Geoarchaeological studies in Nara,Japan: The integrated findings |
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| Authors: | Gina L Barnes Shiro Nishida Masaaki Okita |
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| Abstract: | In this article, the authors summarize 20 years of scholarship and two field projects on geoarchaeology in Nara, Japan, carried out by researchers from 12 different institutions in 4 countries. The research goal was to test an aerial photographic reconstruction of surface landforms in the Nara Basin with subsurface data. Project A was conducted at Asawa; it tested, through geological coring, whether a suspected swampy backmarsh in the eastern basin existed and whether it would yield data on the transition to wet rice agriculture in the mid‐1st millennium B.C. Project B was conducted at Miwa; it tested, through geological coring and subsequent excavation, the nature of upland agricultural terrace formation in the southeastern basin and whether the suspected existence of a 4th‐century palace site could be confirmed. Two layers of carbonaceous clay at Asawa were dated to the Early (?5000–3500 B.C.) and Final (?1000‐300 B.C.) phases of the Jomon period. Pollen data revealed the establishment of an evergreen oak forest from 5,000 years ago and anthropogenic changes in forest cover from 2,000 years ago. Phytoliths from rice, millets, reeds, and bamboo were recovered in layers postdating the Final Jomon carbonaceous clay. A fault scarp with anthropogenic modification of the terraces was identified at Miwa. It was discovered that an incised stream valley had been infilled in the Medieval period at the same time surface layers were razed; the front of the terrace was extended in the premodern period. Remains were recovered from the Middle Yayoi (?100 B.C.–A.D. 100) and the Medieval (?A.D. 1185–1603) periods. However, as the terracing involved razing the early historic levels, no data were recovered on the alleged 4th‐century palace site. The significance of these findings lies in the identification of (a) a swampy backmarsh at Asawa, where initial agricultural efforts in growing wet rice in the basin may have occurred, confirming the aerial photographic reconstruction; and (b) hillside terracing activities at Miwa, from the Medieval period onwards, which have radically changed the configuration of the natural topography. © 2005 Wiley Periodicals, Inc. |
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