When did rice cultivation begin in Japan?

Researchers from the National Museum of Japanese History reported Monday that radiocarbon dating of charred samples from Yayoi period remains indicates rice cultivation in Japan began around 1,000 B.C.

The group, led by professors Hideji Harunari and Mineo Imamura, examined 32 samples -- charred pottery shards and wooden fragments -- from sites in Japan and South Korea, using the carbon-14 dating technique. The analysis work was done at a U.S. laboratory by accelerator mass spectrometry that provides dating of carbon isotopes at very low concentration levels. Samples from artifacts found in northern Kyushu were also examined. It is from there that Yayoi culture is thought to have started, following an influx of people from the Chinese land mass and the Korean Peninsula.

Team members said the analysis showed that 10 of 11 samples from the early Yayoi period remains were from 800 to 900 B.C., which led them to speculate this age in Japanese history actually dawned around 1,000 B.C.

The finding staggered archaeologists, who until now had accepted that rice cultivation started in Japan around the fourth or fifth centuries B.C. based on bronze ware used in Japan and its East Asian neighbors, as well as changes in pottery styles.

Satoru Nakazono, a history professor at the International University of Kagoshima, was flabbergasted at the news. ``It means one of two things: Either their analysis is wrong or past archaeological research is wrong,'' he said.

Posted by David on May 21, 2003 1:42 PM