Abstract
The Munakata district of Fukuoka Prefecture, located along the shore of the eastern end of the Genkai Sea in northern Kyushu, is represented historically by the Okinoshima Ceremonial Site. As jar burials for adults are unknown, it is regarded as distinct from the country of Na on the Fukuoka Plain, and from the characteristics of artifacts found in Munakata, it is thought to have received influence from the area stretching east from the Hibiki Sea coast, and to have been intermediate to the two regions.
The Togo Noboritate Site can be regarded as a major settlement of the Munakata region spanning the entire Yayoi period, based on the recovery of Middle Yayoi pottery from the investigated area, the existence of an Early Yayoi moat on the outside of which portions of a Late Yayoi moat have been confirmed, and from its overall size and topographic location.
Tracing the development of moated villages in the Munakata region, it can be interred that by the time represented by house no. 3 at the Imagawa Site and the formation there of a layer bearing cultural remains, construction of the major settlement of Togo Noboritate had already begun. Further, based from this major settlement, the moated villages of Imagawa and Oi Mikura were built, but during the latter half of the Early Yayoi they were without dwellings, and many sites were maintained having only concentrations of deep pouch-like pits.
Among Early Yayoi graves, examples SK 206 and 218 of the Taku Matsuga'ura Site may be regarded as having an internal structure similar to the dolmen burials distributed at this time over the southern part of the Korean peninsula, as well as being similar to stone casings built over a wooden coffin, and accordingly graves detected widely for the Early Yayoi which have had their upper portions leveled and are called variously"stone coffin burials, " "stone-lined burials, " "stone-enclosed burials, " and so forth, should probably be reevaluated in the future.
The stone encased burials seen at Taku Matsuga'ura may have been brought directly across the sea from the southern part of the Korean peninsula, and being transmitted through the Hibiki Sea coast further east, had influence on Early Yayoi burials in various regions.
Interchange with the southern part of the Korean peninsula played a large role in the situation in the Munakata region of the Early Yayoi, and it may be inferred that Okinoshima occupied an important position on the eastern end of the route across the Genkai Sea.
Jars with non-flaring rims and unadorned with clay bands, making the primary component of pottery recovered from ditch SD1 at the Togo Noboritate Site, are worth special mention, and may possibly be able to clarify, upon further study, conditions of the Earliest and Early Yayoi periods of the Munakata region.
