Prehistoric Archaeological

Periods
in Japan
by Charles T. Keally

Prehistoric Japan is divided into four major

cultures: Palaeolithic, Jomon, Yayoi and
Kofun. Each of these major cultures, or
periods, is further subdivided into several
subperiods (or periods). The cultural
phases are almost limitless. The dates for
these periods are given in uncalibrated
radiocarbon years before present, except
for the beginning of the Palaeolithic, which
is based on other dating methods.

PREHISTORIC PERIODS
IN JAPANESE ARCHAEOLOGY
Palaeolithic
Jomon
Yayoi
Kofun

50/35,000-13/9,500 years ago

13/9,500-2,500 years ago
500 B.C.-A.D. 300
A.D. 300-710

The JAPANESE PALAEOLITHIC is a period generally

thought to be dominated by big-game
hunters, although there is little direct
evidence for how these people lived.
Everyone agrees that there is a Late
Palaeolithic in Japan, dated from about
35,000 years ago to the advent of pottery
technology 13,000 to 10,000 years ago.

The evidence for humans in Japan before

35,000 years ago is quite controversial.
On December 28, 1997, I had written here that
"advocates claim ages up to 600,000 years for
the oldest sites" in Japan. But
Japan's EARLY PALAEOLITHIC and MIDDLE PALAEOLITHI
C claims imploded on Sunday, November 5,
2000, when Mainichi Shimbun newspaper
revealed that it had caught FUJIMURA
Shin'ichi planting artifacts on the
Kamitakamori site. I am posting papers on the
scandal on another page. After almost two
years of re-excavation of some of the sites and
re-examination of the artifacts from many of
the sites associated with Fujimura, the Japanese
Archaeological Association concluded that
none of the Fujimura materials could be used
for research purposes. This affected materials
from 186 sites, 33 of them excavated. Since the
exposure of the hoax, a few sites dated as old as
40,000-50,000 years have been put forward,
and some earlier claims for "Early Palaeolithic"
sites are being looked at again by some
archaeologists. But claims for sites older than
35,000 years are not yet widely accepted.

The JOMON were a dynamically adapted

hunting, fishing and gathering peoples,
showing great regional and temporal
variation. Some regional Jomon peoples
attained high levels of material and social
culture, particularly in the rich temperate
forests of eastern Japan. In coastal regions,
especially around Tokyo Bay, Jomon
people used marine molluscs and other
marine resources intensively. There is
growing evidence that the Jomon people
tended plants, some perhaps domesticated,

and minimally managed most of their

resources skillfully. There is no evidence,
however, that farming and domestication
were important in their diet. There is also
evidence that suggests to some researchers
that the Jomon had a degree of
aquaculture. MARINE MAMMALS were common
in the Jomon diet in northern Japan, and,
by the end of Middle Jomon, it is probable
that some sites were occupied by people
emphasizing sea-mammal hunting.
By the later part of the Jomon in western
Japan, RICE FARMING began to replace the
foraging way of life. Some Jomon sites in
Kyushu show that these people already had
paddie fields, while retaining most other
characteristics of the Jomon culture. But by
the middle of the last millennium B.C., the
culture had changed so much, and the
continental influences had become so
obvious, that archaeologists recognize it as
the Yayoi culture.
YAYOI began as a culture of peasant farmers.
This way of life spread east, eventually
reaching the northern part of the main
island of Honshu; it never reached the
northernmost island of Hokkaido. Through
the centuries more and more continental
ideas, objects and technologies arrived in
the islands. Socio-elites developed,
rivalries increased, and warfare occurred
with greater and greater frequency.
Chinese records of the 3rd century A.D.
tell of warfare that perhaps led to the

unification of the country -- or at least a lot

of the western part of the country -- under
Queen Himeko of Yamataikoku. Whatever
the historical reality, Yayoi had certainly
become a culture of chiefdoms or even
more complex political structures.
Yayoi evolved without obvious break
directly into the KOFUN culture, identified by
the first appearance of keyhole-shaped
mound tombs (mound tombs already
existed from the Late Yayoi period or
earlier). These tombs reached massive
sizes in the late 4th and 5th centuries.
Many other changes occurred seemingly
rather suddenly around A.D. 400 -- the
appearance of clay ovens in the pitdwellings of the villagers, sue ware (stone
ware) of Korean type, and other
continental imports. This is the basis of
Egami's HORSE-RIDER theory. There is no
question that by the Middle Kofun period
Japan was a nation-state. But the regional
centers still seem to have had considerable
independence and power, and the northeast
was not yet conquered and under central
control as history dawned in Japan.
The prehistoric sequence of cultures on the
northern island of HOKKAIDO is somewhat
different. The Late Palaeolithic seems to be
the oldest finds there, and these finds
extent only a little older than 20,000 years,
although there are claims for Late
Palaeolithic finds back to 30,000 years ago.
The later finds are closely related to

Siberia and the Russian Far East. The

Jomon culture on Hokkaido is fairly
parallel to that further south. But when
Yayoi farmers were settling the country
further south, foragers evolved from the
Jomon, known as the Epi-jomon, occupied
Hokkaido. This culture was followed
inland by the Satsumon culture, a people
who depended on hunting, fishing and
gathering as well as farming, and on the
Okhotsk coast by the Okhotsk culture from
Sakhalin, a sea-mammal hunting and
marine-oriented people. These latter two
cultures parallel in time both the
Prehistoric (Proto-historic) Kofun period
and the Early Historic Nara and Heian
periods to the south.

The Earliest, Early and Middle Shellmound

Cultures are contemporary with Early to
Latest Jomon on the main islands. The end
of the Middle Shellmound Culture and the
early and middle phases of the Late
Shellmound Culture are roughly
contemporary with the Yayoi Period on the
main islands.

OKINAWA has yielded the only Palaeolithic

skeletons in Japan, but Palaeolithic
artifacts are not well identified on this
southern island chain. There seems to be a
gap in the archaeological record, and
perhaps in the occupation of the islands,
until a Jomon-like culture appears there
about 6,500 years ago. Despite similarities
to the Jomon, and later to the Yayoi, of the
main Japanese islands, archaeologists now
treat the Okinawan cultures under a
different scheme, called the Shellmound
Culture. This reflects both the very
different type of adaptation required to live
on small tropical islands and the fact that
the relationships of the Okinawan
prehistoric cultures to the Jomon and
Yayoi do not appear to be all that strong.

The Japanese Palaeolithic is a culture that

ends--by the general definition--with the
first appearance of pottery technology
about 13,000 to 10,000 uncalibrated
radiocarbon years ago, at the end of the last
glacial period. The beginning of the
Japanese Palaeolithic is controversial, with
some archaeologists arguing for ages as
early as 50/40,000 years or more and
others arguing that anything older than
35,000 years is invalid, either it is not of
human origin or it is not dated correctly. I
have strong reservations about the
materials claimed to be evidence of
humans in Japan before about 35,000 years
ago.

Japanese Palaeolithic Period

by Charles T. Keally

The logic seems valid that, given the

presence of humans at Lantien and

Zhoukoudien in North China 700,000 to

200,000 years ago, there is no reason why
these same humans could not have reached
Japan. Landbridges connected the islands
to the continent several times before
100,000 years ago, and animals (and
plants) migrated there during these
intervals. Why not humans? But finding
widely acceptable evidence of such early
humans in Japan has proven difficult.

Phase
IIb
Microlithic
Bifacial Projectile
Point
Incipient Jomon

16,00013,000 B.P.
13,000Phase III
12,000 B.P.
12,500Phase IV
11,000 B.P.
13,000-9500
B.P.

about 23,000 years ago. These artifacts

show some similarities to materials of the
same age in North China, but overall this
culture gives the impression of being a
pioneering culture. Sites older than about
23,000 years ago are all on the three
southern main islands of Japan; no
convincing (to me) sites older than this are
reported on the northern island of
Hokkaido.
October 13, 2009

The Japanese LATE PALAEOLITHIC has been

recognized since the excavation
of the

Iwajuku site north of Tokyo in 1949. There

are now (Sept. 27, 2009) over 10,000
known sites that belong to this period in
Japan. Large excavations since the late
1960s have provided massive amounts of
data and given a detailed picture of the
chronology and regional variations
throughout this culture spanning the last
glaciation.

TRADITIONS AND PHASES IN

THE JAPANESE LATE PALAEOLITHI

Paleolithic sites are usually hard to find

from the surface, hence a large proportion
are found during excavation. But most
archaeologists in Japan are not interested in
the Palaeolithic, and many do not
excavated these deeper strata, even during
contract excavations. Palaeolithic
archaeology accounts for only about 2% of
all the excavation work and publication in
Japan.

C
Traditions
Pebble & Flake Tool

Phases
Phase Ia
Phase Ib
Phase Ic

Backed-Tool

Phase IIa

Dates
35,00027,000 B.P.
27,00023,000 B.P.
23,00021,000 B.P.
21,00016,000 B.P.

Right from the beginning of the Late

Palaeolithic, all sites show extensive
evidence of tool manufacture and of the
use of exotic materials--in sharp contrast to
the total or nearly total lack of such
evidence in sites in Japan claimed to be
older than 35,000 years. EDGE-GROUND AX-LIKE
TOOLS also occur in some of the earliest sites
of this period. But flake tools and various
pebble tools predominate from 35,000 to

A huge volcanic eruption in southern Japan

sometime around 24,000 (or 22,000) years
ago spread a distinctive ash, the AiraTanzawa (AT) tephra, across most of the
country, making it possible to date sites
everywhere in Japan "before or after AT."
About the same time, the first truly KNIFESHAPED STONE TOOLS show up, a backed tool
made on a blade-flake. From that time on,
pebble tools become progressively less
important, and small, well-made tools,
especially the knife-shaped tools, become
progressively more important, until around
16,000 years ago when the pebble tools all
but disappear from the sites. The small
tools of chert and obsidian, or hard shale,
that predominate between 16,000 and
about 13,000 years ago show considerable
resemblance to tools of the same age in
northeastern Asia and in Europe. The tools
from sites in the northernmost island,
Hokkaido, are almost identical to those in
the Russian Far East and Siberia.

