2000 Fiscal Year Final Research Report Summary
A Study on Use-Wear of Yayoi and Kofun Period Bronze Objects
| Project/Area Number |
10610394
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| Research Category |
Grant-in-Aid for Scientific Research (C)
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| Allocation Type | Single-year Grants |
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| Section | 一般 |
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| Research Field |
考古学(含先史学)
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| Research Institution | Osaka University |
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Principal Investigator |
FUKUNAGA Shinya Osaka University, Graduate School of Letters, Accociate Professor, 文学研究科, 助教授 (50189958)
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| Project Period (FY) |
1998 – 2000
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| Keywords | Yayoi period / Kofun period / bronze object / bronze bell / bronze mirror / use-wear / 銅鏡 |
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| Research Abstract |
The purpose of this study is to consider the meaning of bronze objects in Yayoi and Kofun Periods. To achieve the goal, I have utilized the evidence of use, such as wear and breakage, of bronze objects, especially ritual bronze bells (dotaku) and bronze mirrors. I have reached the following conclusions.
(I) Wear of the internal surface of the ritual bronze bells
While the internal surface of the earlier types of ritual bronze bells is very much worn, the internal surface of the later types is little worn. It seems reasonable to suppose that the earlier types of bells were used for a long time, while later types were rarely used. This suggests that by the end of the middle Yayoi Period (around the time of Christ) the kinds of rituals where bells were used to make sound no longer took place. Since communal rituals must have played an important role in maintaining the order of a society, it is possible to speculate that the disappearance of a particular kind of ritual was a result of considerable social change.
(II) Distribution and circulation of fragments of bronze mirrors
Fragments of Chinese bronze mirrors widely distributed at the end of the Yayoi Period (early/middle third century, A.D.). Nearly all the fragments so far discovered in Japan were less than 10 centimeters in length. Since the average diameter of the smallest Chinese bronze mirrors imported to Japan during the Yayoi Period was approximately 10 centimeters, I argue that the size of fragments was restricted by people's policy to keep it smaller than the average size of unbroken Chinese bronze mirrors. If this is indeed the case, then it is possible to suggest that a hierarchy of Chinese bronze mirrors existed at that time, namely large mirrors, small ones, and fragments.
Such a hierarchy or an order might indicate the presence of a central polity at that time.
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