Yayoi time
The Yayoi period ( Japanese 弥 生 時代 , Yayoi jidai ) describes an important historical and cultural epoch in Japan that dates back to around the 3rd century BC. BC to the 3rd century AD and which precedes the Kofun period . It owes its name to the discovery of a new type of ceramic . This reddish and harder ceramic, in contrast to the so-called "cord ceramic" of the previous Jōmon period, was first produced on a potter's wheel and was first found in 1884 on the site of today's Tokyo University . The use of the potter's wheel made it possible to manufacture cylindrical vessels and plates that were mostly unadorned.
Around 300 BC There was the Yayoi migration from East Asia (from South China via Korea ) to Japan. The Yayoi ousted the Jōmon tribes or assimilated some of them. First, the influx of Kyūshū and southern Honshū ( Nara ) spread to the east, while the Jōmon culture continued to assert itself in the western and northern parts of Tōhoku and on Hokkaidō .
Dating and Periodization
Archaeological evidence
Until the end of the 20th century, it was considered certain that the Yayoi period from 300 BC. extended until 300 AD. The Yayoi period corresponds to the Neolithic era , which is characterized by the beginning of agriculture and animal husbandry. This development step in ethnogenesis marks the beginning of the sedentary lifestyle . Therefore, in addition to the discoveries of the new Yayoi ceramics, the cultivation of wet rice and thus the transition from a society of hunters and gatherers , as represented by the Jōmon period, is significant.
The dating was based on the scientific comparison and the classification of many thousands of ceramic finds in Japan and on the mainland. In 2003, however, the National Museum of Japanese History changed the classification that had been in effect until then and moved the beginning of the Yayoi period forward by 200 years. In addition to the typological dating mentioned above, the radiocarbon method was also used in Japan in 1951 . This method appeared to be of little use for the Yayoi period, as the examination of the finds revealed a wide spread in the dating that did not allow a clear periodization. It was only when the view of ceramics and especially rice cultivation was expanded and brought into connection with the settlement processes on the mainland that doubts began to arise about the original dating (3rd century BC to 3rd century AD). Finds in Itazuke and Nabatake show that the ceramics found can be assigned to the Jōmon period and that wet rice cultivation was also carried out at the same time. These findings and the importance of rice cultivation for the Neolithic have led to a differentiation of periodization. Today the last section of the late phase of the Jōmon period is seen as the beginning of the Yayoi period. As the diagram shows, the tripartite division has been expanded to five sections (I – V).
final phase
beginning
early phase
middle phase
late stage
end
Historiographical
In order to get a picture of the ethnogenesis of a people, one also usually consults written documents. In Japan, however, the script was only introduced a few centuries later with Buddhism. Still, there is a small amount of evidence, as Japan is first mentioned in Chinese sources. In the Chinese "Chronicles of the Dynasties" Japan is referred to in the chapter "Barbarians of the East" ( Dong-i ) as the people of the Wa ( 倭 , Chin. Wo-jin ). The sources tell of the customs of the people living there, how they put on make-up with red and black colors and mourn and venerate their dead. Before difficult tasks, boiled bones are used for divination, and long rituals are carried out to worship the deities.
The Chronicle of the Han Dynasty from the 1st century AD tells of tribute broadcasts from Japan to Lolang . Accordingly, Emperor Wu-ti has 57 BC. A golden seal sent to the Wa people. After a period of warlike unrest (188-146 BC), the " Chronicle of the Northern Wei Dynasty " again reports on the Wa people. This controversial source shows that the Wa people were united in 188 BC by Queen Himiko in the land of Yamatai .
Cultural development
Agriculture
At first it was assumed that the Neolithic Revolution was to be equated with wet rice cultivation, which penetrated from China via Kyushu to eastern Japan. The development is more complex today. The new cultural influences, including rice cultivation , came with the continental ethnic groups as early as the 10th century BC. On the Japanese islands. In the 7th / 6th Century BC The cultivation of rice is in North Kyushu, in the 1st century BC. BC then also detectable in the Kantō region. In addition to wet rice cultivation, millet and buckwheat were also grown. An advanced form of agriculture and agriculture , thus initiating the Neolithic one. The cultivation of rice quickly became a major economic component as it served as a staple food from then on. In addition, the pig, the chicken and the dog were domesticated . Due to the secure food production and the good water supply, the population rose rapidly and the individual settlements expanded.
Already in the Jōmon time "earth pit dwellings" were built and caves were used as dwelling places. Pit dwellings consisted of a stone wall that was piled up around a depression and covered with a conical roof made of straw. If there is no deepening, then one speaks of a ground floor apartment. In the Yayoi period, pile dwellings with gable and hipped roofs were also built, initially as storage facilities and then as apartments.
