2013 Volume 52 Issue 4 Pages 111-125
Research concerning the impact of Kikai-Akahoya eruptions on human beings is one of the important themes in Quaternary research. In laying the groundwork for this study, we have summarized the achievements obtained through the physiochemical approach regarding the age of the Kikai-Akahoya tephra and reviewed the current available research on its positioning in relation to the chronological sequence of Jomon pottery. Further, we have sorted out the stratigraphic position of pottery groups from the last part of the Initial Jomon Period to the Early Jomon Period in Kyushu, applying the age of the Kikai-Akahoya tephra against the chronological sequence of Jomon pottery in Kyushu while also using as reference the results of radiocarbon dating of carbide attached to the Jomon pottery. As a result, it has become clear that the age of the Kikai-Akahoya tephra (ca. 5,300 cal BC) must fall within the years spanning the series of Jomon potteries decorated with an incised linear pattern which lasted from the end of the Initial Jomon Period to the first part of the Early Jomon Period (5,600-5,100 cal BC).
