Monograph No. 15
NARA IMPERIAL PALACE ARCHAEOLOGICAL SURVEYS CARRIED OUT IN 1959-1961（1962）
ENGLISH SUMMARY
CONTENTS
Page
Chapter I. Introduction
1. Start of Research Work 1
2. Program and Organization of Research Work 3
Chapter II. History and Site
1. History 5
2. Present Condition of Site 10
Chapter III. Progress of Research Work
1. Outline of Research Work 13
2. Progress of Excavation 15
3. Diary of Excavation 19
Chapter IV. Sites
1. Outline of Excavated Area 24
2. Structural Remains in Chronological Sequence 37
Chapter V. Artifacts and Other Relics
1. Wooden Writing Tablets 50
2. Tiles and Bricks 58
3. Earthenwares 63
4. Metal and Other Objects 74
Chapter VI. Studies
1. On Sites 78
2. On Artifacts 84
3. Chronology and Identification of Structures 96
Chapter VII. Problems about Nara Palace
1. Palace Precincts and Town Planning 99
2. Layout and Function of Buildings in Palace 99
Appendixes Method of Classification of Sites and Artifacts
1. Abbreviations for Sites 114
2. Abbreviations for Structures and Other Remains 116
3. Classification of Relics and Their Abbreviations 116
4. Method of Recording Sites and Relics 117
English Summary ix
TABLES
1. Dimensions of Excavated Structures 120
2. List of Natural Objects Discovered from Pit SK219 121
3. Round and Plain Tiles for Eaves, Classified 122
4. References to Principal Buildings of Nara Palace in Ancient Records and Chronicles 126
5. Names and Functions of Principal Buildings of Nara Palace 128
NARA IMPERIAL PALACE
The site of Nara Imperial Palace, which existed from 710 to 784 A.D., is situated at Sakicho, Nara City, and is designated as a Special Historical Monument. The palace was built in the middle of the northern border of the capital, which was established after the continental model, measuring five kilometers from north to south and six kilometers from east to west. The precinct of the palace is about one kilometer square and in it the imperial domicile, halls of state and other government office buildings once stood. At present, about 10 per cent of the whole precinct is well preserved in turfed ground, but the remaining 90 per cent is mostly cultivated as paddy-field, dotted with the ruins of ground platforms and earthen walls.
The Nara National Research Institute of Cultural Properties has undertaken the investigation work of this palace site since the summer of 1955, and the present publication deals with the summarized result of the 2nd (1959), 4th and 5th (both 1960) and 6th (1961) surveys, conducted in an area of about 0.8 hectare.
The excavated area is tentatively termed “Area 6ABO” and is the northern end of the central part of the palace precinct. The spadework disclosed twenty-five structures, four gutters, six fences and earthen walls, some pits and several wells, one of which is exceedingly large. The lower ends of the pillars of all structures were inserted into the ground, unlike the pillars of more important structures, which were erected on base stones. A minute survey of the excavated area shows that the ground was reclaimed and levelled three times consecutively. This enables us to divide the structural remains discovered therein into three successive periods. The superimposed condition of the pillar-holes in the middle layer further enables us to subdivide them into three shorter periods. Hence all thestructures fall into five chronological sequence dates, as shown in Table I. Moreover, uniformity prevails in the design and technique of the structures, and also in the layout of each sequential period, and this fact seems to indicate that the structures unearthed were the buildings of governmental offices.
The artifacts discovered from the area are roof-tiles, earthenwares, copper coins, various metal and wooden objects, fragments of lacquered caps, hemp cloth etc., but the most striking discovery was of forty-one pieces of long, narrow tablets of wood used as writing surfaces, recovered from Pit SK219. These wooden tablets can be classified into five groups according to their shapes, with the exception of the damaged and decayed ones whose size and shape are unknown. The first is a plain slip (Type 601). The second has a notch on each side near the upper and lower ends (Type 603). The third has notches near the upper end only (Type 604). The fourth has its lower end pointed (Type 605). The fifth is twice as long as the others and has a hole in the center and three holes near each end, from which it may be presumed that they were bound together by cords drawn through the holes (Type 606). Of especial interest are the chips from used tablets, which suggest that the tablets were reused after being erased by chipping. The difference in shape seems to have had something to do with their functions. Tablets of Type 603 were used, as their inscriptions indicate, as labels attached to packages of local foodstuffs collected as taxes in kind from people of distant provinces. Tablets of Type 604 and 605 were used also as labels attached to or pushed into packages of foodstuffs, supposedly stored in a kitchen or warehouse. The plain tablets were probably used as message slips or official records, and some of them have inscriptions requesting various foodstuffs. There are plain tabletsthat have names of officials only, while others have prose or verse written in “Manyo-gana” characters.
There are two tablets that have dated inscriptions, one for 761 and the other 762 A.D. Another two tablets are datable by the contents of their inscriptions, to either 763 or 764 A.D. Except for a few in stances, the inscriptions on these tablets are related to foodstuffs, such as rice, beans, walnuts, sea-weeds, sea-urchins, vegetables, salt, soy, vinegar and bean paste.
Paper was used in clerical work of government offices in the Nara Period, as is evidenced by the archives of the Shosoin Repository, but the present discovery revealed the hitherto unknown fact that wooden tablets were also used in less important business in the offices. In China wooden tablets were used as writing surfaces in the ancient Han and Chin Dynasties. This usage spread gradually into the surrounding regions and the finds in Turfan in the west and the present discovery in the east testify to its survival even in the eighth and ninth centuries. The date of these tablets provides reliable criteria for assigning to the structures of Period II-2 a date of shortly after 763-764 A.D., and furnishes an admirable starting point for establishing a chronological sequence for both the groups of structures and for the earthenwares discovered with them. The inscriptions vividly illustrate the diet of the people of the Nara Period and seem to prove beyond a doubt that the excavated area was originally occupied by the Imperial Household offices in charge of cuisine.
昭和37年5月12日発行
奈良国立文化財研究所10周年記念学報（学報第15）
平城宮発掘調査報告Ⅱ
- 官衙地域の調査 -