In addition to everyday life, funeral rites were also carried out from the mainland. Dolmen and megalithic tombs similar to those in Korea have been found on Kyūshū in particular . However, this monumental form of burial does not seem to have caught on. Rather, one finds large vessels made of Yayoi ceramics that served as urns and contained grave goods. This was made possible by improving the equipment and techniques.
Metal processing
In addition to the use of stone tools, the introduction of metal ware was crucial. Although were bronze and iron still expensive from Korea imported for the production of weapons, ornaments and utensils they were, however, become indispensable. Archaeological finds show that the art of metalworking, which was in China as early as the 16th century BC. B.C. had developed into a highly developed bronze culture, was gradually dominated in Japan. The cult objects found include bronze mirrors and "dōtaku" ( 銅 鐸 ), elliptical bronze bells from a few centimeters to about 1.2 m high without clapper. The exact meaning of these bells is obscure, but illustrations suggest that they were used as background music and are related to the ancestral cult and the seasonal rhythm. They are decorated with curved patterns and ornaments and divided into fields by sawtooth and network strips.
Archaeological sites
The most famous archaeological sites from the Yayoi period include:
- Toro near Shizuoka
- Karako in the Nara plain
- Yoshinogari, Saga Prefecture
In February 1991, in Izumi in the Osaka Prefecture a museum on the Yayoi culture ( Osaka Prefectural Museum of Yayoi Culture ) with an exhibition area of 4,000 m² opened.
Origin and language
DNA research revealed that the Yayoi people were genetically related to populations of what is now southeastern China . Furthermore, the genetic analysis showed that a significant part of the Yayoi remained in Korea (in the Gaya tribal association ?) And later mixed with the arriving Proto-Koreans.
The Yayoi spoke an early form of the Japanese Ryūkyū languages. The Yayoi population greatly outnumbered the Jōmon population, as today's Japanese are genetically almost identical to the Yayoi, while there are great differences to the Jōmon.
Today's Japanese show a 97% genetic match with the Yayoi and can therefore be seen as direct descendants of those Yayoi. The ancient Yayoi subjugated and displaced the inferior Jōmon tribes almost completely.
society
There was also a change in society. A hierarchical social structure can be demonstrated on the basis of the Chinese documents :
- Uji ( 氏 )
- The most powerful were the Uji , which loosely translated means clan or clan . They consisted of large family groups and formed the upper class in a region. The uji no kami was the elder of the clan and was worshiped as a descendant of the Uji deity ( ujigami ). Thus he had a patriarchal position and was chief priest in ceremonies. The Uji also had family names.
- Be ( 部 )
- The Be formed the working class, who also banded together in communities. In principle they were free, but they were in the service of the Uji.
- Yakko ( 奴 )
- The yakko was the slave class . It belonged to the Uji and made up about five percent of the total population of Japan at the time.
Over time, more and more families merged into large clans (gender associations). The Yamato family, in particular , wielded great power. In the Japanese annals ( Kojiki , Nihonshoki ) the unity of Japan is stated by the first emperor Jimmu in the year 660 BC. BC and thus created during the Yayoi period after he is said to have conquered the land of Yamato. However, this date is doubted and the actual agreement is more likely to have occurred around the time of the transition between the Yayoi and Kofun periods .
Even today, the sanctuary in the Ise Shrine is rebuilt identically every twenty years on a second square next to it, the old building is set on fire. Archaeological excavations of Yayoi villages have shown that the architectural style of this wooden shrine, especially the roof construction, can be traced back to the Yayoi period.
literature
- Kiyoshi Inoue: History of Japan , Campus-Verlag, Frankfurt / New York 1995, ISBN 3-593-34845-4
- Josef Kreiner: Yayoi, formative period of Japanese culture . In: Josef Kreiner (ed.): Small history of Japan . Phillipp Reclam Stuttgart, Stuttgart 2010, ISBN 978-3-15-010783-6 , pp. 33-39 .
Web links
Remarks
- ↑ Since the influence of the mainland slowly expanded from southwest to northeast and due to the age of archaeological finds, the Yayoi period is often divided into three sections: an early (500–300 BC), a medium (100 BC) period. -100 AD) and a late period (100-300 AD).
Individual evidence
- ↑ Charles T. Keally: Yayoi Culture. June 3, 2006, accessed May 14, 2012 .
- ^ Josef Kreiner: Yayoi, formative period of Japanese culture . In: Josef Kreiner (ed.): Small history of Japan (= Reclam ). Phillipp Reclam Stuttgart, Stuttgart 2010, ISBN 978-3-15-010783-6 , pp. 33-39 .
- ^ Yayoi Culture. Retrieved July 23, 2018 .