The distinctive Northeast Asian MICROBLADES

AND CORES are found in Hokkaido from about
15,000 years ago, and in Tokyo and
western Japan from around 13,000 or
12,000 years ago. These mircrolithic sites
are all non-ceramic except the later ones on
the southern island of Kyushu, such as the
famous Fukui Cave site. Large
bifacial FOLIATE POINTS are found with
microcores in much of northern Japan, but
they seem to post-date the microcores in
the Kanto region around Tokyo.
Occasionally a few potsherds are found
with these BIFACIAL POINTS in the east, where
they are dated 12,000 to 13,000 years ago.
But the LINEAR-RELIEF POTTERY, the oldest clear
style and the one found with microcores in
Fukui Cave, seems to appear only as the
bifacial points evolve into small stemmed
points that could be arrowheads. This
period between about 13,000 and 10,000
years ago is one marked by rapid change
and considerable regional variation; it also
is one very difficult to date. Consequently,
the crucial period of transition from the
Palaeolithic to the Jomon is still very
unclear.
The ENVIRONMENT during the Late Palaeolithic
was cool to cold, as it was in other
presently temperate zones elsewhere in the
world. At the peak of the glacial cold
around 21,000-18,000 years ago, tundra
covered much of Hokkaido in the north.
Most of the rest of eastern and central

Japan was covered by a boreal coniferous

forest. Western Japan from the Kanto Plain
around Tokyo to Kyushu was covered with
a temperate coniferous forest. Nauman's
elephants and Yabe's elks roamed much of
this forest. Moose, brown bear, steppe
bison and aurochs were among the many
large animals that lived in the forests of
eastern and northern Japan, along with a
generally Arctic fauna.
What the Late Palaeolithic peoples in
Japan did for FOOD is still little more than a
guess. Only the Lake Nojiri site has
yielded artifacts in association with
possible food remains -- Nauman's
elephants and Yabe's elks -- but even there
the evidence that these bones represent
human kills is far from convincing. Also,
there is little research into use-wear on the
artifacts, so we have no valid idea of how
the various tools were used. I feel the size
of the tools argues for smaller animals
rather than larger (huge) animals as the
main focus of hunting.
For interpreting OTHER ASPECTS OF BEHAVIOR, we
have only the stone tools, fire-cracked
rocks, stone materials, and the distributions
of artifacts within the sites and of sites
across the landscape. Source analyses of
stone materials show wide-spread
movement of stone, either through trade or
high mobility of the people. Obsidian from
Kozu Island south of Tokyo appears in
sites from the beginning of the Late

Palaeolithic, demonstrating that these

people had the ability to cross rather wide
stretches of sea. Most sites were occupied
for short periods of time -- a few days to a
few weeks or months -- and then not used
again for 1,000s of years, suggesting
considerable mobility in settlement pattern.
There is no good evidence of solid
structures for dwellings, although there are
a few claims for pit-dwellings. And the
only known burials and body decorations
both date to near the end of the Late
Palaeolithic, in a site in southwestern
Hokkaido.
The only HUMAN SKELETONS unquestionably
belonging to this period come from sites in
the Okinawan chain, extending far to the
south of the main Japanese islands (Table
of Fossils). But artifacts from this region
are not convincing, and the islands seem to
have been abandoned by humans for
several thousand years after the end of the
Palaeolithic. I do not feel these skeletons
provide particularly useful evidence for the
humans living in the main islands of Japan
during the Palaeolithic.
Transition from Palaeolithic to Jomon
The change from the "Palaeolithic" culture
to the "Jomon" culture is a gradual
transition. There is no hint of a clear break,
or disconformity, between the two cultures
in either the cultural materials or the dates.
This transition occurs over a period of

several cultural phases and 8,000 to 14,000

years, depending on how narrowly or
broadly one looks at the "transition" (Kudo
2005; Keally, Taniguchi & Kuzmin 2003).
The last clearly "Palaeolithic" cultural
phases are distinguished by (1) knifeshaped stone tools and (2) stone points (or
projectile points). These two phases date
about 23-19 ka calBP.
The narrowly defined "transition" occurs
across three cultural phases, distinguished
by (1) microblades and microcores, (2) the
Mikoshiba-Chojakubo group of stone tools
with small amounts of plain pottery, and
(3) linear-relief pottery. The MikoshibaChojakubo group of stone tools includes
large ax- or adz-like tools and large foliate
projectile points. Arrowheads are present
but rare. The Linear-relief Pottery phase
stone tools include axes, and querns and
grinders. Arrowheads are common in these
sites. Microblades and microcores are
distinctive of many Linear-relief Pottery
sites in western Japan; stemmed projectile
points are distinctive of Linear-relief
Pottery sites in eastern Japan. But pottery
is scarce in all sites of these phases. These
three cultural phases date about 18(20)14(13) ka calBP.
The first "Jomon" cultural phase is
distinguished by punctate-marked pottery,
nail-impressed pottery and cord-marked
pottery. The details of the pottery sequence

are not clear, and pottery is generally still

scarce in the sites. Stone tools include
arrowheads, and querns and grinders, but
much is still not clear about the tool
assemblages of this phase. This first
"Jomon" phase dates about 13.5-11.5 ka
calBP.
But the truly "typical" Jomon culture
begins from about 11.5 ka calBP, with
what is called the Yoriitomon Pottery
phase in the Kanto Region, and with the
radical increase in the quantities of pottery
found in the sites and the first appearance
of shellmounds.

TRANSITION FROM PALAEOLITHIC

TO JOMON
Stages

end Late
Palaeolithic

Phases

Oda &
Keally
1979

KnifePhase IIb
shaped Tools early
Stone Points

Phase IIb
late

Microblades Phase III

transition
MikoshibaPalaeolithic
Chojakubo
to Jomon

Phase IV
(plain
pottery)
Incipient
Linear-relief
Jomon
Pottery
(1)

Dates
23-20
ka
calBP
21-19
calBP
18(20)15 ka
calBP
17-15
ka
calBP
15(16)14(13)
calBP

first Jomon

Nailimpressed
Pottery

Incipient
Jomon
(2)

13.511.5
calBP

The Jomon Culture is said to be one of the

most AFFLUENT FORAGER cultures to ever exist.
As a general statement that is certainly true, but
the Jomon culture was too highly varied
through time and space to be amenable to many
general statements. Consequently, the
following description of the Jomon culture is
quite brief.
The "Jomon Culture" is generally distinguished
from its Palaeolithic predecessor by the first
appearance of pottery in the sites. But in fact
the TRANSITION from the Palaeolithic culture to
the Jomon culture is very gradual and the
"boundary" very fuzzy. (This transition is
discussed in some detail at the end of the
description of the Palaeolithic culture. [link])
Archaeologically the Jomon culture is divided
into SIX PERIODS and, varying somewhat with
period, into five or six regions. The periods are
further divided into a half dozen or more
pottery phases (one scheme for Kanto has 30
pottery phases for Middle Jomon). And in some
periods, especially Middle Jomon, some of the
regions are divided into two or more subregions. The final scheme has over 200

regional-temporal phases. This extreme

complexity reflects both the abundance of
archaeological material and the considerable
environmental change through time and space - for its size, Japan is probably the most
environmentally varied country in the world.
The dates for the main Jomon periods can be
generalized grossly as the following table
shows (based on uncalibrated radiocarbon
ages); the right column shows an example of
the pottery types for Middle Jomon only, in one
region of the country.

CHRONOLOGIES OF THE JOMON PERIOD

GENERALIZED JOMON CHRONOLO
GY

POTTERY PHASE
S
Southwestern Kanto,
Middle Jomon

11,000-7500
Goryogadai I-II
B.C.
Earliest Jomon 7500-4000 B.C.
Katsuzaka I-II
Early Jomon
4000-3000 B.C.
Katsuzaka III
Middle Jomon 3000-2000 B.C.
Kasori E Ia-Ib
Late Jomon
2000-1000 B.C.
Kasori E II
Latest Jomon
1000-500 B.C.
Kasori E III-IV
* All dates are based on uncalibrated radiocarbon age
Incipient Jomon

CALIBRATED RADIOCARBON DATES

are available
for Incipient and Middle Jomon, and for the
end of the Jomon Period. The Plain Pottery in
the oldest sites dates about 16,000-15,000 cal
BP; the following Linear-relief Pottery about
15,000-13,300 cal BP; and the Punctated, Nailimpressed, Impressed-cord, and Rolled-cord
pottery types about 13,300-11,200 cal BP.
Middle Jomon in the Kanto District dates about
5400-4400 cal BP. And the end of the Jomon
Period falls in the 10th century B.C.

itsSUBSISTENCE STRATEGY focused on hunting,

fishing and gathering, including, in favorable
regions, intensive shellfishing. The degree of
Jomon dependence on plants, land animals and
fish varied greatly with time and space.
Hunting was primarily with the bow and arrow;
fishing included the use of hooks and lines, nets
and traps, and spears; and plant use included
digging sticks for root plants, and grinders and
querns for the many kinds of nuts that were
utilized.

For more detailed information on Jomon dating

see the following links:

The Jomon people everywhere in Japan

exploited an extremely wide range of land
animals, fish, plants, molluscs and birds. A
highly generalized listing of the primary foods
of the Jomon would give deer and boar, sea
bream and sea perch, chestnuts, walnuts and
acorns, and clams and oysters. Regionally, tuna
and sea mammals were significant. But the
Jomon people used almost all available food
plants and animals to some degree, taking a
sustainable number of those things they
preferred and using the rest to fill out their diet.
Their diet was particularly rich in eastern
Japan.

And for discussion of some of the problems in

Jomon dating see the following links:

measurements.

There are two different definitions of INCIPIENT

JOMON. Many archaeologists follow the
definition set out by the father of Jomon pottery
typology, Yamanouchi Sugao, and put the
Yoriitomon series of pottery types at the end of
Incipient Jomon. But other archaeologists, like
myself, put the Yoriitomon series at the
beginning of Earliest Jomon, because these
pottery types are the first to be found in
significant quantities and in all sites.

Jomon Dates by Regions (2006)

Jomon and Yayoi Dates in Aomori
Prefecture (2000)
Middle Jomon Dates in Kanto (1999)

"Fakery" at the Beginning, the Ending

and the Middle of the Jomon
Period. (2004) (PDF file of Japanese
translation).
Bad Science and the Distortion of
History: Radiocarbon Dating in
Japanese Archaeology (last revised:
May 14, 2004)
The First Radiocarbon Dates for
Japan (last revised: April 14, 2004)

The Jomon is a pottery-using culture, a

characteristic often associated with early
farming cultures. But throughout the
approximately 10,000 years of its development,
from around 11,000 B.C. to around 500 B.C.,

There is now growing evidence that, at least in

some times and some regions, the
Jomon MANAGED their natural resources for
optimum productivity and stability, and for
sustainable exploitation. And there is also some
fairly reliable evidence for at least
limited CULTIVATION, including domesticated
gourds (Lagenaria siceraria Standl
var. gourda) and beans, and perhaps chestnuts
and millet, as early as Early Jomon (Torihama
Shellmound, Awazu Shellmound [Lake Biwa
lake-bottom site], Sannai Maruyama,
Hamanasuno). Plant opal even suggests

