Yayoi-kofun Settlement Archaeology In The Nara Basin, Japan. (volumes I And Ii).

Abstract

The origin of the state in Japan has been attributed variously to relations of trade and subjugation with China, conquest from the Korean Peninsula, and adoption of Chinese administrative models. Until the degree of indigenous development is clarified by archaeology, these historical explanations cannot be properly evaluated. This dissertation therefore begins the anthropological investigation of the first stage of state formation, examining the evidence for social stratification found in the archaeological record of the 2nd to 6th centuries in the Nara Basin, Nara Prefecture, Japan. In concentrating on the settlement archaeology of the Nara Basin, this dissertation fulfills four major functions: (1) It systematizes and presents in the form of a Site Index a diverse body of settlement data comparable to the mounded tomb data available for Nara. (2) It evaluates the nature and representativeness of those settlement data with reference to surface survey methodology and the interpretation of surface materials in terms of settlement sites. (3) It performs several distributional analyses on different aspects of the data to elucidate the development of territorial hierarchies and the patterning of settlement remains through successive periods. (4) It examines the evidence for social differentiation in featural and artifactual remains of the Late Yayoi through Middle Kofun cultures. Significant findings include the definition and attribution of unusual linear distributional patterns of material remains in Late Yayoi and Early Kofun, interpreted as representing prehistoric Nara Basin roads and waterways. The mapping of tomb size classes produced spatial representations of two-tiered territorial hierarchies which can be identified with historically known groups. Settlement assemblages revealed no residences that could be recognized as elite until the Middle Kofun period. However, it is postulated that the Middle Kofun period. However, it is postulated that the materials assigned to Early Kofun, such as the minijar, are entirely of the elite culture, and that the contemporaneous commoner culture can be found in Yayoi V assemblages. Having identified functionally differentiated remains of early stratified society, it is now possible to proceed with the analysis of elite interaction with local and foreign populations to determine the relative degree of indigenous development and outside influence in state formation.