- ^ Earlier Start for Japanese Rice Cultivation . In: Science | AAAS . May 30, 2003 ( online [accessed July 23, 2018]). Earlier Start for Japanese Rice Cultivation ( Memento of the original from July 7, 2016 in the Internet Archive ) Info: The archive link was automatically inserted and has not yet been checked. Please check the original and archive link according to the instructions and then remove this notice.
- ↑ a b c Shōda Shinya: A Comment on the Yayoi Period Dating Controversy. In: Bulletin of the Society for East Asian Archeology. Society for East Asian Archeology, March 2007, accessed May 14, 2012 .
- ↑ Shuzo Koyama: Jomon Subsistence and Population. (PDF; 4.8 MB) (No longer available online.) In: Senri Ethnological Studies 2. National Museum of Ethnology, 1978, p. 3 , archived from the original on December 4, 2013 ; accessed on May 14, 2012 . Info: The archive link was inserted automatically and has not yet been checked. Please check the original and archive link according to the instructions and then remove this notice.
- ↑ Harunari Hideji ( 春 成 秀 爾 ): 弥 生 時代 の 開始 年代 . (No longer available online.) July 25, 2003, archived from the original on May 16, 2012 ; Retrieved May 14, 2012 . Info: The archive link was inserted automatically and has not yet been checked. Please check the original and archive link according to the instructions and then remove this notice.
- ^ Josef Kreiner: Yayoi, formative period Japanese culture . In: Josef Kreiner (ed.): Small history of Japan (= Reclam ). Phillipp Reclam Stuttgart, Stuttgart 2010, p. 36 .
- ^ Josef Kreiner: Yayoi, formative period Japanese culture . In: Josef Kreiner (ed.): Small history of Japan (= Reclam ). Phillipp Reclam Stuttgart, Stuttgart 2010, p. 37 .
- ^ Josef Kreiner: Yayoi, formative period Japanese culture . In: Josef Kreiner (ed.): Small history of Japan (= Reclam ). Phillipp Reclam Stuttgart, Stuttgart 2010, p. 34 .
- ↑ Chū Yoshizawa, Torao Miyagawa, Nobuo Itō, Taiji Maeda: Archaic Time . In Jürgen Berndt (Ed.): Japanese art I . tape 1 .. Koehler & Amelang, Leipzig, p. 17 (With pictures of pile dwellings on p. 19).
- ↑ Renée Violet: Brief History of Japanese Art (= DuMont TB 148 ). DuMont, Cologne 1984, p. 18 .
- ↑ a b c Renée Violet: Brief history of Japanese art (= DuMont TB 148 ). DuMont, Cologne 1984, ISBN 3-7701-1562-7 , pp. 16 .
- ↑ Chū Yoshizawa, Torao Miyagawa, Nobuo Itō, Taiji Maeda: Archaic Time . In Jürgen Berndt (Ed.): Japanese art I . tape 1 .. Koehler & Amelang, Leipzig, p. 36 .
- ↑ 大阪 府 立 弥 生 文化 博物館 . Retrieved May 14, 2012 .
- ↑ Hui Li, Ying Huang, Laura Mustavich, Fan Zhang, Jing-Ze Tan: Y chromosomes of Prehistoric People along the Yangtze River . In: Human genetics . tape 122 , December 1, 2007, p. 383–388 , doi : 10.1007 / s00439-007-0407-2 (English, researchgate.net [accessed July 23, 2018]).
- ↑ Alexander Vovin: 高句麗 에서 耽 羅 까지 ᅳ 韓国祖 語 를 말한 騎馬 人 들 과 함께 南 쪽 을 향하여 천천히 내려 오면서 ᅳ . (“ From Koguryo to Tamna: Slowly Riding South with the Speakers of Proto-Korean ”). 2008. Lecture at Seoul National University , May 15, 2008.
- ↑ Veronika Siska, Eppie Ruth Jones, Sungwon Jeon, Youngjune Bhak, Hak-Min Kim: Genome-wide data from two early Neolithic East Asian individuals dating to 7700 years ago . In: Science Advances . tape 3 , no. 2 , February 1, 2017, ISSN 2375-2548 , p. e1601877 , doi : 10.1126 / sciadv.1601877 (English).
- ↑ 'Jomon woman' helps solve Japan's genetic mystery | NHK WORLD-JAPAN News. Retrieved on August 2, 2019 .
- ↑ Dr Xu is using computational approaches, Developing New Methods to Dissect Genetic Architecture of Human Populations, Quantitatively Characterize Their Admixture Features, Reveal Their Migration History, Adaptive Divergence: Common ancestor of Han Chinese, Japanese and Koreans dated to 3000 - 3600 years ago. Retrieved August 10, 2018, August 2, 2019 (UK English).
- ↑ Takashi Gakuhari et al .: Jomon genome sheds light on East Asian population history . 2019, bioRxiv : 2019/03/15/579177 ( preprint full text).