possible rice cultivation in western Japan as

central Japan -- Kanto and Chubu -- when it
See English-Language Bibliography
early as Early Jomon. But the idea that there
reached a peak that might have been as dense
for Jomon Subsistence and Diet
was "farming" in the Jomon period is a vast
300 people per 100 square kilometers in that
Studies for resources with more details
over-generalization from these occasional
region, measured across the 1,000 years of that
on this major aspect of the Jomon
domesticates and the confirmed existence of
period. But the population dropped rapidly
culture.
wet-rice farming in the last few centuries of the
there after that. The population in western
period in Kyushu, just before the Yayoi period
Japan remained quite low (about 10 people per
began there, or from the mistaken idea that a
100 square kilometers, per 1,000 years)
INFORMATION ON DOMESTICATED PLANTS IN THE JOMONthroughout
PERIOD the Jomon period, and grew very
large population can be sustained onlyRECENT
by
November 6, 2007
farming.
little. On the other hand, in northern Japan the
population grew slowly but steadily for most of
daizu, soybean (Glycine max [L.] Merrill) -- reported from the Sakenomiba site in Hokuto City, Yamanashi Prefecture. An impression in a
the period but only reached a level of about 70Some books referMiddle
to the Jomon
Jomonpotsherd
as the dated about 5000 BP.
100 Late
people
per sites
100 square
kilometers measured
"SHELLMOUND CULTURE
Reported
." This
October
is a 17,
misnomer.
2007, by the Yamanashi Prefectural Museum. Impressions of soybeans are found in many
Jomon
in Kyushu.
across
the
1,000
years
in
Middle
Jomon, and
The
Middle
Jomon
find
in
Yamanashi
Prefecture
pushes
the
oldest
find
back
almost
1,000
years.
(Yomiuri
Shinbun.
2007.
5000
Nen
mae
ni
About 3,000 of the more than 50,000 Jomon
stayed
close
to
that
level
through
the rest of the
Daizu
Saibai
[Soybean
Cultivation
5,000
Years
Ago].
Yomiuri
Shinbun,
October
18,
p.
39.)
sites are shellmounds. But even on the eastern
Jomon
period.
shores of Tokyo Bay, where shellmounds are
relatively dense (there are about 600
It is commonly thought that the OLDEST
shellmound sites around all of Tokyo Bay),
The Jomon ENVIRONMENT was roughly like that
POTTERY in Japan is the linear-relief potsherds
most "shellmounds" are in fact little more that a
of today, with a temperate forest of mixed
from the Fukui Cave site in northwestern
number of scattered household-sized kitchen
broadleaf desiduous trees in the north and a
Kyushu, dated about 10,000-10,500 B.C. In
middens, not mounds at all, with less than 20%
subtropical forest of broadleaf evergreen trees
fact there are several sites, scattered all over the
of the sites there in any one period having large
in the west from the Kanto Plain around Tokyo
country except in Okinawa in the far south, that
horseshoe-shaped mounds. Moreover, these
to Kyushu. The cold temperate forest in the far
have yielded potsherds from strata dated
large mounds all belong to the last 2,500 years
north included large numbers of conifers. Oaks
around 11,000 B.C. -- in Hokkaido in the far
of the Jomon culture, and they are most
were abundant everywhere, and walnuts and
north (Higashi Rokugo 2); in Aomori at the
common in the last 1,000-1,500 years.
chestnuts were often common. During the Early
northern end of the main island of Honshu
Jomon period, the sea transgressed over much
(Odai Yamamoto I); in Ibaragi (Ushirono),
of the coastal lowlands, extending far up the
Evidence from STABLE ISOTOPES also indicates
Tokyo (Maeda Kochi) and Kanagawa
Ara River north of Tokyo, almost to the present
that the people at shellmound sites depended
(Kamino) in east-central Honshu; and in
city of Kumagaya. The resulting tidal flats were
much more on terrestrial food sources than they
Nagasaki (Sempukuji) in northwestern Kyushu
rich in molluscs. The Pacific Ocean waters off
did on marine food sources. Roughly 60% of
in western Japan. The ages of these sites rival
the coast of northeastern Japan were extremely
their nutrition came from C3 plants and
anything on the continent. But more significant
rich in fish. Salmon spawned in the rivers in
herbivores, with only very small portions
is the fact that pottery becomes common in
much of northern Japan. And sea mammals
coming from fish, molluscs and C4 plants
Japanese sites from around 7500-8000 B.C.,
inhabited the waters in much of the north,
(grains). Even in Hokkaido where marine food
except in Hokkaido and Okinawa, and that is
especially in Hokkaido.
sources were used extensively, these were sea
not true of continental sites.
mammals and fish far more than molluscs.
Jomon VILLAGES are often said to be laid out
The Jomon POPULATION was quite high for a
with the conical thatched dwellings in a circular
forager culture, especially in Middle Jomon in
or horseshoe-shaped pattern, with an open

plaza in the center. These settlements are

thought to have had 5-10 or more dwellings in
use at any one time. Such villages did exist in
some regions and at some times, but they are
not representative of the typical Jomon
settlement site. The typical site contained only
a few dwellings with no apparent pattern to
their distribution. Some settlements had only
one dwelling. The recently famous Sannai
Maruyama site in Aomori is unique and not one
that can be generalized to the whole of the
Jomon culture.
It is clear in the literature that Japanese
archaeologists assume that the Jomon culture
was co-extensive with the present national
boundaries of Japan, exclusive of southern
Okinawa, that everything within Japan during
these ten millenniums was Jomon but nothing
in Korea or Russian Primorye belonged to this
culture. The Jomon culture, however, was far
too varied to include everything in the Japanese
islands under the same cultural name while
excluding the contemporary cultures in Korea
and Primorye. If we exclude the cultures in
Korea and Primorye, then we should also
exclude some of the regional Jomon cultures in
the Japanese islands. It is highly unlikely that a
prehistoric forager culture would be coextensive with the national boundaries of a
modern state, and Japan's present national
boundaries are far from what were its national
boundaries just 150 years ago. We are probably
stuck with the Jomon-equal-Japan concept of
that culture's geographical distribution, but this
concept does not accurately reflect reality.

1. Definition of Yayoi
The Yayoi Culture is defined as Japan's first
rice-farming and metal-using culture, and it
is identified archaeologically with certain types
of artifacts, especially pottery styles. But traces
of metal artifacts and rice usually are not
found in Yayoi sites, especially in the early
ones, so pottery styles are generaly the main
bases for identifying Yayoi sites. Also, the
definition has been confused by a number of
finds of rice, and even of rice paddies, in
Jomon sites dating around 1000 B.C.
(uncalibrated radiocarbon years ago), several
centuries earlier than the pottery styles and
other artifacts used to identify Yayoi sites. And
recent finds of keyhole-shaped mound tombs
(the defining trait of the Kofun Culture) older
than A.D. 300 have confused the other end of
the Yayoi period, overlapping by half a century
or more with pottery styles that have been
identified as Yayoi.
Some archaeologist argue that we should keep
the original definition of Yayoi and include as
Yayoi much of what has to now been identified
as Latest (or even terminal Late) Jomon. But
other archaeologists are defining Yayoi by the
pottery styles that traditionally have been used
to identify Yayoi sites, and they have added
rice farming to the description of the Latest
Jomon culture, particularly in Kyushu. At the
late end, most archaeologists seem to be
dropping from "Yayoi" what used to be
terminal Yayoi and are putting those late 3rd-

century materials into the beginning of the

Kofun Culture.

2. Yayoi Chronology
Traditionally, the Yayoi culture is divided into
three sub-periods, each with a number of
pottery phases, which differ by region. The
exact dating of these sub-periods and phases is
not clear, largely due to inadequate numbers
of radiocarbon dates. But there is the
additional problem that Yayoi radiocarbon
dates fall in a range that is very difficult to
calibrate meaningfully. Traditionally, the
period is dated 300 B.C. to A.D. 300.
TRADITIONAL CHRONOLOGIES OF
THE YAYOI PERIOD
SUB
PERI
ODS

POTTERY POTTERY
POTTERY POTTERY
PHASES PHASES
PHASES PHASES
in
on the
in
in
northern Kanto
Aomori Hokkaido
Kyushu
Plain

Earl
y
Sunasaw
Itazuke I Latest
Yayo
a
EpiItazuke II Jomon
i
Seno
jomon
Jonokosh
+
500Nimaibas Esan I
i
+
100
hi
B.C.

Mid
dle
Inakadat
Yayo
Sugu
Osagata
e1
Epii
Mitoko Suwada Inakadat
jomon
100 Takamizu Miyanod
e2
Esan II-IV
B.C.Nembuts
ma
ai
A.D.
uma
100
Late
Yayo
i
A.D.
100300

Shimo- Kugahara Oishitai

EpiOkuma Yayoicho Chitose jomon
Nobeta Maenoch Chokaisa Kohoku
Nishijin
o
n
B, C

However, this traditional chronology now is

rather inconsistent with available facts and
practice. First, uncalibrated radiocarbon ages
suggest the beginning of Early Yayoi dates to
about 400 or 500 B.C. Addition of an Earliest
Yayoi (in western Japan, the Yamanotera and
Yausu pottery types) would push this date a
few centuries older. And new finds of mound
tombs suggest Yayoi ends about A.D. 250
instead of 300. Further, recent excavations in
Kanto have uncovered a few Early Yayoi sites
in that region, although the traditional
chronology suggests there are none. The best
known of the Early Yayoi sites in Kanto is the
Nakayashiki site in the southwestern corner of
the Kanto Plain. This site has an uncalibrated

radiocarbon age of about 400 B.C. for pottery

thought to belong to the later half of Early
Yayoi.

Yayoi] back to 800 or 900 B.C." I was using

this estimate for the calibrated date for the
beginning of Early Yayoi in my classes already
in the late 1970s.

The First Calibrated Radiocarbon Dates for

Yayoi:
At the Japanese Archaeological Association's
general meeting in May 2003, Harunari and
others presented a set of calibrated AMS
radiocarbon dates for the beginning of the
Yayoi Period, the beginning of rice farming
culture in Japan. These dates suggested that the
Yayoi Period began close to 1000 BC, about
400-500 years earlier than generally thought.
Some archaeologists accepted these dates,
some vehemently opposed them, and others
suggested they were a bit too old. Three years
later, the opponents seem to be saying these
dates are 100-200 years too old, but they still
strongly oppose these early dates.

But there are some problems in the recent AMS

dates. Two of them are ones already noted -the marine reserve effect and the effect of
cooking. Are these effects being considered
fully? Another problem that is commonly noted
is the "2400 problem" -- radiocarbon ages
between about 2400 and 2500 years can be
"calibrated" only as "somewhere between 400
BC and 750 BC." But this problem does not
affect the calibration of the oldest Yayoi dates.
Another problem I see is that the dates given in
the reports do not agree with each other.
Particularly, some of the uncalibrated
radiocarbon dates given by Harunari et al. 2006
(p. 77) do not seem to calibrate to the dates
given by Harunari 2006 (p. 322). Further, I get
the impression that some archaeologists are not
clear about whether they are discussing the
dating of the beginning of Earliest Yayoi or of
Early Yayoi.

Harunari and the research team seem to feel the

dates are basically correct. Some
archaeologists, however, argue that the marine
reserve effect has not been adequately
accounted for, and that cooked food (the dates
are for charred adhesions on potsherds) will
give dates that are a bit too old. The stronger
opponents argue that the dates disagree too
widely with the dates derived by
"archaeological methods" -- typology,
typological comparison, trade wares, and other
"archaeological" as opposed to natural
scientific methods.
I feel the dates are basically correct. When I
first established this web site in 1997 I had the
following statement on Yayoi dates:
"Calibrated ages take the beginning [of Early

This discussion and the dates in the

following table are based on
presentations at the Japanese
Archaeological Association's general
meetings nos. 69 (2003), 70 (2004),
71 (2005), and 72 (2006). The
research and presentations are the
work of Harunari Hideki, Fujio
Shin'ichiro, Imamura Mineo,
Sakamoto Minoru (69-72), Kobayashi
Ken'ichi (70-72), and others.
My original guess calibrated date for
the beginning of Early Yayoi was

based on a few dates available at that

time and a chart in Tite 1972, p. 89.
(Tite, M. S. 1972. Methods of Physical
Examination in Archaeology. London
and New York: Seminar Press.)
Charles T. Keally. 2004. Bad science
and the distortion of history:
Radiocarbon dating in Japanese
archaeology. Sophia International
Review, 26: 1-16. (link to this report)
Charles T. Keally. 2004. "Fakery" at
the beginning, the ending and the
middle of the Jomon Period. Bulletin
of the International Jomon Culture
Conference, vol. 1, pp. 45-50
(Japanese translation, pp. 129-132).

late 10th
c. BC
Earlies
t
Yayoi

Perio
d
Latest
Jomon

Pottery
Phase

Median Rang n commen

Date
e =
ts

Yuusu II

28602480
97010104
uncalBP
1055 5
Kurokawa
(n=13)
0 BC
BC
1300-930
BC

Yamanoter
865 BC
a

28802570
1 uncalBP
(n-4)
930 BC
begins in

Yuusu IIb

Early

Itatsuke I

BC

26702570
uncalBP
(n=8)
890 BC
10th c.
BC

Yuusu I

Yayoi AMS dating

Yayoi

28102600
uncalBP
(n=8)
begins
ca. 900
79084550
BC
905 5
9th c. BC
BC
BC
found
with
Tohoku
Obora
C2 800900 BC

