The Archaeology of Japan: From the Earliest Rice Farming Villages to the Rise of the State (Cambridge World Archaeology)

"This is the first book-length study of the Yayoi and Kofun periods of Japan (c. 600 BC - 700 AD), in which the introduction of rice paddy-field farming from the Korean peninsula ignited the rapid development of social complexity and hierarchy that culminated with the formation of the ancient Japanese state. The author traces the historical trajectory of the Yayoi and Kofun periods by employing cutting-edge sociological, anthropological, and archaeological theories and methods. The book reveals a fascinating process through which sophisticated hunting-gathering communities in an archipelago on the eastern fringe of the Eurasian continent were transformed materially and symbolically into a state"-- Provided by publisher Contents......Page 11 Figures......Page 13 Tables......Page 17 Preface and Acknowledgements......Page 19 Part I Frameworks......Page 23 Chapter 1 Introduction: The Beginning of Everything?......Page 25 1. Introduction......Page 31 2.1. The Modernisation of Japan and Its ‘Imperial-Ancestral’ Past......Page 32 2.2. The Post-World War II Reformation and the ‘Independent-Autonomous’ Past......Page 37 2.3. The Post-World War II Economic Success and the ‘International’ Past......Page 39 2.4. Consequences of Economic Success and the ‘Violent’ Past......Page 41 2.5. Globalisation in the Postmodern and ‘Fragmented’ Past......Page 42 3. Situating the Yayoi and Kofun Archaeologies......Page 44 4. Conclusion......Page 47 2.1. Temporal Scope......Page 48 2.2. Spatial Scope......Page 50 2.3. Regional Division and Names......Page 51 2.4. Written Sources......Page 52 3.1. Relative Chronology......Page 55 3.2. Absolute Chronology......Page 57 4.1. Theory......Page 58 5. Structure of the Volume......Page 62 Part II Trajectories......Page 63 1. Introduction......Page 65 2. Environment......Page 66 3. The East Asian Context......Page 70 1. Introduction......Page 75 2. What Happened in a Village: Etsuji, One of the Oldest Rice-Farming Villages......Page 77 2.1. The ‘Meaning Content’ of the Village-Scape13......Page 80 2.2. The Hybridisation of Discourses: Continuity and Change......Page 82 2.3. Beginning as Becoming......Page 85 3.1. The Adoption of the Globular Jar (Tsubo, ) Shape-Type......Page 87 3.2. Transformation of the Cooking Jar Variety......Page 89 3.3. New Pottery, New Discourse, New Reality......Page 90 3.4. The Broader Picture......Page 91 3.6. Stone and Wooden Tools......Page 96 3.7. There Is No Such Thing as ‘Either Continuity or Change’......Page 98 4.1. Before the Beginning: The Scenario up to the Early Final Jomon Period (c. 900/600 BC)......Page 99 Overview......Page 101 Houses......Page 103 Villages: Northern Kyushu......Page 106 Villages: Western Japan......Page 108 The Early Yayoi Village of the North: Jizoden......Page 110 Examples and Implications......Page 111 Paddies as Yayoi ‘Monuments’......Page 112 Overview......Page 114 Spatio-Temporal Organisation of the ‘Cemetery-Scape’......Page 118 Coping with the New Reality......Page 120 5.3. Ancestral Bones: Eastern Japan......Page 121 5.4. Communality and Differences......Page 122 6. Conclusion......Page 124 2. Broad Regional Trajectories: A Very Brief Outline......Page 126 3. Communication, Identity and the Material World: Pottery......Page 132 Northern Kyushu......Page 133 The Western Horizon......Page 137 The Eastern Horizon......Page 138 3.2. Communication, Identity, Materiality......Page 140 The Northern Kyushu and the Western Horizons......Page 141 The Eastern Japan Horizon......Page 146 4.2. Why and How Did the Regional Centres Emerge, and How Were They Sustained?......Page 147 5.1. Stoneworking......Page 157 Bronze......Page 162 Iron......Page 164 6.1. Northern Kyushu: The World of Jar Coffin Cemeteries......Page 166 Types of Jar Burial Cemeteries......Page 167 Linear Formation (in the Yayoi II and III)......Page 168 Micro-Sequence Formation (in the Yayoi III and IV)......Page 171 Burial Compound Formation......Page 172 The Emergence of Inter-Regional