...

, 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 ...

. Discovered during the construction of a highway to nearby

Odate–Noshiro Airport is an airport in Kitaakita, Akita Prefecture, Japan and is west of Ōdate, at above sea level. It is also informally known as Akita North Airport (あきた北空港 ''Akita Kita Kūkō''). History Efforts to build an airport in northern Aki ...

, the remains were designated a National Historic Site of Japan in 2001 by the Japanese government. The site is located approximately five minutes on foot from on the Akita Nairiku Railway.

Site

The site consists of three large

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 ...

s located on an artificially flattened plateau on the west bank of the Yoneshiro River. The largest circle is between 42 and 45 meters in diameter, and completely encloses a fourth stone circle. The stones, including porphyrite,

rhyolite Rhyolite ( ) is the most silica-rich of volcanic rocks. It is generally glassy or fine-grained (aphanitic) in texture (geology), texture, but may be porphyritic, containing larger mineral crystals (phenocrysts) in an otherwise fine-grained matri ...

and

tuff Tuff is a type of rock made of volcanic ash ejected from a vent during a volcanic eruption. Following ejection and deposition, the ash is lithified into a solid rock. Rock that contains greater than 75% ash is considered tuff, while rock co ...

, were brought from rivers up to five kilometers away, and the site has a moat on its eastern side with a length of more than 100 meters. More than 100 pits have been found, both inside and outside the stone circles, containing

terracotta Terracotta, also known as terra cotta or terra-cotta (; ; ), is a clay-based non-vitreous ceramic OED, "Terracotta""Terracotta" MFA Boston, "Cameo" database fired at relatively low temperatures. It is therefore a term used for earthenware obj ...

plates and jars, and small clay objects along with hunting and fishing implements and everyday tools. No bones have been found, but soil discoloration indicates that the site was a

necropolis A necropolis (: necropolises, necropoles, necropoleis, necropoli) is a large, designed cemetery with elaborate tomb monuments. The name stems from the Ancient Greek ''nekropolis'' (). The term usually implies a separate burial site at a distan ...

and the objects found were ritual or grave-goods. Some 200 clay ''

dogu Dogu may refer to: *Dogū, Japanese traditional figurines of the late Jōmon period *Dogu, a Japanese term meaning ''"the instruments of the way"'' very roughly approximating the concept ''"tools of the trade"''; most commonly used in English to r ...

'' have also been found on the site, many of which appear to have been intentionally broken. One of the stone circles contains a standing stone which appears to have served as a

sun dial A sundial is a horological device that tells the time of day (referred to as civil time in modern usage) when direct sunlight shines by the apparent position of the Sun in the sky. In the narrowest sense of the word, it consists of a flat p ...

. Next to the stone circles, post holes indicate that as many as 37

pit-houses 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 la ...

with a width of 3–5 meters and length of 6–7 meters were built on the site, although there is no indication that this was a permanently inhabited settlement. There are no public facilities at site. Many of the artifacts recovered from the site are on display at the Kitaakita city Community 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

伊勢堂岱遺跡

Agency for Cultural Affairs The is a special body of the Japanese Ministry of Education, Culture, Sports, Science and Technology (MEXT). It was set up in 1968 to promote Japanese arts and culture. The agency's budget for FY 2018 rose to ¥107.7 billion. Overview The age ...

(Japanese) {{DEFAULTSORT:Isedotai Ruins Tourist attractions in Akita Prefecture Stone circles in Asia History of Akita Prefecture Kitaakita Jōmon period sites

Site

See also

References

External links