The Reconstruction of Bengala Production Mainly in Kamegaoka Culture

Kodama Daisei

doi:10.11215/nihonkokogaku1994.12.20_25

Bengala (Red iron oxide) production in Jomon Period is understood as far as the crushing and grinding of materials into a powder. What is not understood well is the methods to produce fine and even particles. There were two methods to produce Bengala from limonite and hematite. Production with established methods partly began in the Upper Paleolithic period. At the site of Kamegaoka culture, from southern Hokkaido to northern Tohoku, many pieces of hematite were exca-vated. At the Utetsu site, 2, 300 pieces, about 65 kg, of hematite were excavated with many stone implements and pottery pieces with Bengala on their surface. For this article, I tried a factual reconstruction of Bengala production through analysis of documents related to red pigments and experiments involving pigment production at the Utetsu site. From the result, I solved the entire process of Bengala production. First, hematite is hit and broken into shalelike part and the part that is like coke. Next, only the coke-like part is crushed and ground. It is levigated with water. The red suspension produced after levigation is boiled and milled in the pottery. Bengala production by this boiling milling method can make fine and even powder, and it can produce large amounts easily. The development of the method like the one in this article must be related to increase of the red-colored remains limited to Kamegaoka culture.

The Reconstruction of Bengala Production Mainly in Kamegaoka Culture

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