840 BC

26602510
uncalBP
(n=6)
790- 2 2750795
2520

Itatsuke II

Middl
e
Sugu
Yayoi
Mitoko
Takamizu
ma

uncalBP
(n=5)
810-750
BC
from
beginnin
g 8th c.
BC
begins
ca. 810
BC
Itatsuke
IIc ends
beginnin
g 4th c.
BC
395-200
BC
Sugu I
400-170
BC (300200 BC)
Sugu II
200-40
BC

3. Origins of Rice
Exactly when, how and why rice farming first
came to Japan is still one of the major
controversies in Japanese archaeology. Rice
has been found in sites dating about 1000 B.C.,
at the end of Late Jomon and the beginning of
Latest Jomon. These sites, as far as I know, are
all in Kyushu, except one, which is in
Hachinohe on the Pacific coast of Aomori
Prefecture, at the northern end of the central
island of Honshu. Rice farming spread all over
western Japan around 400-500 B.C.
(uncalibrated radiocarbon age) and is also
found in a number of sites in Aomori
Prefecture, apparently spreading up the Sea of
Japan coast along the Tsushima Current,
together with the spread of one of the oldest
recognized styles of Yayoi pottery, Ongagawa.
Recent studies of plant opal (phytoliths) from
Jomon sites claim possible evidence of
domesticated rice in western Japan as early as
3000 B.C. or earlier, in Middle and possibly
Early Jomon.
There is general agreement that the ultimate
origin of rice is the east-central lowlands of
China. A southern route via the Ryukyu islands
into southern Kyushu seems generally out of
favor. I think both the Chinese archaeological
and environmental evidence argue strongly
against a northern route via northeastern China
and northern Korea, although some
archaeologists do favor that hypothesis. The
present evidence neither confirms nor denies

either a direct route to Kyushu from China or a

route via southern Korea.
If I understand Dr. Wilhelm Solheim's
hypothesis correctly, he proposes boat-people
plying their trades along the Chinese coast,
seeking wider markets and eventually arriving
on the coasts of Korea and Japan. There they
set up seasonal settlements. These settlements
later became permanent, and the settlers farmed
rice for their own use. This practice soon
spread to the native peoples -- the Jomon
people in Japan -- who added rice farming to
their subsistence base while teaching the
colonists aspects of their native way of life. As
the colonists became well adapted to the new
lands, their populations exploded,
supplemented by immigrants from the Korean
peninsula, perhaps trying to escape the turmoil
caused by the collapse of the Chinese Chou
Dynasty and the establishment and expansion
of the Han Dynasty. There are many other
hypotheses.

4. Metal
The first metal objects to come into Japan
were practical iron tools from Korea -- knives
and axes -- which are found in the oldest Yayoi
sites in the western part of the country. One
iron object has also been reported in a Latest
Jomon site in Hokkaido, which would date to
around the beginning of Yayoi in western
Japan. Bronze objects came later and were
predominantly ritual objects, first mirrors,
swords and spears from Korea, then mirrors

from Han China. Eventually most of these

objects were manufactured locally in Japan,
rather than being imported. The bronze
swords and spears produced later in Japan are
mostly very large and clearly not for practical
use as weapons. The ritual dotaku bronze
"bells" appear to be mostly a local innovation
produced locally.

5. Origins of Yayoi Culture

Yayoi culture is found nowhere except in Japan
-- it was not a continental import. But the
constituent parts of the culture came from all
over and at many different times. The ricefarming complex -- rice and paddie farming;
and some architecture, tools, words, beliefs
and rituals -- came from east-central China.
The pottery was a direct descendant from the
western Japan Latest Jomon that evolved
originally under strong influence from the
Korean Plain Pottery culture. This influence
was already clear in the Latest Jomon pottery
of Kyushu. Iron and bronze objects were
primarily of Korean origin, but later styles were
local Japanese developments and were
manufactured locally. The first few bronze
mirrors in Japan came from Korea, but the
majority came from Han China. The Wei
mirrors found at the end of Yayoi are
controversially either Chinese- or Japaneseproduced.

The origin of the bronze dotaku bell is

controversial. It is found almost exclusively in
Yayoi sites in or near the Kansai District, well
east of the closest points to Korea. A few have
been found in Korea, and the molds are found
mostly in Kyushu. It appears to be one of those
things originated locally from a vague idea of
the small practical bronze bells of Korea.
Yayoi burials evolved from Jomon burials, but
the mound and moat on later ones probably
reflect ideas from the continent. The large jar
burials typical of northwestern Kyushu are not
continental and easily could have Jomon roots.
The stone-slab cist burials, also centered in
northern Kyushu, are continental in origin, but
they might have entered Japan originally
through the north during the Late or Latest
Jomon period. Dwelling architecture evolved
from Jomon styles. And a lot of other aspects
of the Yayoi culture have Jomon roots or were
originated in the Yayoi culture itself. Yayoi in
eastern Honshu is effectively an increasingly
acculturated continuation of the final Jomon
culture there.

6. Development of Yayoi Culture

At first, Yayoi was a culture of peasant farmers
living in small villages and supplementing their
diet with the produce of the forests, streams
and sea. With time, the population increased,
more and more conflicts over land or water
rights or whatever occurred, village leaders
evolved into village chiefs, villages coalesced
into chiefdoms, and fighting between
chiefdoms became more common. By the last

century of Yayoi, what were probably

confederations of chiefdoms had developed,
and this laid the foundations for the Japanese
nation that appeared in the following Kofun
period. One of these confederations was the
famous and highly controversial Yamatai-koku
of the third-century-A.D. Chinese Wei Records
on Wa.

7. Yamatai-koku
One major question in Yayoi archaeology and
in Japanese history is what exactly this
Yamatai-koku was politically. The Wei Records
report that this "nation" was ruled by a woman
named Himeko, that it sent envoys to China,
and that it was engaged in battles with some
of its neighbors, some of the "100 nations in
the land of Wa" (Japan). This question is a long
way from solution. Empress Jingu in the Nihon
Shoki records, written in the early 8th century,
is probably the Chinese "Himeko" in the
Japanese mythology.
The other major question is the location of
Yamatai-koku. Over 50 different locations have
been proposed, but the majority are either in
northwestern Kyushu or in Kansai.
Archaeological evidence is used extensively to
support both hypotheses, and new
archaeological finds bring new changes into the
arguments every year. But the crux of the
controversy is the directions and distances to
Yamatai-koku reported in the Wei Records.

Following these directions and distances

simplistically and consecutively on today's map
leads you out into the Pacific Ocean. Thus
some archaeologists and historians argue that
the directions and distances should not be
followed consecutively, but rather separately
from the same landing point in northwestern
Kyushu. This places Yamatai-koku also
somewhere in northern Kyushu. But if the
directions and distances are followed
consecutively following an ancient Chinese
map, they lead to the Kansai area, since the
ancient Chinese map of Japan is oriented
roughly 90 degrees off of today's map. Most
scholars seem to ignore the ancient Chinese
map in their arguments. This controversy seems
to have a lively future yet.

8. Regionalization
Yayoi was not a single, unified entity -- it was
characterized by considerable regionalization.
The regions and boundaries changed with time
and are still poorly defined, at least in the
literature. But grossly viewed, there were
perhaps five major regions -- Northwest
Kyushu, Setouchi, Kansai, Kanto and Tohoku -each surrounded by less distinctive peripheral
regions. Northern Kyushu was marked by jar
burials and stone-slab cist burials, bronze
spears and Han Chinese mirrors. Setouchi was
marked by bronze swords. And Kansai was the
center of bronze dotaku bells, and, at least at
the end of Yayoi, by the "Wei" Chinese mirrors.
Kanto was farming villages with iron but little

bronze, and some retained Jomon traits mixed

with an increasing body of traits from Yayoi
culture west of the central mountains. Tohoku
Yayoi perhaps should not even be called Yayoi
-- it was a continuation of the Latest Jomon
culture there, taking up some rice farming and
a few other "Yayoi" traits.
Hokkaido on the northern end of the Japanese
archipelago and Okinawa on the southern end
are, for all practical purposes, not part of Yayoi
Japan. The cultures in both regions (Epi-jomon
in Hokkaido and Late Shellmound in Okinawa)
are largely continuations of the preceeding
cultures in those regions.
The regionalization of Yayoi culture is
reflected in the many pottery types identified
by archaeologists. The number of types
commonly used for the Middle and Late Yayoi
on the Kanto Plain around Tokyo gives some
idea of the complexity and flux of this
regionalization.
POTTERY TYPES IN KANTO
Middle Yayoi
early
middl
e
late

Suwada

Iwabitsuyama
Odawara

Miyanodai

Tatsumicho

Late Yayoi
early

Yoshigayatsu

Higashi Nakane

Usui
middl Kugaha Yayoic
Chokojiba
Mina
Taru
e
ra
ho
ra
mi
late

Maenocho

Akaid
o

Juodai

9. Yayoi People
The Yayoi people were quite distinct physically
from the Jomon people, and they are clearly
ancestral to the modern Japanese. The Jomon
people are "southern," closely resembling
peoples now in South China and Southeast
Asia. The Yayoi people, in contrast, are
"northern" and show a close relationship to
peoples now in North China, Korea and
Northeast Asia.
Theories on the origins of the Yayoi people fall
into three large groups: that they are (1)
decendants from the Jomon people, changed
physically by changes in the diet and way of
life, (2) immigrants from the continent [via
Korea], and (3) hybrids of Jomon and
continental immigrant peoples. The hybrid
hypotheses range from very little inter-mixing
to a lot of inter-mixing, and some suggest more

Jomon genes are retained in the northeastern

Japanese populations than in the southwestern
ones. Some scholars argue for a slow trickle of
immigrants from the continent, while others
argue for waves of immigrants.
I think the best explanation is that a slow trickle
of immigrants from the continent began near
the end of the Jomon period (and continued
throughout the rest of Japanese history); over
the course of time, some inter-marriage with
the native peoples occurred, bringing Jomon
genes into the population; and then, as this was
going on, the immigrant population in Japan,
including those of mixed parentage, began to
explode sometime already in Early Yayoi,
swamping the Jomon gene pool. The Jomon
population was very low in the final centuries
of that period, so even a small number of
immigrants could have overwhelmed the
Jomon gene pool. Most of the immigrants
probably came from the Korean peninsula,
although an unknown number of them likely
came from eastern China, and from deeper in
northeastern Asia through Korea.

10. Villages and Lifeways

Yayoi villages typically have a number of
squarish pit-dwellings with thatched roofs
reaching to the ground and hearths in the
center of the earthen floors. These dwellings
were clearly in a direct line from Jomon pitdwellings. But Yayoi villages also had raised
floor buildings thought to be rice storehouses
and predecessors of modern Shinto shrine
architecture. These almost certainly came with

rice from the area around the lower Yangtze

River in eastern China. But recent finds of
similar structures in much earlier Jomon sites
might eventually require modification of this
interpretation. Some villages also had ditches
around them, generally considered to be part
of defense works.
Not far from the village was a burial ground.
The most common and wide-spread form of
burial was a small trench in the middle of an
area enclosed by a square ditch (moat). The
area enclosed was anywhere from a few meters
on a side up to 20 or 30 meters across. Low
mounds covered the burials in the center. There
is little doubt that these are the precursors of
the later Kofun period mound tombs. The jar
and cist burials usually pictured as
representative of Yayoi burials are in fact
mostly limited to a small region of northern
Kyushu and not representative at all.
The main artifacts from Yayoi sites are pottery
and iron-bladed wooden tools, stone adzes and
reaping sickles, and iron knives. In addition to
rice, Yayoi farmers cultivated peaches, and
they also hunted and fished and gathered wild
plants to supplement their diet. In western
Japan by Middle Yayoi, surpluses were
supporting a highly structured class society
and, by Late Yayoi, a society with a powerful
elite class at the top.

