Abstract
In Japan the study of wooden remains started ca. 100 years ago. Up to 1980 most studies concentrated on clarifying the taxonomic composition of wood remains that were not studied before. In the 1980s frequent excavations of lowland sites started, and the focus of research on wooden remains changed to clarifying the use of arboreal resources in the changing environment and background forests. In the 2000s two culturally important species, Toxicodenron vernicifluum for the Jomon period and Quercus gilva for the Yayoi and Kofun periods, came to be identified among wood remains. Research processes involved in the identification of these species are described, stressing the importance of the collection of wood specimens of extant woody plants in Japan. Several aspects of the prehistoric use of arboreal resources clarified by the identification of these species are shown. Various implications of the published databases for Japanese woods and microscopic identification of Japanese woods are described, and the importance of the database of archaeological wooden remains with a CD-ROM containing all the data is discussed. Finally, a future prospect for the study of wooden remains is presented based on the analyses of the data in the database of archaeological wooden remains.