Hierarchy......Page 176 6.2. Houses of the Dead? - The World of Rectangular Ditch-Enclosed Mortuary Compounds (Hokei-Shuko-Bo, )......Page 181 Complexity of the Formation Process......Page 182 6.3. Prolonged Liminality: Depositing Processed Skeletal Remains in Pots in Eastern Japan......Page 184 Outline......Page 186 The Transformation of Rituals......Page 188 Shared Structure and Trajectory......Page 190 7.2. Understanding the Basic Structure of the Yayoi ‘Myth’......Page 193 8. Conclusion: Growth and Contradictions......Page 202 1. Introduction......Page 205 2.1. Rice Paddy Field Agriculture and Communality......Page 208 Bronze......Page 214 Iron: The Sphere of Daily Tools......Page 218 2.3. Expanding Production, Hierarchisation and Communality......Page 221 General Trends and Changes......Page 222 The Emergence of Elite Precincts......Page 224 3.2. Burials......Page 229 4. Conclusion......Page 234 1. Introduction......Page 236 2. The Emergence of Port-of-Trade-Type Settlements......Page 238 3.1. The Causes of Hierarchisation......Page 242 The Late Yayoi V (c. the Late First to Second Centuries AD)......Page 250 Measuring Centrality......Page 251 Summary and Discussion......Page 252 The Initial Kofun Period (c. the Early Third to the Late Third Centuries AD)......Page 253 Measuring Centrality......Page 254 Summary and Discussion......Page 255 3.3. Networks, Topological Differences and the Contingent Generation of the Kinki-Core Centrality......Page 256 4. Conclusion: The Beginning of a New World......Page 258 1. Overview......Page 263 2. Implications of the Keyhole Tumulus......Page 265 2.1. Mound ‘Shape-Types’......Page 266 The Early Kofun Period......Page 271 The Middle Kofun Period......Page 276 Gallery Mortuary Chamber......Page 278 Grave Goods......Page 280 Character and Emergence of the haniwa Vessels......Page 285 Other Types of haniwa Vessels......Page 287 The haniwa ‘Discourse’ and Its Transformation......Page 290 2.4. Ideal Types and Variations......Page 293 2.5. Reading the Elite Histories from the Keyhole Tumuli......Page 294 Changing Size of the Largest Tumuli......Page 295 Implications: The Nature of the Paramount Chieftainship and the System of Succession......Page 302 The Formation Process of Tumuli Clusters and Their Changes......Page 303 The Broader Picture......Page 308 3. Settlement, Ritual, Production and Circulation......Page 313 4. Conclusion......Page 318 1. Overview......Page 319 2. The Emergence of a New Mortuary Discourse and a Technology of Self-Identification: The Packed Tumuli Cluster (Gunshu-Fun, )......Page 322 2.1. The Formation Process of the Packed Tumuli Cluster......Page 323 2.2. Implications: The Emergence of a New Social Identity......Page 326 Evidence 2: Changes in the Grave Good Assemblage......Page 330 4. Transformation of the Keyhole Tumuli Clusters......Page 331 5.1. A New Settlement-Scape......Page 335 5.2. Production and Circulation......Page 336 6. Conclusion......Page 338 1. Introduction......Page 340 2.1. The Last of the Gigantic Keyhole Tumuli......Page 341 2.2. The Rise of the Palace......Page 342 3. Buddhism......Page 344 4. Conclusion: From the Paramount Chief to the Ten’no Emperor......Page 347 1. The Long-Term Trajectory......Page 348 2. Being and Time......Page 352 3. Conclusion: There Was No One Beginning but a Number of Becomings......Page 353 References......Page 357 Index......Page 379 This is the first book-length study of the Yayoi and Kofun periods of Japan (c.600 BC–AD 700), in which the introduction of rice paddy-field farming from the Korean peninsula ignited the rapid development of social complexity and hierarchy that culminated with the formation of the ancient Japanese state. The author traces the historical trajectory of the Yayoi and Kofun periods by employing cutting-edge sociological, anthropological and archaeological theories and methods. The book reveals a fascinating process through which sophisticated hunter-gatherer communities in an archipelago on the eastern fringe of the Eurasian continent were transformed materially and symbolically into a state.