11. Chiefdoms
The first powerful clans, or chiefdoms,
appeared in northern Kyushu where
continental influences were strongest and
most available. These chiefdoms remained
strong, but by the 3rd century A.D., the real
power emanated from the Kansai District,
particularly from the Nara Basin.
The dotaku bronze-bell Yayoi people whose
culture had centered on Kansai, shifted their
center eastward to Aichi and surrounding
localities and then disappeared with the end of
the Yayoi Culture. At the same time, Japan east
of the central mountains was farming villages,
with some large settlements and probably a
few weak chiefdoms appearing as Yayoi
closed. The following Kofun Period culture and
the early Japanese nation developed from the
Kansai Yayoi.
Burials under low mounds in enclosures
surrounded by a ditch (moat) were common
everywhere in Yayoi Japan. Most enclosures
were square, but many late ones were round.
By the 3rd century in the Kansai District, a
number of new forms appeared, and one, the
keyhole shape, is thought to be associated with
the Yamato central power. The keyhole-shaped
mound tombs define the boundary between the
Yayoi and Kofun periods archaeologically, but
in fact the differences in the common culture
for a century on either side of this boundary are
largely insignificant.
The Kofun Period takes its name from the large
mound tombs (kofun) that characterize and

define the period. This period sees the full

development of the early Japanese state, and it
is a time of close contacts with the continent,
especially with the Korean kingdoms. In one
sense, the Kofun Period marks the end of
Japanese prehistory -- it lacks any significant
contemporary written records. But in another
sense, the Kofun Period is the beginning of
Japanese history -- for there are many records
compiled just after the period closed, and these
records are based on older, contemporary
documents that were destroyed or on oral
histories still circulating at that time. The
Kofun Period is Japan's protohistoric period.
Archaeologists place the beginning of the
Kofun Period at the time the first keyholeshaped mound tombs appeared. Mounds on
burials began several centuries earlier in the
Yayoi Period. Similar round and square
mounds with moats continued all through the
Kofun Period, although the Kofun burial was
placed in the top of the mound instead of under
it, as in the Yayoi Period. But the keyhole
shape is thought to mark imperial mounds and
hence to mark a transition in cultural evolution
worthy of a new name for the subsequent
period.
The date of the first keyhole-shaped mound
tomb generally has been given as about 300
A.D. Recent discoveries, however, push that
date back 25-50 years, almost to the time of
Queen Himeko's death. The date for the end of
the Kofun Period is placed variously at 552 (the
official date for the introduction of Buddhism)
or 710 (the date of the move to the Heijo-kyo
capital).

CHRONOLOGIES OF THE KOFUN PERIOD

KOFUN CHRONO KOREAN HIST CHINESE HIST
LOGY
ORY
ORY

Early
Kofun

end
3rd
c.4th
c.

Middle
Kofun

end
4th
c.5th
c.

Late Kofun
Asuka
(552-646)
Hakuho
(646-710)

6th
c.7th
c.

Silla
Kaya
Paekc
he
Kogur
yo
Lolan
g

57
B.C.A.D.
935
A.D.
42562
18
B.C.A.D.
663
37
B.C.A.D.
668
108
B.C.A.D.
313

Eastern
Chin

317
420

Six
420
Dynastie
s
589

581
Sui
Dynasty 618
T'ang
618
Dynasty -ca.
907

During the Early Kofun Period, China was badly

divided and apparently of no significance to
the developments in Japan. To a large extent
this remained true also during the Middle
Kofun Period and the early part of the Late
Kofun Period. But the 5th-century Chinese
records that do exist tell of regular visits by

emissaries from the "mysterious" five kings of

Wa. Then, with the reunification of China
under the Sui Dynasty in the late 6th century,
and particularly with the florescence of culture
during the T'ang Dynasty from the 7th century,
Chinese influence on developments in Japan
became quite strong.
The Korean kingdoms, on the other hand, were
significant in the developments in Japan
throughout most of the Kofun Period. These
kingdoms fought with Wa (Japan) alone and in
varying alliances with each other or with
China. And they fought among themselves in
varying alliances with each other and with Wa
and/or China. Their territories were always in
flux. The three major kingdoms -- Koguryo in
the north, Paekche in the southwest, and Silla
in the southeast -- evolved out of the preceding
"Three Han" cultures, mostly in the 2nd to 4th
centuries, around the beginning of the Kofun
Period in Japan. The kingdom of Kaya, in the
south between Paekche and Silla, certainly
existed, but what exactly this entity was is still
controversial. The unification of Korea under
Silla in 676 followed the conquest of Paekche
in 663 and Koguryo in 668, near the close of
the Kofun Period in Japan.
The "history" of the Kofun Period depends on
outside sources, first Korean records, then both
Chinese records and the early Japanese writings
from the Nara Period in the early 8th century.
There are no Chinese records on Japan from
266-413. The 4th-century Korean records,
though, tell of considerable interaction between
the Korean kingdoms and Wa, and of Wa's
military intervention on the peninsula. The

Chinese records of the 5th century show that

the developing Yamato Government was again
in close contact with China. This is probably
the time when writing was first introduced to
Japan. The Japanese Kojiki (712), the
various Fudoki (713), and the Nihon
Shoki (720) pick up the story, in hindsight,
from the 6th century. Buddhism was introduced
into the country at that time, the Korean-related
Soga and the native Mononobe clans struggled
over the primacy of Buddhism or the native
religion, the Yamato forces conducted battles in
Korea, and many temples were built. In the 7th
century, Shotoku Taishi and Soga Umako
edited the Tennoki and the Kokki, but these
documents, and others of that time, were
burned in the Taika Reforms of 646. The
Yamato Government continued to interfere in
Korea, until its major defeat at Paekchon River
in 663. And a few decades after that, true
history dawned in Japan.
CHRONOLOGY OF MAJOR EVENTS IN
THE KOFUN PERIOD
Early
Kofun

Middle
Kofun

266- no Chinese documents on

413 events in Japan
300

mound tombs common in

Kinki and coastal Seto Naikai

391

Wa defeats Paekche and Silla,

and battles with Koguryo

413- the "mysterious" five kings of

502 Wa -- San, Chin, Sei, Kou and
Bu -- send regular emissaries

Shotoku Taishi (Prince

Shotoku) becomes
593 active in Japanese
history (d. 622 at age
49)

to China
430s

massive kofun being built

everywhere

writing on iron sword in the

Inariyama Kofun in Saitama
471
Pref., saying that the nation
was already unified
470s
Late
Kofun

groups of small kofun appear

in Kinki

Buddhism introduced to
552 Japan (also said to be
538)
struggles between Soga
late
Umako and Mononobe
500s
Moriya
587 Soga defeats Mononobe
craftsmen from Paekche
588build Hoko-ji (Asuka596
dera)
592

Soga Umako kills Sushun

Tenno and installs Suiko

Buddhism becomes the

official religion

607

Shotoku Taishi builds

Horyu-ji temple

Shotoku Taishi and Soga

Umako edit the first
620
major documents
produced in Japan

the first register of

540
immigrants was made
Asuka

594

the first use of

the nengo (reign date)
645
dating system (the first
nengo is Taika)
Hakuho

the Taika Reforms

begin; these reforms
646
discourage the building
of large mound tombs
Abe-no-Hirafu battles
the Emishi and the
658 Mishihase; 659 he
pacifies the Emishi; 660
he battles the Mishihase

again
Wa and Paekche forces
are defeated at the
Paekchon River
663
(Hakusukinoe in
Japanese) by the T'ang
and Silla forces
681

compilation of the
Ritsuryo Laws begins

685

Buddhism becomes the

mandatory religion

capital moved to
694 Fujiwara-kyo, the first
"permanent" capital
708 Horyu-ji rebuilt
710

the capital moved to

Heijo-kyo (Nara)

The Yamato Government was centered on a

Kimi (King), and from the 5th century an
Ohkimi (Great King). The title Tenno (Emperor)
was used from the time of Temmu (673-686).
The government was a coalition of Great Clans.
These were the Soga, Kazuraki, Hekuri, Wada
and Koze clans in the Nara Basin, and the
Izumo and Kibi clans in the Izumo-Hyogo area.

The Ohtomo and Mononobe clans were the

military leaders, and the Nakatomi and Inbe
clans handled rituals. The Soga clan provided
the highest minister in the government, while
the Ohtomo and Mononobe clans provided the
second highest ministers. The heads of
provinces were called Kuni-no-miyatsuko. The
crafts were organized into guilds. But this
whole organization evolved throughout the
period; the details are in most history books.
Archaeology focuses strongly on the mound
tombs that mark the period. It also deals with
the pottery, buildings, villages and towns, and
production and trade. The tombs are studied
from every angle -- structure and size, burial
goods, haniwa, funeral rituals, implications for
social structure, role of Imperial Family, and so
on. The pottery is studied largely for
production techniques and as time markers. The
buildings and the villages and towns are studied
to learn about the lifeways of the people. And
production and trade are studied to learn about
the economy of the time. Rice farming was
established as the economic base in the
previous period, and no significant new items
are known to have been added during the
Kofun Period, so the Kofun diet gets relatively
little attention from archaeologists.

Kofun Mound Tombs:

The first excavation of a mound tomb

in Japan was conducted by Mito
(Tokugawa) Mitsukuni in 1692, the

5th year of the Genroku era.

Mitsukuni (1628-1701) was the
grandson of Tokugawa Ieyasu,
founder of the Tokugawa Shogunate.
The tomb he excavated is called the
Samuraizuka Kofun, located in
Ohtawara City, Tochigi Prefecture,
just north of Tokyo. This excavation is
considered the first academic, or
scientific, excavation conducted in
Japan.
Origins:
The origins of the Kofun Period mound tombs
is clearly in the Yayoi Period, although
ultimately continental influence might well be a
factor, too. The most common Yayoi burials
were in the ground in a square area delimited
by a ditch or moat. The burial in the middle had
a low mound over it. Toward the end of Yayoi,
some of these ditches or moats became round.
With higher mounds, these were the most
common kofun tomb in the Kofun Period, but
the burial was on top of the mound instead of
under it. The square mounds, too, continued
from Yayoi into Kofun, but these later ones
also had the burial in the top of the mound
instead of under it.
Numbers of Tombs:
There are about 30,000 kofun mound
tombs in Japan. These date from the 3rd
century to the 7th century. Of these, 188
are designated as ryo, the tombs of emperors
and empresses, and another 552 are designated
as bo, the tombs of other members of the royal
family. There are 46 more designated as ryobo
sankochi, or possibly the tombs of members of
the imperial family, and 110 other types of

"burials" that are treated the same way as

imperial mound tombs. These 896 tombs and
"burials" are centered on the Kinki District.
They were officially designated at the end of
the Edo Period and the Meiji Period, based on
the Kojiki, Nihon Shoki,Engishiki and other
ancient documents. About 600 decortated
tombs are known, from Kyushu in the south to
the southern part of Tohoku in the north. These
date to the 5th and 6th centuries. They are
about 1% of the total known mound tombs.
Forms:
The most distinctive mounds of the Kofun
Period are the keyhole-shaped mounds, zenpokoen (square front, round back) and zenpokoho (square front, square back). These are
thought to be associated with the Imperial
Family. This shape is uniquely Japanese and its
origins are unknown. But Korean
archaeologists recently have identified a few
contemporary mound tombs in southeastern
Korea that they say are also keyhole-shaped.
Some people try to use these recent Korean
finds to argue for a Korean origin of the
keyhole-shaped mound tombs. But this fails to
explain why this shape is rare in Korea and
only recently recognized there through
excavation, whereas this shape is common in
Japan, obvious without excavation, and has
been known for centuries.
There are a number of other shapes, and some
mounds are covered with stones. The most
common of these non-keyhole shapes are round
and square mounds. But there are 11 or 12
eight-sided mound tombs on square bases, and
eight that are round on top and square on
bottom.

