This four-week summer program provides an introduction to field and laboratory methods in the archaeology of prehistoric Jomon hunter-gatherers of Japan. It is currently the only archaeological field school in Japan offered by an American university. As part of the  Berkeley Sannai Maruyama Project  (see below), we will excavate the  Goshizawa Matsumori site. At this  site, we will excavate one pit-  dwelling, catalog the potsherds and  other artifacts excavated from the site,  and collect soil-samples for flotation.  Flotation will be done to retrieve  floral/faunal remains and lithic  debitage. We also plan to work on soil  samples that were previously collected  from the Sannai Maruyama Site. This  field school is run in collaboration  with the Aomori Prefectural  Archaeological Center, Board of Education of Aomori City, and the Preservation Office of  the Sannai Maruyama site (a branch office of the Board of Education of Aomori Prefecture).

T

The Goshizawa Matsumori site was discovered in 2007 on the horse-riding ground of the  Aomori Riding Club. Located on the hillside of  Aomori City, the site is about 8 kilometers away from the Sannai Maruyama site (see below).  Gardening in the site area by a club member  accidentally revealed the presence of at least one  pit-dwelling (see the photo) associated with  Middle Jomon potsherds. It is currently in the  process of getting registered as a newly found  Jomon site.

This field school is part of an on-going research project, the Berkeley Sannai Maruyama  project, directed by the instructor. Over the past  several years, the Berkeley team has been collecting  and analyzing archaeological data from the Sannai  Maruyama site (Early-Middle Jomon Periods, circa  3900-2300 BC). The site was originally excavated as  a salvage project by the prefectural Board of  Education, and is currently designated as a national  historic site. The long-term goal of the Berkeley  Sannai Maruyama Project is to examine evolutionary  changes and developments in subsistence-settlement  systems and social complexity at the site and in its  vicinity. For this purpose, we have collected soil  samples from several test excavation areas at Sannai  Maruyama, water- screened these samples, and  retrieved floral and faunal remains as well as artifacts  for quantitative analyses. We have also examined  previous excavation records to identify the timings of  changes in the lithic assemblage, the clay figurine assemblage, and the number and size of pit-  dwellings.

Goals of the Summer 2008 Field Session

 During the 2008 field season, we plan to conduct the following field and lab work:

(1) Excavation of a Middle Jomon pit-dwelling at the Goshizawa Matsumori site;  (2)Screening and flotation of  soil samples from the fill and  hearth of the dwelling to  recover carbonized  floral/faunal remains and  artifacts dated to the Middle  Jomon period;(3) sub  sampling of the previously  collected soil samples from  the Sannai Maruyama site to  obtain quantitative data for  Early Jomon faunal and  floral remains.