Abstract
To examine if the intensive selection of Quercus gilva for hoes and spades during the Yayoi to Kofun periods found in the Kanto district also existed in western Japan, preserved preparations of Quercus subgen. Cyclobalanopsis were re-identified at 14 sites that yielded ample wooden artifacts of these periods. Re-identification showed that, at most sites within its present distribution range, Q. gilva accounted for 40–80% of hoes and spades including unfinished ones and split materials and that other species of Q. subgen. Cyclobalanopsis accounted for the remaining hoes and spades. Outside the present distribution range of Q. gilva, other species of Q.subgen. Cyclobalanopsis were selected for hoes and spades at two sites, except for one site in the Sanin district. Occurrence of Q. gilva not only as hoes and spades but as plant macrofossils in the Sanin district during these periods seemed to show past extension of its distribution to this district. The intensive selection of Q. gilva for hoes and spades seemed to have been established in northern Kyushu, judging from the present distribution Q. gilva and species of Q. sect. Aegilops in China and Korea and the route of introduction of the rice agriculture.