In the Kinai district, the eight-sided mound

tombs are thought to be Imperial tombs, and
there they are dated to the middle 7th century
and the beginning of the 8th century. But there
are five such tombs in Yamanashi, Tokyo and
Gumma prerfectures in eastern Japan, where
they are dated to the early 7th century. One of
these is the Inarizuka Kofun in Tama City in
Tokyo. This mound is 38 m on a side. It has a
platform-like lower layer. A stone-lined sideentrance chamber sits on this platform, and the
chamber is covered by the mound making
up Dates
Emperor
the second tier. The lower sides of this upper
tier are covered with rocks. A recent report on
Keitai
the excavation of an eight-side mound
tomb at 507-531
the Kuwahara site in Ibaraki City, Osaka,
suggests that tomb might belong to aAnkan
member 531-535
of the Nakatomi clan. This tomb dates to the
middle 7th century.
Senka
535-539
The excavation of the Kumano Jinja Kofun in
Fuchu City, Tokyo, in 2003 and 2004
has
Kinmei
539-571
sparked a lot of discussion of the mound tombs
with round tops and square bottoms. This tomb
Bidatsu
had a thin square base 32 m on a side,
and a 572-585
thicker second square tier 23 m on a side. The
round top was 16 m in diameter. TheYomei
tomb, as 585-587
it remains today, is 5 m high. The sides of the
round top and middle square tier were covered
Sushun
with stones. A large side-entrance stone
burial 587-592
chamber was set in the middle tier and covered
with the round upper tier. The tomb Suiko*
is thought 592-628
most likely to date to the early half of the 7th
century. The Kumano Jinja Kofun sits alone
about 500 m from the nearest bluff. Jomei
Along this 629-641
bluff are two clusters of smaller round mound
tombs dated to the 6th to mid 7th centuries.
Kogyoku* 642-645

Nara (2), Osaka (1), Gifu (1), Shizuoka(1), emperors

and
Kogyoku and Saimei are the same person
Saitama (2) prefectures. One of the twotombs
based on: Fuchu-shi Kyodo no Mori Hakubutsukan (ed.). 2006. Asuka Jidai no
in Nara is the Ishibutai Kofun, thought to beKofun:
the Kensho! Fuchu Hakken no Joen Kaho Fun (Mound Tombs of the Asuka
grave of Soga Umako (d. 626). These mound
Period: Verification! The Round-Top-Square-Bottom Mound Tomb Found in
tombs with round top and square bottom seem
Fuchu). Fuchu-shi Kyodo no Mori Hakubutsukan Bukkuretto 8. Fuchu City, Toky
to date from the beginning of the 7th century to
Fuchu-shi Kyodo no Mori Hakubutsukan.
the beginning of the 8th century.
Late Kofun Emperors and Tomb Shapes
Tomb Shape
keyhole
keyhole
keyhole

The early mound tombs took advantage of

natural topography, and they are located mostly
Emperor Dates Tomb Shape
in hilly areas. But Middle Kofun mounds were
built on the plains. By the Late Kofun Period,
Kotoku 645-654 unknown keyhole-shaped mounds had also appeared in
the mountainous areas and on some islands,
and there were clusters of small round mounds
Saimei* 655-661 see Kogyoku
in many regions.
Tenji
Kobun

keyhole
Temmu
keyhole
Jito*
square
Mommu
square
square
eight-sided
eight-sided

The other seven mound tombs in Japan with

in* marks female emperor
round tops and square bottoms are located

Gemmei
Gensho

662-671 eight-sided Burial:

The burials in the Early and Middle Kofun
671-672 unknown mounds were place in the top of the mounds,
usually in stone-lined chambers entered from
the top. Some burials had coffins of various
673-686 round
types and others have no trace of a coffin. Late
Kofun chambers were usually set on the ground
690-697 round
under the mound and entered from the side
through a passageway (yokoana chambers).
Some of these yokoana chambers were set in
697-707 round
the mound. A few such chambers have
707-715 unknown paintings on the walls, such as the long-famous
Takamatsuzuka Kofun near Nara, or the
recently discovered Kitora Kofun in the same
715-724 unknown area. Both these tombs are thought to date to
the very end of the 7th century.
Burial Goods:
Burial goods are commonly mirrors and beads
(magical items) and various other things,
including weapons, in the Early Kofun Period.
But weapons and horse gear are the distictive

burial goods in the Middle and Late Kofun

Period. Sue ware of Korean origin also appears
in the burials from the Middle Kofun Period on.
This "sudden" appearance of continental and
warrior burial goods around the middle of the
5th century is the basis for Egami Namio's
famous "horse-rider" theory of the origins of
the Japanese nation. This theory is
controversial, but the burial goods do suggest at
least that the leader changed from a magician to
a warrior. One of the most famous tombs
yielding warrior-related goods is the end 6th
century Fujinoki Kofun near Nara.
Haniwa:

The Nihongi (Nihon Shoki) records the

story of the origin of haniwa under
the Emperor Suinin in the 32nd year
of his reign. The Kojiki says "they first
made a human fence at a tomb"
(haniwa?) in the reign of Emperor
Sujin, Suinin's immediate predecessor
in the mythologies. The story is
mythological, like the emperors most
likely are, but it shows an awareness
of the haniwa on the mound tombs in
the early 8th century, shortly after the
mound tombs and their haniwa
ceased to be used. (The Kojiki was
published in 712. The Nihongi was
published in 720 and records events
to 697.)

Haniwa clay figures are found on most mounds

of this period. Their origins and purpose are
unknown. The earliest haniwa are large clay
cylinders, and these remained the most

common type throughout the Kofun Period.

Figure haniwa appeared later and are more
common in eastern Japan than in western
Japan. These included various animals, humans
of all social standings, buildings, armor,
weapons, shields and other things.
Two important facts for understanding haniwa
are their quantities -- total and of each type -and their arrangements on the tombs. Perusal of
several hundred pages of archaeological books
dealing solely with haniwa or mound tombs
turned up detailed discussions of the types, the
evolution of the types, and speculation on the
meanings of the haniwa, but only vague,
sketchy mentions of the quantities and
arrangements, with no hint of regional and
temporal variations in the quantites and
arrangements of the haniwa.

Tomb Sizes:
The most outstanding characteristic of these
mound tombs are the sizes of some of the ones
dated to the 5th century. There are well over
10,000 mound tombs in Japan, and these range
from 5 m in diameter up to the collossal
Daisenryo Kofun (Emperor Nintoku's tomb)
dated 443 A.D. This keyhole-shaped tomb is
486 m long, 305 m wide at the widest point,
and 35 m high at its highest point. This
compares to the Great Pyramid of Giza, which
is 230 m square at its base and 144 m high. The
Konda Gohyoyama Kofun (Emperor Ojin's
tomb) is the second largest at 415 m length. In
the traditional geneology, Emperor Nintoku
succeeded Emperor Ojin. Their huge mound
tombs manifest the power of Wa in the early
5th century. But already by the late 4th century
and early 5th century there were quite a few
tombs that exceeded 200 m length. However,
the largest keyhole-shaped tomb in the 6th
century is the Mise Maruyama Kofun (probably
Emperor Kinmei's tomb, d. 570), which is 318
m long. After that, the tombs continue to
become smaller and disappear altogether in the
early 8th century.

The quantities of haniwa seem to range from a

few to a few thousand on any one kofun, with
cylindrical haniwa always by far the most
common. The basic arrangement is one, two or
three rows of cylindrical haniwa set around the
flanks of the mound. A few figure haniwa were
sometimes included among these. But most
figure haniwa apparently were set in square or
rectangular enclosures made of cylindrical
Additional Information on Tomb Sizes
haniwa and several figure haniwa. These
enclosures appear to have been located both on
top of the mound and near the bottom, or
nearby but outside the mound area itself. The
rows of cylindrical haniwa minimally served to
3
reduce erosion ofItthe
mound. What
is estimated
thatother
Emperor Ojin's mound tomb has 1,400,000 m of dirt, or about 170,000 large dump-tr
purpose they might
have served
is not1,000
known.
it would
have taken
laborers a full 4 years to build. Emperor Nintoku's tomb is larger.
The enclosurse with figure haniwa seem to
represent various aspects of the funeral rites or
Reference
of beliefs about life after death.

Emishi barbarians who lived in northern

Tohoku.
Keyhole-shaped
mound tombs are
e. (2009). Imao Keisuke no Chizu o Aruku: Kodai to Shigai Pitchiri [Imao Keisuke's
Walking
Maps: Exact
extremely
rare in southern
cient and Modern Streets]. Yukan Yomiuri Shinbun [Evening Yomiuri Newspaper],
(Uikuendo
Bunka Kyushu, the home of
the Hayato barbarians.
ulture]), April 25, p. 13. (in Japanese)

Regions:
Mound tombs, especially the larger ones, tend
to be located in clearly defined regions. Mound
tombs are common in Kyushu only in the
northwest, especially in the Chikugo River
plain in Saga and southern Fukuoka
prefectures. There is another such
concentration of tombs in the eastern part of the
Inland Sea in Okayama Prefecture on Honshu
island and just across the water in Kagawa and
Tokushima prefectures on Shikoku island.
Similar concentrations are found in eastern
Shimane Prefecture from Izumo to Matsue City
on the Sea of Japan, in Nara and Kyoto
prefectures, along the shores of Ise Bay from
Nagoya to Ise, in Ishikawa Prefecture on the
Sea of Japan, on the Kanto Plain in eastern
Japan (especially in North Kanto), and on the
Sendai Plain in northern Japan. There are
smaller concentrations of tombs in Shizuoka
Prefecture, and in the intermontane basins
around Nagano, Yamagata and Kofu cities.
Archaeologists identify these concentrations
with regional power centers, and they identify
small clusters of tombs within these
concentrations with the various clans known
from later documents. In the north, keyholeshaped mounds appeared in the Sendai Plain as
early as the 5th century; the northern-most such
tomb is in southern Iwate Prefecture. But most
tombs in the northern regions are later. This
northern region was the frontier with the

buried in which tombs. When the first histories

of Japan were compiled in the early 8th
century, the memory of these tombs was
already lost and the writers had to guess. Then
nothing more was done for over 1,000 years,
until efforts were made in the late Edo and
early Meiji periods to determine which mounds
were imperial tombs. Some of these
designations are now known to be wrong and a
large portion of the others are suspect. If
archaeologists have not already accidently
excavated an imperial tomb, sooner or later
they will, unless all kofun mound tombs are
investigated and far more reliable designations
of the imperial tombs are made. In fact, only 2
of the mound tombs are generally agreed to be
designated correctly, the tombs of Emperor
Temmu and Tenji.

