Monograph No. 67
Report of Archaeological Excavation at 14th Block in East Second Ward on Second Street, Nara Capital Site (Hokkeji-minami Site): Volume on Paleolithic Period
Summary in English
Researchers working for the institute then known as the Nara National Cultural Properties Research Institute discovered a large number of stone artifacts during an excavation they carried out in the 14th block of the second ward on the second street in the western sector of Heijo Capital in Nara in 1988. All of the artifacts excavated on that occasion were made of a white, weathered sanukite, a kind of andesite. They did not include stone arrowheads or tanged stone scrapers made in the Jomon Period or the Yayoi Period. A horizon of Aira-Tanzawa tephra formed the bottom of the clay layer above the layer that contained cultural remains. We concluded that stone artifacts excavated at this site date from the Late Paleolithic Age based on the factors cited above. Stone artifacts discovered at this excavation site included knife blades and awls, scrapers, bifacial tools, truncated flakes, flakes with micro flaking marks, cores, and chips.
The blade technique used for making stone artifacts excavated at this site is closely related to the so-called “Bisan-Seto-type blade technique.” Based on our findings at this excavation site, we can add flaking by direct percussion to the characteristics of said blade technique that have already been enumerated.
Paleolithic stone artifacts found at this site date from the period immediately before volcanoes spewed out Aira-Tanzawa tephra. They include bilaterally backed knife blades and small knife blades made by a Bisan-Seto-type blade technique. Based on these facts, we position them among a stone industry containing bilaterally backed knife blades that date from a period before the Aira-Tanzawa tephra emission. Stone artifacts classified in this industry have been found throughout the Japanese Archipelago.
Paleolithic stone artifacts excavated at this site include successive flakes with their bottoms made from blade cores. These might be forerunners to the Kou-type knife blades that emerged later. There is no way for us to know whether the flakes with bottoms found at this site were used as materials for knife blades. Cases were found that contained both bilaterally backed knife blades made from long flakes and Kou-type knife blades blunted by crossed flaking. It is our speculation that the blade technique and wide flaking technique produced the knife blades shaped from wide flakes excavated at this site.
2003年3月28日 発行
奈良文化財研究所学報第67冊
平城京左京二条二坊十四坪発掘調査報告
－旧石器時代編〔法華寺南遺跡〕－
