Late Quaternary Paleo-environments of Archaeological Sites in Japan and East Asia. The Relationship between Yayoi Culture and Environment.

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  • 東アジアと日本の遺跡をめぐる古環境　弥生文化と土地環境
  • ヤヨイ ブンカ ト トチ カンキョウ

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The introduction of agriculture, mainly rice crops, brought the Yayoi Culture into existence. With the production of food, settlement sites increased and enlarged in scale. The result was that the natural environment was altered positively for the rice paddy fields and the settlement sites. The purpose of this paper is to elucidate the relationship between the Yayoi Culture and the natural environment, by analysis of paddy fields and settlement sites in northern Kyushu.<br>The paddy fields of the Yayoi Period were located on micro landforms with loose slopes, on which flat spaces could be created without difficulty by the least man-power, and where water supply and drainage was easy. That is to say, paddy fields have a limited potential adaptation to the land environment. But where several paddy fields are located together, the position of waterways was often changed, and a tract of paddy fields is separated into small plots. By these means, the limits of landfroms used for paddy fields may have been extended.<br>Next, we can identify three epoch-making stages during the Yayoi Period, based on the remains and pollen fossils excavated from the Hie-Naka sites. In the first, which was at the beginning of the Yayoi Period, settlers cut opening in the laurel forest on terraces. But their settlement sites were small and scattered, and there spaces exploited for settlement were minimal. In the second stage, in the second half of the Middle Yayoi Period, the planned settlements were enlarged. In the final stage, in the second half of the Latter Yayoi Period, the laurel forests on terraces were cut back on a large scale, and the settlement sites expanded generally. It can be elucidated that the natural environment was developed positively in the process of settlement.

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