Imperial Tombs:
The mound tombs designated as the burials of
early emperors are the focus of considerable
controversy. Archaeologists want to excavate
them, of course, but the Imperial Household
Agency refuses to let any outsiders onto the
grounds of these tombs. There is a myth around
that this refusal is because the Imperial
Household Agency, and thus the emperor and
his family, will discover that the Japanese
imperial line is Korean in origin. But the fact
that some of the Great Clans around the
imperial line and providing wives and mothers
for the emperors were descendent from Korean
immigrants is clear in the Nihon Shoki and has
never been censored from the history books.
And there are a lot of people in Japan and in the
On-the-Ground Research on an Imperial Tomb
world who would refuse to let archaeologists or
anyone else dig up
graves 22,
of their
ancestors,
Onthe
February
2008,
at 1 p.m., 16 "outsiders," the representatives of 16 academic organizations, entere
1, 2
especially in a country
where
nonetomb
of the
imperial
mound
for the first time in 130 years. This "on-the-ground research" was the culminatio
archaeological organizations has a code of
almost annual requests by the Japanese Archaeological Association and other academic organizations for
ethics.
investigate the imperial tombs.

However, the facts are much more complicated

The Imperial
Household
had refused permission for outsiders to enter the grounds of these tombs o
that this. The Imperial
Household
AgencyAgency
has
dignity.
been doing sometranquility
excavationand
work
on theI have considerable sympathy for this stance. Among other reasons: most academic
recently,with
did not) have codes of ethics. The Japanese Archaeological Association only recently ap
designated tombs,(orinuntil
conjunction
ethics
that organization,
maintenance work,
and for
recently
they have letina the aftermath of a massive archaeological hoax exposed in 2000.
select few archaeologists join in the work. And
some tombs designated
as imperial
tombs
The tomb
investigated
thishave
time is the Gosashi Kofun, said to be the tomb of Empress Jingu. The investiga
been excavated inwalking
the past.
Nintoku's
tomb terrace
is
around
the lower
of the mound, and noting haniwa and other features visible along the way
one of these. There
also areinmajor
problemsin Nara City. It is a keyhole-shaped mound tomb 270 m long and presently thou
is located
Misasagi-cho
with the designation
of kofunthe
mound
tombs
as Early Kofun Period. (Empress Jingu's dates are generally given as A.D. 2014th century,
middle
of the
imperial tombs. During
the
period
of
mound
sherds discovered during the February investigation suggest the angular front part of the mound spread wid
tomb building, no one kept records of who was

CHRONOLOGY OF HAJI WARE

tomb dates to the end of the Early Kofun Period or the beginning of the Middle Kofun Period (ca. A.D.
Haji ware is
in Kanto, Eastern Japan
abundant in all
sites
Goryo
Early Kofun
throughout the
ki. (2008). Jingu Kogoryo Hatsu no Tachiiri: Chikuzo 4 Seiki Matsu Zengo ka Kofun
[First On-the-Ground
early Middle Kofun
Period. It Izumi
n) of Empress Jingu's Tomb: Built about the End of the 4th Century?]. Yomiuri
Shinbun,
March
3,
p.
19.
is an everyday
)
utilitarian ware, Onitaka I late 5th centurysato. (2008). Ryobo ga "Seiiki" ni Naru mae wa [Before the Imperial Mound Tombs Became "Sacred
commonly
Kofun Ko 2008 [Consideration of the Kofun], part 3. Yomiuri Shinbun, March 18, p. 5. (in Japanese).
Onitaka II
to
found
es that the external forms of the tombs of emperors Ojin, Nintoku and Richu
werearound
investigated in fiscal
"kitchen"
nd 1950, a bit less than 60 years ago, although a proposed excavation was the
cancelled
due to opposition
Onitaka III -late 7th century
area
of
cademics.
dwellings or in
Mama
Nara Period
trash heaps.
This pottery
Kokubu Heian Period
evolves directly
Pottery:
out of the
The pottery of the Kofun Period is divided into
preceding Yayoi pottery. Archaeologists differ
two large categories: haji ware and sue ware.
on just which micro-characteristics should
The haji ware is a reddish yellow, low-fired
identify a pot as final Yayoi or as beginning
utilitarian ware of local origins. The sue ware is
haji. A non-specialist could not see a
a grey, high-fired expensive or ritual ware
difference, the transition from Yayoi ware to
made with technology imported from Korea.
haji ware is so gradual. Haji ware continued as
Both categories are subdivided into numerous
the main pottery all the way through the Kofun
regional and temporal types. These types in
Period and on to the end of the Heian Period.
most regions of the country are now dated to
The Early Kofun Goryo type haji has many
calendar intervals approaching 50 years.
forms -- bulbous pots with short or long flaring
rims, bowls with round bottoms, bulbous pots
with short flaring rims and long pedestals, and
pedestals with only a small cup on top used for
setting other pots. The surface of most pots is
roughened with a fine-toothed comb-like tool.
The lips often have small notch-like

indentations. And some vessels are painted

with red and look very much like Yayoi vessels
of the same shape and decoration. The general
shapes of the preceding Late Yayoi Maenocho
pottery were the same as the Goryo shapes. But
more of them appear to have had smooth
surfaces, much like the Korea Plain Pottery
ware of the same age.
The Middle Kofun Izumi type pottery
continued the bulbous pots and bowls with
round bottoms common in the Goryo type. But
fewer of the vessels had roughened surfaces;
many were smoothed with a spatula-like
instrument. But most pots had short flaring
rims, with few having the long flaring rims
common on Goryo type pottery. Also, pots with
pedestals faded and were replaced by bowls
with pedestals.
The Late Kofun Onitaka type pottery has lots
of bowls, bowls with pedestals, and longbodied pots with only short flaring rims. The
long-bodied pots are rounded in the early
stages, becoming more cylindrical in later
stages. Although Onitaka haji ware is divided
into stages I, II and III, there really is not much
change through the roughly two centuries of
this type, nor even through the next three
centuries of the Nara-Heian Period Mama and
Kokubu haji ware. And, although
archaeologists recognize many regional types,
from Kanto to Kyushu, these are hard for the
beginner to distinguish. But the haji ware found
in sites in Tohoku is much easier to distinguish,
especially in the northernmost sites in Aomori
Prefecture.
Sue ware begins to appear in sites, especially
mound tombs, that are dated sometime after

about 400 A.D. This ware was fired at about

1,200 degrees centigrade, and it is sometimes
referred to as stoneware in English. Although
few if any sue vessels came directly from
Korea, the technology was a direct import, and
many if not most of the potters were Korean.
Most sue ware in Japan is indistinguishable
from its parent in Korea. Sue ware was more
expensive to produce than haji, so it is found
mostly in the houses of richer people or in
tombs. In the houses of poorer people there is
frequently one sue vessel, probably used in
household rituals.

Dwellings and Settlements:

Kofun Period dwellings are almost universally
square pits. These range in size from about 3
m on a side up to 8 m or 10 m on a side. The
largest yet reported was recently excavated at
the Miyagayato site in Akiruno City in western
Tokyo -- it was 11.6 m by 13.8 m, and is dated
to the later half of the Kofun Period. Most are
about 50 cm deep. Many do not have
recognizable postholes, but 4 postholes is
common. Some of the larger dwellings have 6
postholes. These upright posts were set about
50 cm to 1 m in from the earth wall. Entrances
are thought to have been generally on the
south side, or opposite the oven in dwellings
from the Middle Kofun Period on. These
dwellings evolved directly from the preceding
Yayoi dwellings, but, with the oven, they are
almost identical to contemporary dwellings in
Korea.

Reconstructions of the roof vary, but the many

houses that burned down in this period provide
good evidence of the superstructure. The roof
was thatched. There was a peak covering the
top of the roof, with smoke vents on both ends.
The thatch came down to the ground, or almost
to the ground if the dwelling had wooden walls
inside the pit.
Early Kofun dwellings had a hearth in the
middle of the floor. This appears
archaeologically as a patch of burnt earth. But
with the influx of Korean ideas, technologies
and people in the 5th century, clay ovens were
built on one wall, with flues extending out
beyond the thatch. These were usually on the
wall opposite the entrance, where evidence of
the entranceway can be detected, and they are
frequently on the north wall of the dwelling.
There are some dwellings that appear to have
had the entrance next to the oven. The oven had
a horizontal hole at floor level for feeding
firewood, and a vertical hole on top for setting
the pots for cooking or boiling water. A clay
cylinder, or "leg", was usually set directly in
the fire under the pot to keep the heat uniformly
over the lower half. These Kofun period ovens
were quite similar to ovens used in Japanese
farm houses until quite recently. In fact, some
old farm houses still use them.
Some dwellings had storage pits next to the
ovens. These were located directly beside the
oven on the left or right side, or in one of the
corners of the house near the oven. They are
often filled with kitchen ware. A few larger
dwellings had large storage pits under the
entranceway opposite the oven. These pits
usually protrude out a bit beyond the wall.
Studies suggest a board walkway was placed

over the pit for entering the house. Some

dwelling pits also have a small ditch all around
the inside of the pit wall. Archaeologists
generally interpret this ditch as the setting for
boards used to hold up the earth wall.
The most common objects found in Kofun
Period dwelling pits are the various haji ware
pots and bowls. Many dwelling pits also have a
number of sausage-shaped natural stones that
are interpreted as weaving weights. These
stones are usually found in a cluster in the
corner on the right side of the entrance, but
sometimes they are found strung out across the
middle of the floor from side to side.
Occasionally, clay spindle whorls, iron knives,
iron sickles, iron blades for shovels, and other
such objects are also found in or near the
dwelling pits.
Sociological interpretation of these dwellings is
only a guess. The whole inner end of the
dwelling seems to be the kitchen -- a woman's
area. Weaving apparently was done in the
middle of the floor across the whole center of
the dwelling -- again, a woman's area. And the
weaving tools were stored in the corner by the
entranceway -- another woman's area. That
leaves just a bit of the left side of the dwelling,
when entering, for the males. Sleeping is
thought to have taken place near the left and
right walls, behind the posts. But there is no
clear evidence that this sexual and activity
division actually existed.
In the Kanto area, this type of dwelling
continued in general use until around the end of
the Heian Period, when the ground-level
dwelling came into common use.

Some of the "dwelling" pits are quite small,

only about 3 m in length, but they have an oven
on one end. These might have served only as a
kitchen building. Sets of four or six postholes
in a square or rectangle are thought to be the
remains of raised-floor storehouses like those
of the preceding Yayoi Period, or ground-level
buildings, possibly sheds or even houses. These
various buildings form clusters that appear to
represent the property of individual households.
In most large settlements, at least one building
can be recognized as being a smithy. This
building will have a lot of burnt earth and slag,
and the clay mouth pieces for bellows.

