Abstract
Urushi is the lacquer produced by Toxicodendron vernici!uum. In Japan, Urushi products is known since ca. 9000 years ago from a remain at the Kakinoshima B site and became common since the early Jomon period. Archaeological woods of T. vernici!uum, however, had not been reported until ca. 10 years ago, when identi!cation of its woods from those of close allies was made possible. Since then, re-identi!caiton of excavated woods revealed that T. vernici!uum was commonly grown around settelments since the early Jomon period, but also indicated the existence of a sample of the incipient Jomon period from the Torihama Shell Midden site, Fukui Prefecture, which is too old to be considered as an introduction from the Asian continent to Japan. Here, we measured the radiocarbon age of this sample as 10,615 ± 30 14C BP (12,600 cal BP) in the incipient Jomon period, 3600 years before the oldest remain at the Kakinoshima B site. Most botanists consider that T. vernici!uum is not native and introduced to Japan by ancient people. Thus, the presence of T. vernici!uum wood in the incipient Jomon period seems to mean that Urushi was introduced from the Asian continent already in that period.
