Professor Hiroki Obata of Kumamoto University Graduate School and Associate Professor Dai Kunikita of Hokkaido University Graduate School have scientifically proved for the first time by the latest technology that grains such as rice and awa had already arrived and were cultivated during the Jomon era.It is an important academic research result that may affect not only the beginning of the controversial Yayoi period but also the revision of the definition of the Yayoi period.
Until now, grain cultivation in Japan has been said to begin in the early Yayoi period.However, although there are only a few points, reliable rice and awa grain indentation materials are set based on the "Etsuji SX-1 stage" at the end of the Jomon period (based on the collective relics of the earthen pit SX-1 at the Etsuji site in Kasuya Town, Fukuoka Prefecture). ) Was detected in the pottery.However, since there is no grain carbonization data and accurate age values have not been obtained from earthenware-attached carbides, it has been considered impossible to verify the age.
Therefore, the research group of Professor Obata and others re-examined about 1 earthenware excavated from the Etsuji site SX-1, which is a relic of the marker at this stage, using soft X-rays and X-ray CT. Many seeds and seeds of grains and cultivated plants such as these were detected.Furthermore, those carbides were taken out from the latent indentations in the earthenware wall, and dating was performed by a technique called "trace carbon dating method".As a result, the foxtail millet and perilla fruits in the Etsuji stage are about 50 to 80 years old from the early Yayoi period (the stage called "Yamanotera / Yuusu type I pottery stage"), and the Etsuji SX-1 stage is in the Yayoi period. It was proved that it was established as a step back to the early stage.
This study suggests that grains may have already arrived and were cultivated in the late Jomon period, and for the first time scientifically proved the existence of grains in the Jomon period.Furthermore, it is significant in that it presented the results supporting the "late 9th century BC-8th century BC" for the controversial Yayoi period.