The Three Imperial Regalia:

The Japanese Imperial Family is identified with
three sacred objects -- the mirror, sword and
curved jewel, or magatama -- the Three
Imperial Regalia. When exactly these three
objects became a set of symbols of the
Imperial Line is not clear. But they were
already important religious symbols by the
Middle Yayoi Period, and are abundant in the
tombs of the Kofun Period.
The roots of the mirror are unknown. Han
Chinese mirrors were common in northwestern
Kyushu by Middle Yayoi, and these were
preceded by a few mirrors brought from Korea
a bit earlier. The third-century Wei mirrors of
Late Yayoi were common in both northwestern
Kyushu and in Kinai. Mirrors were a major
burial object in Kofun Period tombs, especially
the earlier ones, but they are not always -- or

even mostly -- associated with the other three

symbols.
The mirror from the beginning was perhaps a
representation of the Sun Goddess, the ancestor
of the Imperial Line. But it might also have
been a talisman to ward off evil. It is not known
whether the ideas surrounding the mirror were
imported from the continent together with the
mirror, or whether the Yayoi people simply
saw the mirror as a useful symbol of ideas they
already had.
The sword (or weapon) might be a symbol of
male virility and have its roots in the Jomon
stone phallic symbols, thought to represent
male fertility. By Latest Jomon, however, these
stone phallic symbols looked more like stone
swords than phalluses. Bronze swords and
spears were originally imported from Korea
beginning about the end of Early Yayoi. Later,
obviously ritual forms of these weapons were
manufactured in Japan and are common in
Yayoi sites -- spears in northwestern Kyushu
and swords in western Honshu and Shikoku.
Swords are common in Kofun Period burials,
especially the later ones.
The magatama's origins are more controversial.
These curved jewels of jadeite are common in
Kofun Period burials, and they are common
also in Korean sites of the same age. This fact
seems to have led most archaeologists to
conclude that the magatama originated in
Korea. But magatama are found in Yayoi sites,
too, and unquestionable true magatama are
reported also in Jomon sites in Tohoku as early
as about 1000 B.C., long before true magatama
appeared in Korea.

The magatama apparently represents the

soul. Tama in Japanese means jewel (ball,
bullet) and is also part of tamashi, the Japanese
word for soul or spirit. I am no linguist, so I can
only guess that this similarity is not a
coincidence but rather a relationship that has
ancient roots.

Geological prehistory

when numerous mountain ranges formed,

slowly becoming more stable in
the Cenozoic. Major Mesozoic formations
include the Gyeongsang Supergroup, a
series of geological episodes in which
biotite granites, shales, sandstones,
conglomerates andesite, basalt, rhyolite,
and tuff, laid down over most of presentday Gyeongsang-do Province.

Periods in Korean human

prehistory
Palaeolithic Age: 40,000 B.C.E. to
4000 B.C.E.
Settlement sites of the Mumun Period.

Geological prehistory provides clues into

Korea's most distant past. The oldest rocks
in Korea date to the Precambrian era. The
Yeoncheon System, formed during the
Precambrian era, appear around Seoul,
extending to Yeoncheon-gun in a
northeasterly direction. Divided into upper
and lower parts, biotite-quartz-feldsparschist, marble, lime-silicate, quartzite,
graphite schist, mica-quartz-feldspar
schist, mica schist, quartzite, augen
gneiss, and garnet bearing granitic gneiss
compose the Yeoncheon System.
The Korean Peninsula had an active
geological history through the Mesozoic,

Jeulmun comb-pattern ca. 4000 B.C.E.

Anthropologists debate the beginning of

the Palaeolithic era, some believing
Hominid occupation in Korea may date as
early as c. 500,000 B.C.E. Yi and Clark
express skepticism of dating the earliest
occupation to the Lower Palaeolithic (Yi
and Clark 1986). The Palaeolithic ends
when pottery production begins, c.
8000 B.C.E. The earliest radiocarbon dates
for this period indicate the antiquity of
occupation on the Korean peninsula
occurred between 40,000 and 30,000 B.P.
(Bae 2002). If Hominid antiquity extends as
far as 500,000 B.C.E., that implies Homo
erectus could have been present in the
Korean peninsula. No evidence has been
found to link the Paleolithic inhabitants of
the Korean peninsula with present day
Koreans (Lee).
The Palaeolithic humans lived in caves and
built nomadic shelters above ground.
Evidence of hearths used for cooking and
warmth has been found. Palaelolithic
people on the Korean Peninsula practiced
hunting and gathering. They fashioned
arrow heads, and a variety of tools, by
chipping rock. Archaeologists suspect, but
can not prove, people hunted in
communities during this period. The
earliest known Korean pottery dates back
to c. 8000 B.C.E. or before. Known as
Yungimun Pottery (ko:), the

pottery has been found in much of the

peninsula. Gosan-ri in Jeju-do, and Ubongri in Greater Ulsan, represent examples of
Yungimun-era sites. Jeulmun, or Combpattern Pottery (), can be found
after 7000 B.C.E.

Neolithic people on the Korean

Peninsula: 4000 B.C.E. to
300 B.C.E.

The Dunsan prehistoric settlement site in Daejeon,

South Korea.

Polished stone tools and pottery identify

the Neolithic people on the Korean
peninsula, probably the same people who
inhabited Siberia. Since few archaeological
sites in this period have been found, little is
known of the early Neolithic communities.
Around 3000 B.C.E., abundant evidence of

Neolithic people in Korea abounds. Comb

pattern pottery, pottery with geometric
design, characterizes this period. Around
1800 B.C.E. pottery with painted designs
have been found, with origins
in Manchuria.
Pottery with comb-patterns over the whole
vessel have been found concentrated at
sites in westcentral Korea between 3500
2000 B.C.E., a time when a number of
settlements such as Amsa-dong and
Chitam-ni existed. Jeulmun pottery bears
basic design and form similarities to that of
the Russian Maritime Province, Mongolia,
and the Amur and Sungari River basins
of Manchuria. The people of the Jeulmun
practiced a broad spectrum economy of
hunting, gathering, foraging, and smallscale cultivation of wild plants. During the
Jeulmun, the cultivation of millet and rice
introduced to the Korean peninsula from
the Asian continent
Anthropologists and Archaeologists believe
that three waves of Paleolithic and
Neolithic people came into the Korean
peninsula. They surmise that Korean
people today have an unbroken ethnic line
with the Neolithic inhabitants. Neolithic
Koreans lived along seashores, river
banks, and inland. They ate seafood,
fishing proving a regular way hunting as

well as arrows for hunting mammals. They

began agriculture, although evidence of
gathered nuts and berries also exists.
Neolithic Koreans lived in pit dwellings with
a hearth typically inside. They wore animal
skins, later weaving clothing from fibers
and decorating them with sea shells and
stones.
Society began in the Neolithic period with
some form of communal life, constructing
huts in clusters. Clans bound by blood line,
totemistic, formed clearly defined
communities governed by councils with
chieftains has leaders. Evidence of
shamanistic religious ceremonies and
burying dead in a communal plot have
been unearthed. Clans existed as
independent, self-sustaining communities,
maintaining a closed posture. As the later
Neolithic period advanced, clans linked
through intermarriage. Neolithic Koreans
practiced nature worship, believing that
creatures and natural objects like stones
have immortal souls. Rudimentary beliefs
in good and evil appeared, requiring gifted
people to intervene against evil spirits.

Dagger and two human figures Megalithic Burial No.

5, Orim-dong, Yeosu, Korea.

Bronze Age Korean

The introduction of Bronze caused a
quantum leap in Neolithic Koreans
development around 800 to
700 B.C.E. lasting to around 300 B.C.E. The
Bronze Age Korean ushered a new age of
development to the peninsula. Agriculture
developed through the use of bronze
farming tools including the cultivation of
rice as well as warfare through bronze
arrow heads. They created dolmen sites
with megalithic stones. Societies with
sophisticated political systems appeared in
what is called Old Joseon that included
walled-towns in Pyongyang. A king (wang)
emerged as the head of confederations.
That marked the beginning of the Three
Kingdoms Period in Korea.

Agricultural societies and the earliest forms

of social-political complexity emerged in
the Mumun Pottery Period (c. 1500
300 B.C.E.). People in southern Korea
adopted intensive dry-field and paddy-field
agriculture with a multitude of crops in the
Early Mumun Period (1500850 B.C.E.).
The first societies led by big-men or chiefs
emerged in the Middle Mumun (850
550 B.C.E.), and the first ostentatious elite
burials can be traced to the Late Mumun
(c. 550300 B.C.E.).
Bronze production began in the Middle
Mumun and became increasingly important
in Mumun ceremonial and political society
after 700 B.C.E. The Mumun is the first
time that villages rose, became large, and
then fell: Some important examples include
Songgung-ni, Daepyeong, and Igeumdong. The increasing presence of longdistance exchange, an increase in local
conflicts, and the introduction of bronze
and iron metallurgy are trends denoting the
end of the Mumun around 300 B.C.E.

Korean Protohistory Period

The period that begins after 300 B.C.E.
can be described as a "protohistoric"
period, a time when some documentary
sources seem to describe socieites in the
Korean peninsula. The historical polities
described in ancient texts such as the

Samguk Sagi are an example. The Korean

Protohistoric lasts until 300/400 C.E. when
the early historic Korean Three Kingdoms
formed as archaeologically recognizable
state societies.

Perspectives on Korean
prehistory from the discipline
of History

Layout of archaeological features at Igeum-dong

Ancient texts such as the Samguk

Sagi, Samguk Yusa, Book of Later Han
or Hou Han Shou, and others have
sometimes been used to interpret
segments of Korean prehistory. The most
well-known version of the founding story
that relates the origins of the Korean

ethnicity explains that Dangun came to the

earth in 2333 B.C.E. Historians haved
focused a significant historical inquiry in
the twentieth century to the interpretation
of the accounts of Gojoseon (2333
108 B.C.E.), Gija Joseon (323
194 B.C.E.), Wiman Joseon (194
108 B.C.E.) and others mentioned in
historical texts.

Europeans created that system to classify

the European prehistoric sequence, not
Korean. Korean archaeologists applied the
three age system the post-Japanese
colonization period (1945-) as a way to
counter the erroneous claims of Japanese
colonial archaeologists who insisted that,
unlike Japan, Korea had no "Bronze Age"
(Kim 1996).

Intense archaeological activity has taken

place in South Korea since the mid-1950s.
In the 1990s North Korean media reports
claimed that archaeologists discovered and
partially excavated Dangun's tomb.
Archaeologists and mainstream historians
outside of North Korea voice skepticism
about the dating methods, since the North
Korean government has refused
independent access and testing.
Additionally, North Korean claims about the
partial excavation of a large-scale burial
dating before 2000 B.C.E. have been
greeted with ever greater skepticism since
contemporary archaeological sites consist
of small isolated settlements and
subsistence-related sites such as
shellmiddens.

The three age system stuck until the 1990s

despite failing to fit unique intricacies of
prehistoric Korea. For example, until
recently the periodization scheme used by
Korean archaeologists proposed that the
Neolithic began in 8000 B.C.E. and lasted
until 1500 B.C.E. even though
palaeoethnobotanical studies clearly
indicate that the first bona fide cultivation
began circa 3500 B.C.E.Furthermore,
archaeologists claimed that the Bronze
Age began in 1500 or 1000 B.C.E. and
lasted until 300 B.C.E. That periodization has
been repudiated by the discovery that
Koreans adopted bronze technology in the
southernKorean Peninsula circa 700 B.C.E.

Categorizing Korean prehistory

periods
Historians in Korea use the Three-age
system to classify Korean prehistory.

The archaeological record supports the

wide spread use of bronze technology after
400 B.C.E. (Kim 1996) (Lee 2001). Despite
the obviously poor fit with Korean
prehistory, some expert historians in early
Korean history (c. 300B.C.E.-668 C.E.)

continue to use the unsuitable NeolithicBronze-Iron monikers. On the other hand,

most prehistoric archaeologists recognize
the problems with the three-age system
and have adopted a periodization scheme
based on changes in pottery design and
technology, i.e. the Jeulmun (c. 80001500 B.C.E.) and Mumun Pottery Periods
(1500-300 B.C.E.).